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I haven't feared balding for over 30 years. I've learned that fearing something that has already occurred is a tremendous waste of time. I first began to lose my hair when I was in my early 20s. I remember asking a barber at that time if he knew of anything that would stop my hair from falling out - he said the floor.

In an effort to regain my youthful appearance, I visited a hair weave salon where their catch phrase was; "I can give you a head of hair." The so-called hair weave was nothing more than a toupee that they affixed to my existing hair. In fact, it was so tight when first attached, my face looked like a prune. It hurt to smile, laugh, squint or even think. Then, about three weeks later, as my hair grew out, so did the weave. It then began to look like a dead possum on top of my head. What's even worse, it itched. I constantly found myself reaching beneath the weave to scratch my head, and hope no one saw me.

My worst experience with the hair weave came just one day after I had it put on. I was assisting a local Judo coach who was doing a photo shoot for a book he was writing on self-defense. He didn't know me and, of course, had no clue I was wearing a hair weave. His first technique was a "hair pull throw" which, as you can imagine, not only hurt but resulted in my new "head of hair" coming off in his hands. One woman in the audience screamed louder than I did. The rest of the observers laughed until their sides hurt.

My mother was always coming up with gimmicks that she believed would grow my hair back. Unfortunately, standing on my head for hours at a time, or massaging my head with horse dung never did the trick. My mother was very concerned that my self-esteem would suffer because of the hair loss. In fact, my self-esteem was affected more by the reluctance of those I came in contact with to get anywhere near me - because of the dung she had massaged into my scalp. I became known, unaffectionately as "shit head".

As I grew older, having hair on my head became less important and, to a certain extent, it even became advantageous. For one thing, being bald on top eliminates the problem of hair getting into my face when I run. I save money on hair creams, gels and sprays, plus a haircut takes only five minutes now. Speaking of haircuts, I make it a practice to have the barber use a number 2 clipper - to keep my hair nice and short. This way it kind of blends in with the scalp.

One fact of life related to baldness is, invariably, some moron will always make a wisecrack about it. I actually believe I've heard every joke about baldness that has ever been contemplated. I mistakenly believed once I got my new "head of hair", the bald jokes would cease. They did, but the jokes were then directed at the "rug on my head". And, make no mistake people - anyone with close to 20/20 vision could tell I was wearing a hair weave.

After I finally came to the realization that my manliness was not being adversely affected by hair loss, I focused my attention on the related esteem issues. It had actually bothered me to think that women may find me less attractive without hair. In reality, they found me unattractive with it, so it was a mute point.

As I hope this article suggests, I take the whole idea of hair loss very lightly now days. I have found, regardless of the hair loss, my true friends still accept me. More importantly, my wife accepts me. So, get over it guys. Accept who you are and, most importantly, enjoy being yourself.

Learn more about this author, Jon Crosby.
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