Embracing Your Baldness

1. Identify the cause of your baldness

The first step to making peace with your baldness is to understand the reasons behind your hair loss. Everyone sheds hair each day (some of us more than others), but it is not significant enough to actually be classified as hair loss. The exact cause of hair loss usually relates to one of four factors: genetics (family history), hormonal changes, a medical condition, medication side effect. If you are suffering from significant hair loss, but you don't know the cause, you will definitely want to find out. Ask your doctor to help you figure out the reason, and you'll be better equipped to embrace your baldness.

• If you are worried about hair loss, pay attention to your diet. Poor nutritional habits can be one reason that you are thinning on top. Also, pay attention to your emotional health. Stress can be another factor.

2. Deflect negative comments

Sometimes perfect strangers can ask you seemingly random personal questions. If your confidence is taking a beating because people have questioned your hairstyle "choice", try learning an effective way to respond to nosy people. One method is to ignore them completely. Pretend you didn't hear the comment and then you don't have to acknowledge it, even to yourself. You can also confront the person by explaining that you prefer not to explain anything about your personal appearance. Either option will leave you feeling more confident than if you choose to brood on the insult.

3. Acknowledge the benefits of baldness

Not only is being bald beautiful, but their are some really positive results! For example, many people see baldness as an indicator that the man with no hair is socially mature and has increased social status. That's a great perception for people to have of you in the work place. People also tend to associate baldness with physical strength.

• Save time. Being bald can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend grooming in the morning. Instead of blow-drying, brushing, and styling, simply moisturize and add sunscreen and you're out the door! The extra sleep you'll gain each morning will surely boost your mood and your confidence.
• Save your money. Although you do still need to care for your bald head, it is going to cost significantly less money than caring for a full head of hair. Just ask any woman (or man) who has forked over a healthy amount for highlights that will fade after only two months.

4. Find someone you admire

The world is filled with inspirational, powerful, beautiful people--and many of them have no hair! If you don't know someone personally that you can choose as your personal bald hero, there are plenty of famous people for you to look up to. Do some reading and find someone who you admire, both inside an out. Many of the most powerful people in history have been bald, so you'll have plenty of choices. Are you interested in politics? Look up Cory Booker. If you're a sports fan, just look at Michael Jordan!

5. Appreciate your health

If your baldness is the result of a medical condition, it can be especially hard to deal with. You're already going through plenty of emotional and physical changes, so it can be hard to accept one more big change when losing your hair. Although it can be really difficult, you can try to have shift your perception. Instead of thinking, "This chemo made me lose my hair!", try thinking, "This chemo is obviously having an impact. I can see that by looking in the mirror!" Positive thinking (and feeling more confident) can actually improve the way you feel--both mentally and physically.