Have you ever lived with a secret? Have you ever lived a lie? I never really thought about it much until I caught the tail end of Oprah. She was talking to people who were living a lie. Some of these people were regular people during the day and strippers or prostitutes at night. Another was living a rich and famous life but had been dirt poor as a child though no one knew. One famous athlete was molested as a child. The therapist ended the show by saying that thousands of viewers were living with some sort of secret. That's when it really hit me. I have been living with the secret of wearing a wig to hide my alopecia. I've been living with this lie for over thirty years - ever since I left home and went to college. In the past 35 years I have probably shared my story with less than a dozen people. I'm sure there are those people who suspect but are too polite to ask.
I hate the word "bald", so this is the only time I'll use it. I don't even like to use it when I refer to my worn out tires that have lost most of their tread. I just hate the word. I think it's crude.
My hair loss began slowly at first. My first recollection was when I was five years old and my mother discovered a few thinning places on my temple. She attributed it to wearing a plastic headband with teeth that held it in place. I can still picture the pink one I had, and I would slide it back and forth on my head to pull back my long, blonde hair. Mom took away the headband, the hair grew back,and we nearly forgot about it. When I was seven, it started again. Mom thought it might be that my fine blonde hear was too long and heavy, so I got what was called a "pixie" cut. But the patches of lost hair grew worse, and mom took me to the family doctor. He said it was a form of alopecia - the Latin term for "loss of hair". He gave us some topical cortisone cream to put on the spots and sent us on our way.