Post from: Blisstree

Follow the Advice of Baz Luhrmann- Wear Sunscreen!

Image details: Group Applauding Businessman served by picapp.com

If you asked your “average” CEO of a Fortune 500 company, if he/she would rather be short or bald. The majority of the answers would be “I would rather grow a few inches” (they are not talking hair length). There you have it. Its is that simple. Baldness brings something to the boardroom table. Baldness brings trust to certain situations. Would you trust a business man, who was covering up his head with a bad toupee?

I understand that looks are important in the business world. If you want to succeed, then you need to look the part. OK, so look the part. Wear the Hugo Boss suit, and the right shoes – own a closet full of designer ties. But leave the rugs alone. A great suit can give the air of professionalism. Bad hair does not.

A clean shaven head gives off the impression of honesty. Who wants to deal with someone who thinks he can pull a fast one over you, by masking his baldness with a really bad hairpiece. Think of all the high profile businessmen you know. I bet you can name at least one that has really bad hair (and most likely fake hair at that)…. would you want to deal with him? I am guessing no.

Now here is a list of reputable bald (high profile) CEOs, how many on this list- would you want to deal with.

• Murray Martin (CEO of Pitney Bowes)
• Steve Carley (CEO of El Pollo Loco)
• David O’ Reilly (Chevron)
• Francis Blake (Home Depot)
• John Mack (Morgan Stanley)
• Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs)
• Steve Ballmer (Mircrosoft)
• George Jones (Borders)
• Bob Kodner (The Crack Team)
• Craig Newmark (The founder of Craigslist)

I am guessing that you are already dealing with these companies, on a slightly lower level than working with the CEO directly. However, all of those men are in some varying stage of baldness. What does baldness give them -that say eludes Donald Trump – well… they are approachable, and emit airs of honesty and humor. When pressed to address his baldness, Craig Newmark remarked:

The general Net community does regard me as eye candy, a la George Costanza” from Seinfeld.

But if he had to make a choice,

I’d prefer to be a few inches taller.

**All factual information provided by USA Today.

Post from: Blisstree

Baldness Brings Success to Fortune 500 CEOs

Did you know that pharmaceutical companies spend more than $200 million a year on trying to cure baldness. In fact I have also heard rumblings that figure is upwards of $300 million. Honestly, I think that amount is way too high. We do not die from baldness. This is about how vain our society has become.

What would you like to see that money being spent on instead. How about pharma companies donating that money to schools where children can be taught self esteem classes – and how to celebrate our differences.

Wouldn’t that be a more positive way to spend that money, instead of making us feel like there is something wrong with us for living without hair.

Your thoughts?

**Picture  Soure – flickr

Post from: Blisstree

Did You Know….

I am always looking for simple reasons to explain why some people are bald, and some aren’t. I know that genetics are involved. But there are lots of other reasons to. This morning, I came across an article by Darren Wong in the Los Angeles Chronicle, which gives fairly simple explanations – that are accurate.

Here is his breakdown

1. Major Illness or Surgery – It’s true! And usually the hair loss is temporary. Illness is the reason why my hair falls out. I am not bald, but I do have hair loss issues. It is due to long bouts of mono and chronic fatigue syndrome. My hair always grows back, when I am feeling better. But when my health is on the downside – the hair kind of falls out.

2. Hormonal Problems – got an under or over active thyroid? Both can cause havoc with your hair. It’s easy to fix though. Go see your doctor – they can help even things out.

3. Autoimmune Diseases – like alopecia areata, and chances are you already know about this – since you found your way to this blog.

4. Post Pregnancy – now I just heard about this a couple of weeks ago, when a friend of mine was telling me that her her hair fell out after she had her baby. It took about 3 months after the loss of her hair, for it to grow back in. Makes sense really. Pregnancy and post pregnancy can do some weird things to a woman’s hormones.

5. Fungal Infections – I don’t know enough about this subject to comment on, but I am sure that it’s treatable with some anti-fungal medication you can get from your doctor.

6. Medication – medication can definitely do some damage to the hairline. Anti-depressants, birth control pills, too many vitamins – the list is ongoing – can cause temporary hair loss. Always talk about the side effects of medications with your doctor and pharmacists. It makes dealing with unexpected symptoms, much easier.

If you would like to read what Darren Wong had to say on his choices for reasons of hair loss, go here.

**Picture Source – flickr

Post from: Blisstree

Six Simple Reasons for Baldness

First of all, not everyone has a problem with their baldness. Promotions like this are designed to make us feel bad about the amount of hair we have (or don’t have) on our heads. I don’t need a tremendous amount of hair, to feel good about myself – and that is just what this company thinks I need. More hair!

Second of all, on this coupon there is a before and after picture of a man. The before picture is of a man in his mid 40’s (I am guessing)- not at all unattractive, balding (although not yet completely bald), has pasty skin, is very tired looking, and is frowning. In the after picture, the man looks 15 years younger, is sporting a tan, is abut 15 pounds lighter, appears to be well rested, and looks like a member of the Kennedy family. They do not look like the same person, at all.

Thirdly, why is this company only advertising to men? In one of the coupons which actually folds out, the before and after pictures are only men. Not one picture of a woman. Do they believe that women don’t lose their hair?

I went on their website, to see if they treat women. They do – however, on their before and after pictures of their clients (in which there are 77 of them) only one picture (client #39) is a woman.

If I ever decide to enhance my head with a hair transplant, I will be looking at companies that do not plaster their ads on the cover of the yellow pages phone book!

OK my rant is over!

Post from: Blisstree

What Burns Me Up

Here is what he has to say about baldness:

The causes of baldness are wrong living, improper foods, too many meals, intoxicating drinks, tobacco, strong tea and coffee, late hours, bad air, vicious sensual habits, or anything that lowers the tone of the system. Rectified spirit of petroleum is said to be one of the best remedies for baldness. It should be scented with oil of bergamot, and rubbed in every third night; at the same time bad habits must be corrected, and as little head-covering as possible should be worn.

Modern thinking has come along way, in just over 100 years – wouldn’t you agree?

If you care to read the rest of the article, and learn how to live healthy in the Victorian Age, go here.

Post from: Blisstree

Cure Baldness The Victorian Way

When I was a kid, I had really long hair….I was the Cher (of Sonny and Cher fame) of my kindergarten class. It was that long, and that beautiful. When I would go to the hair salon, and they would ask – how I would like it cut -I would always say “please cut it long”. I couldn’t imagine anything worse, than having short hair. Of course that phase didn’t last long, one year later, all of my hair was cut off, and I ended up with a very fashionable albeit very short Dorothy Hamill wedge cut (this was the late 70s after all).

Eventually, I got over the trauma…but for the better part of my life I have always been jealous of “good hair” – I would try everything to get it….but it never failed, my hair always looked better when it was up and out of the way.

When my hair started falling out (after the initial shock), I started not caring so much about what my hair looked like. I now had a reason, to have short “cute” hair styles….but more than that – I started getting annoyed at people who defined themselves by their hair. I no longer had patience, for my friends who would spend 20 minutes in the bathroom, when we would go out – because they were fixing their hair. Really, if it still looks bad after running a comb through it and some product, its just not going to be a good hair day. So get over yourself, and put on a headband, or a ball cap.

I know that my days of having “hair like Cher’s” are long over….and if I had to tell the truth; I am really glad that the battle of the comb is over (pun intentional)…combing out tangles can be torturous. I am now in the “meh” state of hair issues. Perhaps I am able to say this, because my hair has mostly grown back- and while I have “issues” I am not exactly bald.

But I am definitely able to tell you, that the minute I stopped obsessing over what my hair looked like – I became a much happier person.

Was Cher’s hair even real in the 70’s?

Post from: Blisstree

Are you defined by your hair?

Here is my original post with Dr. Bauman’s comment. I recommend getting up to speed before proceeding…

And now my response to Dr. Bauman.

Dr. Bauman,
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. Funny you should mention a chipped tooth. I’ve had a small chip in a front tooth for years – ever since I tried to close the car door window with my head sticking out. Perhaps that tells you all you need to know about me. Never had any impulse to do anything about it… of course I’ve never had any impulse to do anything about my hair loss either.

I want to ask what I consider to be the next question: What is the appropriate treatment for hair loss? The answer most frequently given by media and industry, and the one that seems most obvious, is to address your hair loss. Baldness is considered the root cause; therefore, we should direct solutions at eliminating baldness.

I disagree with that answer. While I’ve not seen the research you cite, I contend that hair loss is rarely if ever a root cause of poor self-esteem. I believe baldness is at best derivative of the real cause. Hair loss is in the same chain of consequences as the psychological issues so often attributed to it.

In the case of disease, baldness is normally recognized as a symptom or side effect of the condition or treatment, even in the cases of alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. As I understand them hair loss isn’t the cause but rather the effect of some other underlying dysfunction. I have no dispute with this approach, and in these cases, as I hope I’ve made clear here, I’m all for innovations that prevent or reverse hair loss.

In most cases, however, baldness is merely a sign of aging, and aging is not a disease. With the relatively minor and easily managed exception of sun burn and its associated increase in risk of skin cancer, I know of no physical risks associated with losing one’s hair. It is physically no more harmful to lose one’s hair than to have it turn gray. Therefore, there is no physical imperative that I can see to address age related hair loss.

Turning to the psychological effects, the impact on self-esteem is so far as I know is not caused by the hair loss itself, but once again the effect of something else. In this case the root cause isn’t some other physical dysfunction, but rather a social dysfunction, specifically in my opinion an obsession with youth. This obsession, which is largely manufactured by entertainment media, is what creates the psychological problems and not hair loss itself.

(This is why I levied such harsh criticism at the public television program. Public broadcasting ostensibly has education, the public welfare, and the advancement of society as its underlying motives, unlike private broadcasting which we know operates with a profit motive.)

Now if you agree with my assessment that the negative impact on self-esteem is not caused by hair loss but rather by the lens society gives us to view hair loss, then I suppose there are three paths of treatment you can pursue. One route is to help people conform to these external pressures. This is the path of least resistance, and therefore the one we should not be surprised to see so many taking. It is easier – and no doubt more profitable – to go with the current and help others to join in. It should not be hard to figure out that I am not keen on this approach.

A second treatment option is to help people to stand up under the social pressures. This is a harder approach, but in my opinion a far better one. This treatment acknowledges that the patient is facing an external cause and not an internal one. The youth-centered propaganda must be counteracted with a healthier perspective on aging.

The third option is to focus not on individual patients but on the source of problem, society itself. One can work to eliminate the problem by changing society’s youth obsession and therefore the message delivered by society about hair loss. Surely this is an uphill battle, but just as surely I believe it is one worth fighting.

Post from: Blisstree

Response to Dr. Bauman: Hair Loss Is Not To Blame for Poor Self-Esteem

What is a Flowbee?

Ah, now that’s a blast from the past. I never used one, so I can’t blame my hair loss on it. Though I recall jokes about the Flowbee being responsible for such.

I remember the Wayne’s World knock off… The Suck-n-Cut.

“It sucks while it cuts.”

“Well, it certainly does suck.”

I can still picture Garth golden locks being eaten by the device.

It turns out the Flowbee is still available for a mere $60. Make it $90 and you get a “Super Mini Vac” so you don’t have to use your own household vacuum.

Alas and alack, I will never have enough hair to need the Flowbee. If my hair gets to be 1/2″ long, it’s way… way too long.

Sigh…

image

Post from: Blisstree

The Flowbee

4%
 
 

That’s it!
 
 

I’m so proud!

source

Post from: Blisstree

96% of Men Not Worried About Baldness