Why Some Women Shave their Head?

As modern as we are now, society still hasn’t accepted a woman going bald. It’s like we expect men to be bald but not the women. For the longest time, a woman’s hair has always been considered to be her crowning glory.

There are some reasons why we see women bald. First is they must be afflicted with some hair loss condition like Alopecia areata. This condition is known to affect more women than men. In the UK alone, there are more than a million people affected with this hair condition. Until now, there is nothing to pinpoint exactly the reason behind why you can get bald.

The condition typically starts with some smooth patches on the scalp; it’s neither inflamed nor scaly. The skin on the scalp looks fine except that it doesn’t have hair. Gradually the patches increase in size and before you know it, you are loosing hair. The moment that the person gets stressed with the growing patches, it actually triggers the immune system to get weak.

According to one consultant dermatologist from British Skin Foundation, once the immune system weakens, the hair gets rejected and it leads to hair loss because the system may no longer recognize the hair follicles to be part of our body. It’s like it now see the follicles as something foreign.

Treatment for this kind of illness can sometimes be very harsh. Some even have serious side effects and when you stop the treatment, the bald patches can come back. This can be very depressing especially for women who feel incomplete without hair. A lot even feel naked with short hair so what more without hair?

Steroid tablets can sometimes be taken, some recommend ultraviolet (UV) light treatment, and you can also use Dithranol cream which is normally used to treat a skin condition called psoriasis. This is applied to the bald patch to irritate the skin hoping to stimulate the hair regrowth.

But the fact is women are bald due to alopecia or due to some other reasons like chemotherapy, or scalp infection which all leads to hair loss and baldness.  Society should learn to accept this and be kinder to people who are bald. They are already having a very hard time coming to terms with their problem.  The best way to help them is to make them feel that they are still part of the community and that they are still beautiful in their own way, with or without hair. Bald or not bald.

Another reason why some women are bald is because they want to be bald by choice. Some of them were previously afflicted by some disease which led to hair loss, some of them recovered and some did not. Others are advocates of supporting women. By choice, they want to show the world that bald is beautiful. That it is not your hair that makes what you are. It is you and that is what you should value. They want to encourage women that there is life even when you are bald.

Some famous women who go out without a wig is TV presenter Gail Porter, pictured with daughter Honey, has made a point of appearing without a wig. She accepted the fact that her crowning glory is gone but hey life doesn’t end there. Instead of using all her money to buy hair treatments, she decided she’d had enough and spent her money for other important things.

Below is a list of women who shaved their head off at one time in their lives and went bald for some time. And mind you, this is by choice!

• Eve Salvail was a supermodel in the 90s and she succeeded in showing bald is beautiful especially in some of her fashion shows.

• Everybody was amazed when Demi Moore shaved her locks off. She showed that hair is not the only feature to look at, you still has your eyes, lips or nose and all this can make you beautiful even when you are bald.

• Natalie Portman had also shaved her head and though this was for a film, she was trying to show that you can still be who you want to be even if you are bald. That hair cannot limit you with what you can do.

So whether you are suffering with alopecia and chemotherapy it is best to maintain presence of mind. If your condition is something that cannot be treated yet, be patient and love your new freedom from hair. Look at other options as how you can still be pretty and function normally even if without hair.