Hi, I'm Fletch. This is my first day off in a couple of weeks and I decided to use some of my free time to surf the web about baldness. That is how I found this forum. Then after reading a few I decided to join and see if there are many others who like me started balding in wierd ways.
I'm a 23 year old college student and Marine. I like to play music and video games, excercise, and recently I've started liking to shave my head.
About 3 years ago, I started losing random patches of hair on my head. After a year of answering awkward questions and explaining to my then NCO's that 'no, my barber didn't jack up my hair' 'no I didn't get too drunk the night before' and 'I don't know wth this is' I finally went to a doctor. They called it alopecia areata and said it wasn't exactly uncommon. Just not common either; according to wikipedia 0.1-0.2% of people develope alopecia. They gave me creams like clobetasol and steroid injections, which by the way a dozen shots in your scalp really suck. It worked once, but then came back worse than before. My friend said I looked like a gerbil; I agreed. So I started shaving my dome. Now the patches of missing hair have extended to my beard and one dollar coin sized spot on my chest. When I was in the field last week my fellow Marines saw me in the in-between shaves stage and said it looked like designs in the back of my head. Oh well. I rather like shaving my head, even if my options were rather.. absent. I think that sometimes, you just have to learn to live with yourself. I'm quite comfortable with my new look and indeed it's brought to me a noticeable jump in self-esteem and confidence. Well, thats my introduction (maybe a bit long.. sorry). If there are any others on these forums who have had these kinds of experiences I'd like to hear from you; I've never actually met anyone else with alopecia.
