Saying goodbye to a part of me...

I knew this day was coming for years. It was genetic - it had affected my father and my older brother, and it would hit me one day. But I always tried not to think about it - to pretend that it somehow wouldn't happen to me, that it couldn't happen to me. But now it is.

No, I don't have cancer or some serious disease. If anything, it's proof of both my own health and the quality of life in America that what is afflicting me can be called a disease, that there are medications that are supposed to help it. Because what I'm suffering from is male pattern baldness.

I noticed a few months ago that my hair was starting to thin at the top, but I tried to ignore it. But the last couple days, I've noticed that the top of my forehead has started to creep up, and that there are quarter-sized patches without hair on both sides of my head. So far, it isn't too noticable, as the rest of my hair covers it, but it will grow, and it will become noticable.

So pretty soon I will have the curse of not only being fat but also bald. Add in my general social awkwardness, and you have the ugly loner trifecta. Going bald at age 24.

There are a couple of ways I can deal with . The first is to ignore it - keep pretending that it's not happening, and when it becomes obvious, try to comb over to make it less noticeable.

The second option is to wear hats all the time. I actually have a coworker who does this, with some success. The only problem is that it's become his trademark - people refer to him as "the guy with the hat" - and I don't want to tread on that.

The third thing that I can do is shave off the hair that's left. I'm not sure how well I can carry off the cueball look, but it might be worth a try.

I'm glad I did the hair bleaching thing when I did, since pretty soon I won't have anything left to dye. I'm hoping enough hair sticks around that I can try dying it red eventually.