Pretty sure that dude played the annoying neighbor Beans on the old Shia LaBeouf Disney program "Even Stevens". He was weird looking as a kid, so it's no surprise he grew up to be a rather unconventional looking adult. There really wasn't any need for an article to throw him and other child stars under the bus, but let's be honest. If this guy was a Norwood 1, it still wouldn't make much of a difference.
We've all understood what it's like to feel unattractive at some point in our lives. I was a chubby kid and a chubby teenager. Even though I'm decently tall at 6'2" and have been told I have incredibly broad shoulders, None of that could make up for being overweight. I had a crush on the pretty cheerleaders the same way the other guys did, but I never felt like I stood a chance. Being called names like fat boy, fat ***, chubs, tubby, tits, chunky, and any other name you can think of might have had a little something to do with it. My appetite wasn't much different from the other kids, but obviously didn't metabolize the same way. People, even clueless adults, that offer genius health tips like "Just stop stuffing your face" or "exercise more often" need their asses kicked. There wasn't a day that I wasn't running around at recess or playing basketball after school or playing baseball during the summer, and was eating the same stuff as the skinny guys but none of that mattered. I was still overweight.
In high school I excelled in football and baseball and had a lot of friends -- those two things probably went hand in hand actually -- but I still never felt like what I imagined the other guys felt like. That feeling of not worrying like at any moment this whole thing could fall apart, and I'd go back to being "fat ***" again. Even when I got into my 20s and lost weight by working out 6 days a week and counting every single calorie that entered my body, that feeling of not being attractive get's ingrained into your DNA. It becomes a part of who you are and shapes your personality going forward.
Eventually, though, I built up a tougher skin in the years after high school. But the day I realized that I was balding I was 24, had great friends, a girlfriend I liked very much and was just getting started on the road to getting my Master's Degree, and I felt that same familiar feeling. I reverted back to the fat kid. For months, even after I got on treatment, I couldn't get my head right. Eventually, though, I was able to put things back into perspective. Even though there's no working out like a beast equivalent for managing hair loss, the lesson remained the same. You have to be who you are in this world, even if you don't agree. I'm never going to be mistaken for a person whose body other people wished they had, but I learned how to live with that.
Some of you probably had other things early in life that made you self conscious the same way that being overweight did for me. Maybe you had bad acne, or you were born a ginger, or you were poor, went through puberty really late, or whatever. You know that feeling already, but eventually you came to get used to it even though you wished you could change it. For some of you though, you might have been that young, skinny dude that I didn't like because you got to date the hot girls and have people wish they were you. Starting to lose your hair might be the very first time that you've walked in the shoes that me and countless others have. I'm not on this message board to gloat or revel in anyone's pain. Going out without a hat to you is probably as scary a thought as tucking my shirt in or going to the beach was to me when I was younger.
Going bald is not fun. Not at all. I read a survey taken by women that said losing their hair would be akin to losing a limb. Fortunately for them, that's not often a reality they have to live through. That being said, being bald isn't a death sentence. We'd all much rather have hair, myself included, but it's not a be-all-end-all to our time here on Earth. If you're one of those people in the latter group that I just described, you're going to have to learn what it feels like to live with something on the outside that certain people aren't going to find attractive. If you're in the former group, you should really think back to the time when you finally gave up worrying about the thing that made you so self conscious when you were younger because you knew that there was only so much you could do to change it. These realizations are what we all need to move forward.
I'm not going to say stop your regimens if you are in treatment because that can make it easier on the psyche for some. As for others who are too far gone, aren't seeing improvements from their treatments, or are not willing to risk taking the current meds to improve need to really think on how they are going to live moving forward. Do you really want to live in self-pity pondering suicide because you're going bald? We all realize that baldness is one of the few things left you can poke fun at and have it be politically correct. There's not, nor will there ever be, a Harvey Milk for the bald community that will stand up and fight back against prejudices taken against bald men. Is it fair? Not in the least, but this is the world we live in gentlemen.
Nobody should have the right to make fun or pass judgment on anyone for the skin that they have to wake up and live in every single day until their *** is buried in the ground. But that's never going to happen. The same way that money will never grow on trees. If you want to sit and wallow in an incredibly self-loathing manner, never experiencing any kind of life whatsoever, because you're going bald be my guest. As for me, I'm going to shave my head and go about my business because I have a life to live. Is it the life I would wish for in a perfect world? Nope! In that scenario I look like Chris Hemsworth, have more money than I know what to do with, and am balls deep in models and movie stars all day, but since I live in reality, I'm going to have to settle for the hand I was dealt and make the best of it.
