From tom@transcore.com Sun Jan 19 20:23:26 1997 Newsgroups: alt.self-improve Subject: alt.self-improve FAQ (part 2) From: tom@transcore.com (Thomas Wong) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 20:23:26 GMT 5. Physical - Baldness Cures and Consequences Does baldness need to be cured? The answer is up to you, if you're losing your hair. It depends on your self-concept, on how happy you are with the way you look now, and how happy you'll be with the way you will look once your pattern expands to its ultimate stage. You might get some hints on this by looking at pictures of your maternal grandfather in his later years; in any case, debates concerning the actual hereditary links of male-pattern baldness, while of scholarly interest, are mostly unhelpful to individuals and thus beyond the scope of this FAQ. Bald can be Beautiful. Star Trek's Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) provides an excellent example of a person who, by a happy combination of personality and physiognomy, has managed to be handsome and quite sexy while still being bald. St. Anthony, while not sexy, was good looking too, despite his bald crown. Your case may be a different story. It all depends on how you want to look. Combing to cover. The solution, adopted by some, of combing hair over bald spots is probably counterproductive. In other words, the larger your spot, the better you might look if you just accepted its presence and had your hair styled so that the spot was not being hidden. Vitamins. Severe nutrient deficiencies and extreme stress will shock your body from head to foot. If the foods you eat contain neither inositol nor any B vitamins, you may die sooner than you ought to. But, sad to say, if you have an otherwise normal diet and start popping inositol and B vitamins, your hair will still fall out. Subliminal Suggestion Tapes and the Power of Mind. The person who made a tape designed to trick your mind into keeping hair on your head was full-cap bald when he produced the tape and is full-cap bald to this very day. Not even Krishna consciousness will help you grow hair. Do you have any idea of the number of bald swamis who have been sighted in Wyoming alone? Those who still dwell in the physical body are still bald. Ram Dass and Wayne Dyer, very wise bald sages both, have used their wisdom to talk themselves out of esteeming hair, needing hair, or wanting hair. In fact, many holy beings float so high that they realize that hair is the least of their or anyone else's needs, that it's just more material stuff destined to collect in a porcelain sink, another illusion trying to convince you it's real, just one more set of material attachments from which we all, eventually, seek liberation. And they're absolutely right. Serious Solutions. If you still don't believe that bald can be beautiful (on you) and if you have $$$, then here are some alternatives. (1) Timing is everything. The sooner you start taking some decisive action before your baldness pattern reaches its limits, the smoother your transition from a "balding" person to one with an apparently full head of hair will be. This, of course, should be obvious. If your hair is just now starting to thin, very few people other than you and those very intimately involved with you will either notice or care if you start to make changes. If you make an abrupt transition, some people will ask you what you've done to your hair. (2) Spray-On Hair in a Can. Don't laugh. This stuff really works--but only if you just have a small spot to cover. Forget it if you don't have any hair that can be combed over your spot and still look natural; in that case, it will just look like you painted your head! Cost: $5.00 per can at some retail stores; $19.95 plus 4.95 shipping and handling (for a larger can) when sold on late-night infomercials. Several brands are available. The one called Instant Hair Plus is a good one. Advantage: If you just have a small spot, this stuff has you covered. Its odd texture somehow creates the appearance of full hair, but only when mixed with a sufficient amount of your own thinning hair. Disadvantage: The powder might come off on your pillow, shirt, and hands. Get used to ring-around-the-collar. The better types come off only when mixed with water and soap. You need to apply for spray every day, or after you wash your hair. Spray-on hair is hardly a long-lasting solution, only a stop-gap measure. Eventually, you won't have enough real hair to make it work. (3) Wigs. Hairpieces of various sizes, qualities, and shapes are rarely called wigs by companies like Hair Club For Men, Hairmakers, etc., but they're selling nothing other than wigs. They call their wigs "systems" or "pieces". Pick the euphemism you prefer. They sew--with a needle and thread--the hairpiece to your existing hair, which is first prepared by making a braid in your own hair along the sides. Other techniques involve attaching the piece to your braid by means of clips. The clips allow you to remove the piece whenever you desire; when the thing's sewn to your head, it's terribly difficult to get off without assistance, but in most cases you wouldn't want to do that anyway and so that doesn't create a problem. Cost: From $700 to $1500 for an initial hairpiece plus about $60 every 5 weeks for a haircut and servicing. If you can afford it, you should eventually get two pieces, so one can be worn while the other is being repaired every few months. Normal monthly servicing-with-haircut takes about an hour of concentrated effort from a specialized hairstylist, who therefore deserves at least a $10 tip. It is possible to get a hairpiece that not only covers your baldness but also makes you look great. You get used to having it on after a few weeks; then it almost seems normal. Practically no one will know you're wearing it, especially if you start before you really need one, and if you return regularly to have your piece serviced. Remember, most people don't think nearly as much about your appearance as you do. However, a wig is always a wig. It's not a part of you; it's a prosthesis of sorts. You grow, but it doesn't. Your natural hair replenishes itself. The hair on your piece will get old faster than you do, fade, and even fall out. From time to time, therefore, you will need to have your piece dyed professionally as part of your monthly servicing and to have lost hairs replaced strand by strand, or clump by clump ($25 or so). You should attend to these details meticulously every few months. There's nothing worse than a balding or faded wig! Some companies claim to permanently "cure" baldness by actually attaching what are no more than wigs or hairpieces to your scalp, not your existing hair. Cost: Whatever it is, it's a horrid waste of money. (4) Minoxidil (Rogaine). This product of the Upjohn company is widely advertised as the only approved cure for baldness. Cost: ? (a) Advantage: Scientific studies have proven that this drug works to restore growing hair for many people, especially those who start early and especially those with loss only in the crown. Apply a bit twice a day, and eventually and slowly, hair comes back. (b) Disadvantage: Your hair grows back, but painfully slowly. If you stop using the drug, the hair falls out again. For many people the gains are not aesthetically significant. Sure, there's more hair or peach fuzz there, but you still look bald. The cost is relatively high, and you can never stop buying it. (5) Hair Transplants and Baldness Reduction Procedures. This is the ultimate solution. It is the only one that, when it works, works permanently, such that you don't need to do it again! There is nothing like your own growing, regenerating hair. Cost: $8,000 (for just a bald crown) to $40,000 (for full-cap bald). (a) Advantage: If you have the bucks to spend, well spend them here. A doctor will take hairs from the sides or back of your scalp and install them onto your bald or balding areas. These transplanted hairs are the ones with strict genetic instructions to stay with you until your last breath. No more hairpiece servicing, no more bottles of drugs or colored hairspray to buy, just your own hair. Sound good? Read on. (b) Disadvantage: The prices listed are actually rather realistic, if you're going to get pleasing results. You wouldn't need to spend all of that money all at once, however. Each procedure will cost from $900 to $2000. Your results will depend on the skill and caring of your surgeons. Experience counts a lot. And once you have all the hair you've ever wanted, read again that hair is an illusion like all the others. True, it's less of an illusion now that it's sprouting abundantly above your brain. But it's all just a bunch of material stuff, and none of it has much to do with who you really are. Or does it? Your body might be an illusion, but that doesn't mean it has to be an unsightly, dreadful illusion. Why not let your illusion touch your highest ideal, if that's what you truly want to do. - Body Work Bodywork uses physical movement and touch therapy to foster health and well-being. Many practitioners also incorporate a variety of medical, psychological, and spiritual approaches. Bodywork certifications are very comprehensive. A Feldenkrais practitioner, for example, may need four years of training before certification can be given. Some well-known disciplines are: (1) The Alexander Technique. This is best for people who have to hold their bodies in a certain way for a long time, such as musicians and typists. It's also about how to optimize your posture in walking and running. The key to Alexander is the head position and how it functions with the rest of the body. Watch the standing posture of a normal five-year-old kid then compare it with that of a forty-year-old overweighted person. Alexande...
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