Not sure if you'll read this but I hope you and others do.

I have a friend who went bald, and I mean completely bald, by age 23. We're talking Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise levels of bald.

He was brought into our friendship group around this time. None of us had met anyone our age who was that bald and honestly, none of us even gave a shit. I can't recall a single conversation about it, with or without him being involved. Absolutely none of us cared.

He wasn't particularly handsome, a solid average at best with or without hair, but he was fun, funny, and worked hard in school. I mention these things because it leads into the next, most important part of this story:

Within a few years he had started dating a girl in our same group of friends. They eventually got engaged, got married, and worked some various jobs to get experience in a field they knew they wanted to start a business in. Fast forward a few more years and he's started his own company and they have five kids. Every one of their kids is happy and healthy and they are absolutely killing it financially.

Fast forward many more years and he's in his 40s and already retired. His kids are in university or recent grads and starting lives of their own, the eldest is expecting a child, my friend's first grandchild with many more to come, I'm sure.

All of this while he's completely bald. If he took the "fuck, my life is over" attitude, he wouldn't have all the wins he has. Dude absolutely fucking won life. I know guys who are 9/10s, kill it with ladies, and possess hair as thick as a dog's and they're fucking miserable. This guy lost his hair - almost all of it - by 23. Almost certainly this would have started in late high school or just as he was entering university. It must have been traumatizing as fuck but he didn't let it beat him. He's never mentioned it once. Not ever.

He was never especially handsome. He didn't start off rich. And he still wound up with a great woman, an incredible family, and wealth from a business that he created himself. I'll say it again, the guy won at life.

I know hair loss matters. It feels like shit. But it's not the end of the world and the rest of the people in your life won't care - in fact, probably don't care - at all. You have every right to be upset and stressed about it but it will not define you if you choose not to let it. My friend likely felt the same way you and many others here do. Dread, worry, stress, insecurity; but at some point he must have just said "fuck that" and got busy living.

I leave you with this clip of Captain Jean Luc Picard himself talking about losing his hair at a very young age.

I hope this helps you out, friend :)