Suicide from Hair Loss

We’d both be 19 if he was still here. We were pretty alike. Both were studying together. Life bummed him out but not that much. Then hair loss hit. He started losing hair all over his head. Every doctor just said it was aggressive hair loss. His worries become amplified ten fold. Everything bummed him out, he wouldn’t leave his house. I wake up one day to my mum telling me that he hanged himself in his room when everyone was away. Nobody talks about how hair loss made everything worse. I understand depression plays a huge factor but it would have never happened if hair loss treatments were not complete bull shit. Guess what though? Now i’m going through the same thing. Rapidly losing my hair and people are noticing it. My own parents won’t even look at me the same way. Can the industry get its act together? I want to live. Why can’t people understand how balding screws up your mind at a young age.

Hair loss can be treated and today, with modern technology, almost every person can get the hair that they are losing back when in the hands of an experienced, ethical and skilled doctor. There is no hopelessness with balding, not at all.  Yes, our industry may not focus well on people like you and your friend.  I, for one, have had too many young men in your situation and I spend a lot of time with each of them. Most of the time I am successful in bonding in a positive way to impact their depression; however, depression needs professional help. I had one young man commit suicide after being mutilated by a hair transplant doctor with the old plugs and many scalp reduction surgeries. I knew about him because his mother and I bonded over his management, but he lived far away and a phone connection was not enough. When his mother called me and told me the terrible news, I felt that maybe I should have flown out to see him or send him the money to come to visit me in LA, Hindsight does’t help.  Hair loss just adds to the depression that already exists in such young men and I keep seeing young men voice their depression about hair loss and relate it to hopelessness.