All of a sudden, it seems my hair on my head has stopped growing. I haven't gotten a haircut in 4 weeks, yet my hair is still short and I can see parts of my scalp now. The strange thing is that I don't find hair falling out. It's just sort of at a standstill. But when your hair stops growing, even losing one hair a day eventually will lead to baldness.

It took me a while to realize what was going on because I'd be getting a haircut as my hair started getting unmanageable and notice that though it was thick, it still barely came down my forehead. I figured this was due to the my barber Chong's cutting technique. But it wasn't. It was just not growing much in that spot anymore.

It's not so much the baldness itself that is upsetting, it's the fact that this is yet another sign you are not invincible anymore. You are getting old. In many ways, I feel much younger than my 29 years, but it's tough to feel young when your hair is going away.

In addition, I feel cheated because I suffer from greater than normal hairiness over the rest of my body. It seems to me that the least nature could do is make that trait of extra body hairiness go along with a longer than normal full head of hair. But no, nature is cruel. As you age, not only does you hair leave your head, the one place that it's nice to have hair, but you get MORE hair in places that you don't want it.

A friend told me he was taking this bald pill for a couple weeks. He said that hair started growing OUT of his forehead. He decided this was bad and stopped. As someone that definitely doesn't need more hair coming out of improper places on the body, I have ruled out that solution.

The only true solution is to care for the hair I have. I have to be gentle in shampooing and brushing to maximize the length of time before the major baldness occurs

And what shall I now do with the extra $30 or so a year I save in barber expenses? I guess there is some benefit to this.

And speaking of getting old, I now reflect on the other milestones that have made me see entropy's relentless attack on one's self. I recall the first devastating incident that really made me realize that the ageing process is occurring and the body is breaking down. It was my first cavity in college. I had never had one and I was truly stricken by the news. Soon after, I could no longer read the chalkboard in big lecture rooms. Glasses were needed. Those two episodes pretty much were the only incidents of aging that really struck me until recently.

I ride my bike around the city and a couple years ago, I ceased pedaling up this final block that is a step hill before my apartment. I just decided that it wasn't worth the effort and sweat that it induced as it would only gain me 30 seconds at best in a faster arrival. Now, maybe that is true, but I think it also may have indicated that my physical stamina was just slightly starting on the downward spiral. In actuality, I think I am in better shape now than I was when I was younger, so this walking the bike up the final hill is partly a psychological thing.

The psychological aspect of ageing I speak of relates to the fact that as you age, you no longer can take the pain anymore. By that, I mean that the older you get, the more comforts one requires. In college, a friend and I drove up skiing at 6 am, skied the day, slept in the below-freezing station wagon in sleeping bags, skied the next day, then drove to Vegas, had a buffet, gambled, and drove home sleeping for a couple hours at a rest stop. This kind of trip could no longer occur now for me. And it's not necessarily a physical reason that your body can't take it, but more than the spirit has been crushed after years of existence working and toiling and fighting traffic and yelling at telemarketers just to make it in this society that you just don't have the drive anymore. Where once you would sleep in your car to save money, you now shell out for the motel. Where once you'd drive 8 hours somewhere, you fly even though it's actually more costly and makes you travel plans less flexible. It's partly due to the fact that you have more money as you get older, but I think mainly it's the psychological aspect of the spirit being broken. Where once you actually enjoyed the pain, you no longer do when you're older because you justify to yourself that you have put yourself through enough hardship and now you deserve to go easy on yourself.

When you age, you also become more dependent on your "routine." You have to have you morning coffee. You have to take you lunch at the same time everyday. You can't miss 60 minutes. Thankfully, this is one area where I fight the aging process as I still am not like this and am vigilant for the signs because this is an area where one does have control over and I'd like to at least be youthful in the sense of refraining from ever becoming an old grouch that has to have his routine satisfied or he complains.

In closing, I just would like to say that getting old results in the slow demise of one's body and psyche and brings us one step closer to the box. Therefore, if you still have you hair and unbroken spirit to enjoy life to the fullest, do so because someday, you too will sense the decline that has begun to me.

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