Scale of Dread

The Norwood-Hamilton Hair Loss Scale is dreadful. It is dreadful because it takes progressive hair loss, breaks it down into categories, and then summarises it into an easy-to-read wall-mountable chart. It is also dreadful because:

- It makes no reference at all to the denial experienced in stage 2, as in: “Oh my God, this isn’t happening to me.”

- It completely ignores the anger experienced in Stage 3, as in: “What the %^%@ are you looking at?”

- It neglects to mention the desperate bargaining experienced in Stage 4 as in: “Dear God, you know I’ve never asked you for anything before…”

- It totally skips the depression that sets in by Stage 5, as in: “Stuff like this always happens to me.”

- And it cannot begin to summarise the bitter acceptance of Stages 6 & 7, as in: “I suppose it’s not the end of the world.”

Solution to overcome the Scale of Dread: print it out and colour it in using brightly coloured crayons - do not bother trying to colour within the lines. Now paste it on your wall and smile as your remind yourself that while in some cases hair loss may be inevitable, in all cases the way you deal with it is not.