My name is Pete, and I’m an actor in television and film, as well as a teacher and aerospace engineer. My hair story started when I was in junior high. During health class my teacher stated that if your dad was bald, it meant you were going to be bald as well. I thought about it for a moment and realized that my father, grandfather, and uncles all started to experience major hair loss at an early age, so it seemed inevitable that it would happen to me. I remember being very upset and after that day I did everything I could to take care of my hair, but it made no difference. By the time I was 19 and in college I started to notice hair thinning at the top and back of the head, and by the time I was 25 I started to see my front hairline disappear.
I heard about the drug Rogaine, and was able to get one of the early prescriptions, but it didn’t work. Over the last few years I’ve tried everything, only to be increasingly frustrated. Propecia helped slow the hair loss but I never seemed to regain what I’d lost. I can’t tell you what a sick feeling it is to see your hair in the drain of the shower, knowing that it will be gone forever. I avoided getting any kind of head or scalp massages for fear of losing whatever I had left. In some ways, I guess I never thought it would bother me like it did, and that was probably the biggest surprise of all. I didn’t wear hats to cover up, thinking subconsciously that it would mean I had “caved in” or admitted I was balding. When I got sunburns on my bald spot, it was both painful emotionally as well as physically.
I looked into Bosley once several years ago. I really liked what I saw but at that point I couldn’t justify doing the procedure – it seemed like everything else in my life was more important at the time. I figured that since I worked a corporate desk job where not a lot of people saw me, it wasn’t a big deal. When I made a career change and started acting, my attitudes and opinions changed, especially when I realized what mattered was not so much how I looked, but how I felt about myself. In acting, attitude and confidence are essential for success and, to be honest, I didn’t really have a good self-image with my thinning hair. I would look at a video clip of my performance and not notice the acting at all. The only thing I saw was a middle-aged guy with a huge bald spot — someone who looked much older than I felt. I always made a point to get to know the camera operators and editors. Knowing my concerns, they would take special care to avoid showing my hair from bad angles. That was nice of them to put in the effort, but it was a lot to ask considering this was basically my own personal problem.
As the old saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I realized that if I was going to improve myself inside and out, I needed to gather the courage to take action – to do something, anything, and follow through with it.
I no longer view the procedure as a luxury or optional item – it’s become a necessity. I know that if I have a positive self-image and confidence, I can focus on the other things in my life. It’s not a question of vanity. It’s simply taking advantage of the latest in medical technology to restore my appearance to what some wayward genetic string had robbed me of. If someone has a heart condition, don’t they get it fixed with the best medical technology available? How about treating cancer or other medical conditions? I view hair transplantation in the same way – here is a technology and capability to help me be the best I can be, so why wouldn’t I take full advantage of it? To me, having this technology available and not taking advantage of it is my own kind of insanity.
I now have my procedure scheduled, and I’m so excited about it I can barely sleep! I’m counting the days and hours and I picture how I’ll look one year from now, when all of my new hair has grown in. The other day, I pulled out my high school yearbooks and other photo albums and it was exciting to know that I’ll have that same appearance once again. I think that it’s probably hard for someone who isn’t losing their hair to relate to this, but for those of us that are going through it I can say with absolute certainty and conviction that what the Bosley team offers is nothing short of miraculous and life-changing. I’m really looking forward to sharing this experience with all of you as I move forward, and hopefully as you go on this journey with me, you’ll find some hope and inspiration in it for yourself. Strap yourself in, and hang on tight – we are going on an incredible ride together!
- Pete
Pete
Michael
