OK, here’s the deal. I’m a Creative Director at an ad agency in Portland, Oregon. In my 20’s, I had a lot of hair, and it worked well for me . I was playing in a rock band, I had hair that fell half-way down my back – and the combo opened a lot of doors, so to speak. But time marches on – I quit the band, decided to settle into my career, and slowly but surely started losing my hair.

After a couple of years at the agency, it became clear that I needed to get a haircut. Not only did our clients mistake me for the parking lot attendant, but I was starting to look like those guys who are bald on top, but keep a ponytail in back. That’s not a look that I wanted to go for. So, I cut my hair short. It was much more professional, but it also revealed just how badly my hair was thinning.

Now, baldness is nothing new in my family. In fact, when I looked at pictures of me standing next to my father and my grandfather , it was very clear what the future held for me. I went to a family reunion once, and every man in the room had the exact same hair line (or should I say lack of hairline). It was the classic ‘bald on top with a ring of hair around the sides and back.’ You know what I’m talking about.

Truth be told, my hair loss was only a low-level concern for me – I’m a pretty confident guy, and I’m fairly successful, so I didn’t think that my hair loss was keeping me back. Still, I couldn’t help looking in the mirror and seeing my dad’s head. Especially when the light would hit my scalp in a certain way, or when pictures were taken and I would see them later, it was really obvious where my hair was going.

Then, one day not too long ago, we got a chance to pitch some business to Bosley. My boss had worked with Bosley about 10 years ago, and we were being given another opportunity to work on a campaign for them. So we start going to meetings, and the marketing guy at Bosley keeps pointing at my head saying “You’re a perfect candidate for a procedure. Oh yeah, look at that – your hair is going. You should do something about it. Seriously, do it before you lose more hair,” and on and on. Needless to say, this made me think about my thinning hair. I looked in the mirror. I thought about is some more. I said to myself “Here’s a one-time procedure that could give me hair, and I wouldn’t have to think about again.”

I talked to my dad, who whole-heartedly encouraged me to look into it. I can’t help it. Even though I’d like to think I’m above it, I notice my thinning hair and I’d like to do something about it. Now, naturally it helped that Bosley was going to give me the procedure for free. Still, this is the kind of thing that can make you either look really good or really bad, depending on who does it. The last thing any of us wants is ‘doll hair,’ and a lot of people said I was crazy to do this for, and I quote, “a stupid ad campaign.” And if our client had been “Fred’s Upstairs Hair Replacement Clinic and Video Rental,” and they had offered to give me a transplant, I would have politely declined and gone on my merry, balding way. But I believed that Bosley was the best in the world, and I trusted that they would do a great job. So I held my nose, made my appointment, and took the plunge.

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