Clean ‘Bald’

The prettiest girl in my school started losing chunks of hair and eventually went bald. Everyone was talking about her. Luckily her boyfriend stuck with her and they are now married with two kids. This is a slice of reality from Soft skills and leadership coach Karuna Sarkaria’s life. She shares, “It is difficult to go out in the society as a bald woman. If you want to operate in a safe zone and not get unwanted attention, you might have to wear a wig.”

 She deals with image perception and hence feel, “if you are at the front desk or any role in a corporate set up where you are required to interact with people, first impression matters. After all corporate businesses are about managing perceptions. However good you are at your work, you do need to look a certain way. It gives you confidence too. Fortunately, some companies have a better culture, and some desk roles come to the rescue.”

Unfortunately we still live in a hair-normative culture. A bald woman threatens the typical norms of beauty. Then what it must be like to be a woman living with alopecia in India? To a majority it is an odd thing to see a bald woman.

Psychotherapist Tasneem Nakhoda explains the entire process from finding out, to hiding it, to finally accepting it, “For a man, receding hairlines and baldness can be passed off but losing hair for a woman is socially unacceptable. It begins with a feeling of helplessness, it shakes up and shatters a woman’s confidence. They start questioning if they will look attractive to the opposite gender and be accepted by friends. It could turn them into a recluse.” This is where support groups matter. The families too should avoid picking on the same topic. “When nothing can be done about it, talking about it helps. And that’s why I think this film Gone Kesh has brought to fore such a real and brilliant issue. Because whatever said and done, media does influence a huge chunk of population and when actresses portray a bald look, it sends out the right message,” adds Tasneem.

Writer and director Qasim Khallow was hungry for such unique ideas. Sharing his research “I came across a medicine which if you apply on your cheeks, helps you grow beard. I researched more about the medicine and found out that it is used by people suffering from hair fall. I came across Alopecia and in a flash I saw a feature film story on this subject. Flash forward 18 days and I had the first draft of the script ready.

I think this story needs to be told because lot of us have no clue about Alopecia. I did not know about Alopecia before writing this film. I had friends who had hair loss problem but I never knew what it is. I knew the kind of story I wanted to tell with this subject so my research was limited to the narrative of the film. I read lot of stories of real Alopecia patients across the globe and it helped me a lot giving flesh and blood to my protagonist. Hopefully after this film society will have a new meaning for beauty.” He concludes.