Two early reviews from best friends’ moms frame hair and self-esteem issues

On the day after I brought home my book from the printer, I was focused on getting copies to two special readers in their early 90s, Donna Egan and Norma Jac Driebe – moms of my two high school buddies. They’ve both known me well a very long time – Donna since she and my mom were pregnant together and her baby Mike and I met in play dates, in not near-utero. I met Norma Jac when her son Charles joined us in eighth grade.

Since then, we’ve all been through a lot together – school, parties, businesses, girlfriends, marriages, divorces, deaths and babies. I was very curious of their take on my journey and my decision to fix my male pattern baldness after three decades of sporting a dome atop my head. Unbeknownst to them, they were also serving as proxies of a sort for my mom, who died seven years ago at age 99, before I decided to change my look.

My mom would have probably joined my medically trained close friends who advised against flying to Istanbul to undergo hair transplant surgery, moving 5,000 follicles from the side of my head to the barren top. She always thought comb-overs and toupees were the worst, especially on TV news. I think she would have liked how I looked after my hair grew out after my return, but alas, I’ll never know.

Donna’s review: “amusing and occasionally touching.” Then she wrote: ” I also must confess I find bald men attractive so if the procedure reverses itself you will still have a Senior Citizen admirer.” Funny, Donna and I and, as it turns out, most everyone in my life, never talked about baldness. I opened the agenda for discussion and cherished her handwritten note back to me.

Norma Jac was even more personal in her review: ” I loved reading about your relationship with hair. So funny that I never dreamed it bothered you so much. You do look so much better though!  Your hair is great.
I can empathize with you. Oddly, my hair had thinned & I even had gotten a small hair piece. Then, suddenly, it was thick again!! Even my hairdresser noticed & said, “what happened?” But I’m just going with it. Anyway, love the book —and your hair!”

I may get more reviews from friends or from the press in the future, but these two will always be special in my heart, now a bit more full.