Mine’s Bigger than Yours

What is this bizarre tweet/picture combo of Rihanna doing on a blog about hair loss? Bear with me.

Rihanna is one of world’s biggest pop stars. Her twitter account has over 21 million followers. Whether you like her music or not, you have to appreciate her honesty and her willingness to open up despite being in the spotlight.

Rihanna regularly takes criticism for having a huge forehead. I imagine she receives hundreds of tweets a day about it. Whatever is behind that criticism and however people feel the need to get off by taking other people down is not relevant here. What I want to talk about is how Rihanna turned something that was supposed to work against her into an asset.

Rihanna often wears her hair in a manner that conceals her forehead. Given the extent of celebrity scrutinization from the general public and the microscope of trashy magazines and tabloids, it’s understandable why someone would try to hide their perceived faults. Regardless of why she normally wears her hair that way, the above photo and tweet is a step in the opposite direction.

The above photo is Rihanna giving a big middle finger to anyone who thinks that she is uncomfortable in her own skin.

And you know what happens? She becomes sexier for it. Flaunting something that is perceived as a flaw can turn it into an asset.

We can easily place this example in the context of hair loss. If you are covering up the fact that you are balding, it’s not as if people are oblivious to your efforts. A receding hairline is noticeable regardless of how hard you work to arrange your hair or get the right haircut. A bald spot is a bald spot. If your hair is thinning, a volumizing shampoo might buy you some time, but eventually you will be in the same corner I found myself in a few years ago.

When you take Rihanna’s approach, however, you are telling the world that you are cool with something that they assumed you would be stressed about. In other words, you turned the tables on them. When you are the one controlling the conversation, you become more attractive, more likable. It has nothing to do with whether you have hair or not and it has everything to do with how you carry yourself.

So, thank you Rihanna, for being a role model to anyone that may be stressing about a perceived flaw in their appearance.

To close this out, a song from Brother Ali, one that I have referenced throughout this site and the ebook. It is an appropriate anthem for what I’ve been talking about in this post.

Thoughts? Hit me up in the comments or on the contact page.

If you enjoyed this post, check out my How to Deal with Hair Loss ebook. It details my personal story of beating male pattern baldness, explains all the options for dealing with hair loss, and offers concrete tips and strategies for getting over it and building confidence.