Why be boldly bald? There are a lot of good reasons I can think of; but this morning I was confronted with a reason I’d never even considered.

I came downstairs, to hear my husband, whom I fondly call my little Greek, talking on the phone to our niece. Stella lives with her family and the rest of my husband’s relatives just outside of Athens, Greece, on top of an ancient mountain worn smooth by time that overlooks the Aegean Sea. I could picture her talking as she sat on the garden swing under the olive trees because my husband and I lived next door to her for 10 years.

Mike (my little Greek) was asking if she had gotten over the shock of seeing the bald picture album I’d put up on Facebook. Stella’s mother recently died of cancer and Mike was concerned my baldness might have been difficult for her to look at.

No, not at all was her reply. In fact, she was very impressed with the quality and the storyboard feel of the series of pictures interwoven with my comments. (If I find a way to add photo albums to this blog, I’ll transfer them here). But more so, she continued, she was impressed with my confidence and that soul-deep smile she remembered from the years we lived in Greece.

Mike had to leave for work, so I got to talk with Stella too. She was proud of me, she said, and thought what I am trying to do to promote comfort with women’s baldness is more important than I could imagine.

“It’s not just about the bald women themselves, Thea (Auntie), it is about the rest of us who struggle with things in our own life. It is about the young people who worry if they are a few pounds overweight or have a blemish or something which leaves them feeling self conscious and wanting to withdraw and hide.”

“Young people,” she continued, “need positive role models to deal with life’s difficulties with courage and grace. You, Thea, are such a role model. You do not let the difficulty of having no hair diminish you in any way.’

I was flattered by such a compliment from a woman I love and admire. I was also taken aback. Stella is right. Our baldness is about more than just us. It is about our families and our friends and our jobs and our beauty addicted society. It is also about our young girls and boys.

Our baldness, whether present for a season or a lifetime is an opportunity for us to say we are more than our hair. Our beauty is deeper, more enduring, more coupled to our spirit and our character than to our hairline. It is an opportunity to declare our strength goes beyond the obscurity of blending in with everyone else.

We can be different and hold on to ourselves proudly and with integrity. We can be role models, teachers and advocates. We can be light houses of empathy and understanding for those newly bald…for their families and for their friends and their employers and for our society. We can be beacons of strength and purpose to the young women following in our footsteps.

Not every woman who is bald gets to a point of complete comfort and personal freedom. There is no judgment here – only excitement for a possibility that bald women working individually and collectively can have a much greater impact for good than we ever imagined.