Living With Alopecia: 'I Stopped Hiding and Made My Baldness My Strength'

Ketaki Jani from Pune began noticing her hair falling out in 2010 but dismissed it as a random episode. But when the condition persisted, she began to get worried. A diagnosis soon revealed that Ketaki had alopecia.

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She was told that the following months would be filled with unpredictable hair loss. While steroids were the only solution, their effects would be temporary.

Ketaki knew she would have to brave the world, bald. But as she came to terms with this, there was an unsaid battle she recounts fighting against society and their stereotypes. Questions such as ‘Is it cancer?’, ‘How will you live without hair?’ and more, plagued her until one day, she decided this needed to stop.

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If she wanted people to see her with a new lens, she first had to do so herself. That day, Ketaki left the house without a scarf or wig to cover her bald spot.

And since then she has never looked back. Today, as she walks the ramp at numerous beauty pageants, Ketaki’s biggest strength is her baldness.

Edited by Pranita Bhat