The Mighty Head

By Uditi Mishra

“The Mighty Head” by Uditi Mishra is solely based on a teenagers life who had a lot of challenges and obstacles thrown her way while she confronted baldness at the age of 11. This book helps shatter all the stigmas that are present in the society and which give people a hard time in order to confront their true identity. The society is a place where people are expected to act a certain way and look a certain way if not then they are never accepted as a whole. While Uditi writes this book she deals with all the issues that she faced growing up and explains to people how it’s ok to be ok in your own skin and how it is not a requirement to perceive yourself based on what others think you should look like or act like. 

She also talks a lot about Alopecia as a disease and how people who are friends with someone who has a disease which is visible should talk to not make it awkward or uncomfortable for the other person. 

The name “the Mighty Head” originated from Uditi Mishra’s Ted talk where she for the first time felt confident in talking about her Alopecia and this title means a lot to her as being a bald girl has been difficult and knowing that stepping foot outside the house and having people stare at you or even ask you questions about your disease is scary because even when you don’t try to draw any attention to yourself you still end up doing that because you are a girl and you are bald. Therefore “mighty head” signifies how I have felt with a lot of unwanted attention and turned it into something positive. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2022

Book preview

Chapter 1

Disastrous 11

There is a danger in sealing up our emotions in the shortness of temper that comes when we cry. There is a cruelty in talking about our feelings, a type of rudeness; something well-mannered folks would hide. There is a cost in burying such pain in our bones rather than expressing it freely, one that brings on the loneliness of the soul. Yet with understanding and patience comes healing, a return to absolute joy and true happiness born in soulful connections. It is then that we emotional types become a blessing to others and ourselves.

For so long, I thought you made me feel a certain way; if I was sad, lonely, or frustrated, I became angry with you and blamed you for all my misfortune and unlucky days. But why you? Why not something else? I think it's because you happened to me at the stage of life when I was just eleven, and I did not expect you to knock on the doors of my happiness and bring sadness into my life; yes, I am talking about you, Alopecia, I blamed you for everything that I lost and yet you did not care. You were so stubborn that you were not willing to leave my body even after I tried to push you away, you stayed there. You left your symptoms just the way an onion leaves its grotesque smell. You did not feel ashamed even when I cursed you every other day, making it so embarrassing for you to be there. Yet you acted like a monster and ruined every day of my life ever since the day I heard your name; it was like that annoying morning alarm in my head that almost everyone on this planet hates. Whatever it does, it can’t make anyone love it, which sums this up and makes it easy for me to express how much I hated your existence.

I was diagnosed with Alopecia at the age of eleven, which was a big shock to me; it still is! It came into my life like a rain that without a rainbow; It was new for me. It was a nightmare that I was not only trapped in, but it was also hard to come out of. Usually, when people start with their tragic story, they also have a way out of it, but for me, that was not the case; I did not see a way out until I fully accepted that this monstrous disease was a part of my life. I had to move on, but what would anyone expect from an eleven-year-old? You wouldn’t ask a kid that age to accept that she will not have hair anytime soon or that she has to be called a sick baby wherever she goes or that she should not think that people just want to be friends with her because they sympathize with her situation but the seventeen-year-old me who is expressing this right now understands that what the eleven-year old me went through was very cruel.

If I return to narrate the story, it will go like this.

When I was two and a half, I developed Alopecia. According to my Mum, when I was two and a half, I had a small patch, but I did not know that the small patch was a sign of something big and ominous that was waiting for me. The patch was a very tiny one that got treated with just a cream that the dermatologist gave me, and they went away just fine, and I had a happy few years without any emotional tension. Running my fingers through my then smooth, long, straight brown hair was a habit I adored. No one, literally NO ONE was able to convince me that my hair wasn’t light brown. Jokes apart, I liked styling my hair in various ways, and there was not even a single day that would go off without me touching my hair. My tantrums were intolerable when it came to oiling my hair because I liked them to be soft and silky rather than having sticky ends dripping in the oil, which by the way is exceptionally gross if you don’t know. My happiness was short-lived, and I figured that out when I went to my aunt's wedding.

The wedding started decently but ended with disaster; I was too young to even react to the situation. I freaked out and ran to my mama as fast as possible when I noticed a bald spot on the centre of my scalp; my mom thought it was due to the weather change as I was a susceptible kid right from the start. We ignored that for the time being, but as we came back to my home town, the patch started to grow, and it was impossible to ignore it; that's when I got fully diagnosed and found that I was suffering from a