James Dean died before he could go bald. 

But make no mistake about it, Dean was in the early stages of male pattern baldness in the years leading to his untimely death at the age of 24.

How bald would Dean have been if he reached the age of 30? Would his sex symbol status and celebrity been reduced as a result of his hair loss?

Sadly, the world will never know.

I drive by Dean’s roadside memorial on Highway 46 every 5 years or so, when I travel from Washington to my native home state of California. On that drive, at that particular junction, I always take a moment to reflect on the tenuous nature of life, along with death and immortality, as I look around at the nondescript, and quite frankly, ugly surroundings.

There’s nothing particularly scenic or inspiring about Dean’s memorial junction. It’s rather depressing, actually.

Dean’s best-known quote is also featured prominently at a bar I visit from time to time:

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

I think the quote applies to all of us experiencing any degree of hair loss.

We should dream like we’ll have that lush, perfect, full head of hair for eternity. But we should live each day like it’s our last day with hair. Appreciate your mane while you have it. Savor every moment, every washing, every cut, and every style.

Hair is a fleeting thing for most men, and many women too, much like life itself. It slips away far too quickly, and before you know it, you’re old and wrinkly and in a rest home and you can’t get it up anymore and you look like Dr. Phil on a good day and you have to wake up a dozen times a night to pee and you’re on finasteride again 20 years after quitting even though you’re already bald, because you have BPH now and you’re just effed and you really just wish it all would be over.

That’s an over-dramatization, of course.

Maybe you’re young and you feel like you have a solid grasp on your future, follicly and otherwise. Maybe you feel invincible. But you aren’t, I assure you, and everything you hold dear could be snatched away in one unceremonious instant, whether by the side of the road or as you stand in the shower, watching your Norwood 3 fade into oblivion.

Luke Bryan said what I’m saying in a recent song, in a brain-dead simple way so the masses could relate.

It all goes too fast.

Dean went a little too fast as well, perhaps that’s why we never got to see how his hair loss (or his dreams) evolved over time.

I think back to that Seinfeld episode, when George Costanza gave Elaine’s balding boyfriend his “prognosis.” The man had a little over a year left with hair.

George’s advice?

Live, dammit!

And that’s basically the moral of this blog post, too. Below’s a picture of Dean shortly before his death, showcasing an absurdly handsome and talented young actor in the prime of his life preparing for a street race, something he loved more than just about anything. At least he went while chasing his passion.

Image by © Corbis.

RIP.

And gentlemen, start your engines. Go chase your dreams. You hold your destiny in your hands, and while you’re here, you get to be the star of your own movie.

Robert Price

Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.