Baldness and hairloss themes in transformation stories have always interested me - mainly because it's something I've experience on a personal level.
When I was seventeen, I experienced sort of my own version of "transformation" - I lost all my hair and went completely bald. If anyone has ever heard of the auto-immune condition called Alopecia, you might know that there are three different forms of the condition: alopecia areata, totalis, and universalis. I personally developed Alopecia Totalis, which basically means a complete loss of all head hair. It was extremely freaky and terrifying - every morning I would wake up to a HUGE amount of hair stuck to my pillow. It kept falling out in clumps. Early on in the process, I can remember taking off my hat (which I wore to cove my bald spots), and getting this big clump of hair from my forehead with it. It was very rapid - I went from a full head of hair, to totally chrome dome in a two month period.
Obviously being a teenager, this was pretty devastating. I wore a wig to cover my baldness (still do), but people found out of course. Also, I tend to be a stress eater, and as you might imagine, going totally bald in the middle of high school is a tad stressful, so I started packing on the pounds. I've always been a little chubby, but now...my "fat holly" forum handle is pretty accurate, sadly.
At any rate, this experience gave me a sort of morbid fascination with transformation stories and scenarios - especially those with a hairloss component. Sometimes I like to imagine people I dislike being on the receiving end of the transformation. Other times, I (oddly) like to fantasize myself in the middle of those same scenarios. I don't know - sort of a cathartic thing I guess.
Anyhow, I thought I would share this, as I don't see this topic being brought up too often. Thanks guys!
--Holly