On occasion while I am at work, commuting, or just outside I will cross paths with someone else who has alopecia.  Usually they don't really notice me but when they do notice, I sometimes feel their curiosity.  I can sense that they are curious to see if I also have alopecia areata or something else or perhaps I have male pattern baldness and I look young for my age.  When I was a little bit younger, strangers with alopecia would see me and silently acknowledge me with their eyes like, "cool I've got it too."  Or maybe that is my imagination.  I guess when I was younger my condition was more obvious to others who also had it. But lately my eyebrows have been pretty full and my facial hair seems fuller too.  Also I'm at an age where hereditary baldness is more common so I feel that other's with alopecia may not realize, at a glance, that I have it too.  I don't think any of this really matters but last week I've had an awkward encounter that I wish I handled a little bit better.

One day last week I over-estimated how cold the day was going to be so I had on too many layers while getting on the subway.  Once I got in and sat down I felt hot so I took off my hat as fast as I could.  But directly across from me sat two girls, one with short hair and the other with a shaved head.  I don't know why but suddenly I felt extremely awkward.  They were having a conversation until I took off my hat.  Then the girl with short hair scowled at me somewhat angrily like "dude, what are you doing!?" and the girl with the shaved head looked at me once and then turn head to avoid looking in my direction.  Meanwhile, other people around us kept glancing at us back and forth probably wondering what two young people with shaved heads were doing on the train.  That made the situation even more awkward. When commuting in Boston it's totally normal to want to avoid looking at the people across from you but this for some reason really felt uncomfortable to me.  I almost wanted to say out loud, "Hi I've got alopecia, if you have it too that's cool and if you don't have it and you just like shaving your head bald, that's cool too.  I'm just taking off my hat since it's warm in here." But saying that out loud would have been more awkward.

I was wondering if others had similar experiences or if they some advice.  I'm usually really good a shrugging off awkward situations with strangers but this time I felt like I should have done something.  I felt bad that I may have made someone else with alopecia feel uncomfortable on the train.