This is What Severe Trauma Does to the Body 😨
A Vietnam veteran describes experiencing severe hair loss immediately after returning home at age 21, which was psychologically devastating due to the stark contrast between his Marine Corps haircut and the long-hair cultural trend of early 1970s America. The physical trauma response coincided with social alienation, making him feel disconnected from his peers despite being the same age.
Summary
The speaker recounts a traumatic physical response to returning from Vietnam. Upon coming home at age 21, all of his hair fell out in a single night, causing panic for both him and his wife. He expresses confusion about the biological mechanism behind this extreme stress response. The timing of this hair loss was particularly devastating because it coincided with a major cultural shift in America during the early 1970s, when long hair became a widespread fashion trend, exemplified by the popularity of the musical 'Hair.' As a Marine, he had been required to maintain a military haircut, which already set him apart visually. The combination of his involuntary short hair, the loss of his remaining hair due to the trauma response, and the prevailing long-hair aesthetic made him feel profoundly out of place among his peers. This social disconnection was compounded by the psychological toll of returning from combat, creating a sense of being aged beyond his actual years despite being chronologically the same age as his friends.
Key Insights
- The speaker experienced complete hair loss in one night upon returning from Vietnam, describing it as a sudden physical manifestation of trauma that he couldn't explain
- Long hair became a dominant cultural rage in America in the early 1970s, exemplified by the musical 'Hair,' creating a stark contrast with military personnel returning home
- The speaker's Marine Corps haircut already made him visually stand out from his peers before the hair loss occurred
- The combination of his appearance and the trauma of combat made the speaker feel psychologically aged—'20 years older than them, even if you're the same age'
- The social disconnection from not fitting in with friends due to appearance and cultural displacement was deeply crushing to the speaker's mental health upon repatriation
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] All of your hair fell out in one night? >> Yeah, my wife's screaming and I'm freaking out. I don't know why your body does it. I couldn't get out of 'Nam. It's when I first came home, 21 years old, and here's what [music] made it really devastating to me at the time. Long hair became this incredible [music] rage in America in the early '70s, and there was this giant musical called Hair. I think they made a movie out of it. Everybody had long hair. I got a Marine Corps haircut, so I already looked out of it, and you don't fit in with all your friends because now you're 20 years older than them, even…
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