Woman Looking at Old Photo Fears She's Losing Hair—Then Realizes the Issue

A woman who was "panicking" that she was losing her hair has been left "humbled" by the reaction her viral video on TikTok has had.

Marjorie Brimer, a writer based in Missouri, was sent a 30-year-old photograph of herself in high school, and immediately worried that her "hairline has drastically changed."

"My daughter mentioned my hair right away and wanted to know how I got it to look so full. I told her I used to blow dry it while hanging my head upside down, but my initial suspicion was that it had thinned and receded," the 46-year-old told Newsweek.

Adding that she "had to know," she washed and dried her hair the way she used to, but it still looked different. Until she realized her hair was parted differently in the decades-old photograph.

In a video shared to TikTok on June 26, which has currently racked up over 1 million views and 65,000 likes, she finished the clip with her hair in its old parting, and grinned at the camera at seeing the hairline pretty much unchanged.

Brimer, an English and creative writing teacher working toward publishing her own novels, admitted losing her hair was "a real concern."

"I think many women my age are starting to see changes like thinning hair and fine lines that drive home the truth we are not who we used to be. It's hard being a woman and having to meet and learn to love all the new versions of you that come along," she told Newsweek.

Around one-third of women will experience hair loss at some point in their life, according to a report from Harvard Medical School in April. The most common type is female pattern hair loss, where, as in men, loss begins above the temples and the hairline recedes.

Women can experience hair loss for a multitude of reasons, including post-pregnancy and post-menopause. In Brimer's video caption to her TikTok account @marjoriebrimer, she wrote: "I was panicking. it was so much fuller though. Dang pregnancies and hormones."

TikTok Users React

Brimer's video had a huge reaction with users on the social media platform, with some giving advice on how to treat hair to keep it full. However, the vast majority of comments were disbelief about her age.

"THIRTY YEARS? I would've never guessed," one shocked user wrote, with another adding: "Girl you look freaking great."

"We NEED to know what you do for your skin to be so smooth," a third TikTok user wrote, while another asked her for "the secret."

As one user admitted they thought Brimer was in her 20s, another user wrote: "You're genuinely so beautiful."

Brimer told Newsweek she was "so humbled by the kindness I've received on this post."

"Recently, some of my videos have really blown up, and I've noticed more views come with more hate—people stopping by your feed just to say the most venomous things they can think of saying for no reason at all," she said. "I worried about putting a vulnerable post up like this for that reason, but people responded with such kindness and encouragement, and it was really a breath of fresh air."

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