“It goes to show you how much the fashion world has changed. As soon as I stopped taking the pills, I lost all my hair a second time. It took only a month and a half for all of her hair to fall out. Apparently being bald is a trend that’s catching on in Paris now,” she laughs. Five years down the line from when she lost her hair, she is now the first finalist with alopecia to Hair Curler Manufacturers Manufacturers have made it to the finals of the Mrs India Worldwide finale, which is taking place in Mumbai later this month.

“I had always wanted to get a tattoo done, and I thought, well if God’s given me a canvas, why not use it ” Though an excruciatingly painful process, the tattoo helped Ketaki gain back her confidence and even changed how people viewed her now. “There is a stigma if you don’t have hair. Ketaki is prepping for the finale, which will take place in Mumbai, with a grooming session taking place in Dubai before the big finish. Much more confident in her own skin now, when she saw the Facebook page for the Mrs India pageant, she applied immediately. I’ll be travelling on my own, so that should be quite exciting,” says Ketaki. “She sat with me one day and simply told me that I had my whole life ahead of me and that I’m healthy, I’m smart and I’m still beautiful.

I felt the stares that people would aim my way wherever I went,” she says.When Ketaki Jani began losing her hair at the age of forty, she thought that her life was over.It was her daughter who finally helped her get through the ordeal. After trying out oils, hair treatments and even steroid pills, and having undergone a long battle with depression, Ketaki finally decided to not only accept but also embrace her baldness. When I went in for my personal interview, one of the judges immediately commended me on my hairstyle. There are so many people that I know who feel this way and I wish there was a way to change that,” she signs off. “Now, when people saw me, they thought that my baldness is a fashion statement,” she laughs. Another step towards rediscovery was when she decided to tattoo her head.

It was a dark time for me, because, in our culture, people often equate a woman’s beauty with her hair,” recalls Ketaki, who admits that it was not just her own misgivings but also society at large that added to her struggles.. “I’m really looking forward to seeing Dubai. That really was a turning point for me,” says Ketaki. “I just wish that more women with alopecia would step out of their homes and not feel ashamed of the lack of hair. I’ve actually had people come up to me and ask whether I have cancer, or say things like ‘her life is over now’ or ‘how will she go out in public now’. It took much longer for Ketaki to make peace with it.“My daughter and husband encouraged me to stop taking steroid pills because it would have a negative impact on my kidneys in the long run.Ketaki Jani, who lost her hair to alopecia, has become the first finalist to make it to the Mrs India Internatonal beauty pageant.