Melbourne, Australia

I wore the hearing aids at work instead of hiding them under my hair

Dear Delyara, I began losing hearing in my thirties and spent years styling my hair to cover the hearing aids. I avoided mentioning them and pretended to understand when I missed words because I was afraid colleagues would think I was less capable. Eventually, pretending caused more problems than hearing loss. I worked with audiology, asked for meeting captions, and began telling people directly when I needed them to face me. Last week, I cut my hair short. The hearing aids are visible now. A colleague noticed and said, “I didn’t know you wore those.” I said, “That was the problem.” Self-esteem did not make me stop caring what people think overnight. It made hiding equipment that helps me function feel less reasonable than allowing other people a brief moment of noticing.