Fingerprints in palm reading. Walking barefoot through Hannover's city center for the first time. Reversing genetic hair loss with UV radiation.

May 15, 2024. I woke up at 5 a.m. to the sound of birds chirping. I still felt tired, so I tried to sleep a little longer. At 6 a.m. I woke up again. It was already quite bright, and the noise level, especially human noise, car noise in the distance, increased. I decided to continue sleeping upstairs in the room. Before falling asleep, I checked my emails. An email from the Pigeon Rescue Network. I should provide my phone number so that Jasmin can contact me.

Around 10 a.m., after buying a whole grain baguette, 2 bananas, and organic tomatoes, I sit outside on the Conti campus at a table under trees and drink a coffee. It was still quite windy, but the sun was shining from a cloudless sky. Various students sat at my table. They came and went. I sat there and immersed myself in the topic of fingerprints in palm reading.

Every person has an individual fingerprint. The police use this to identify a person. In palm reading, fingerprints do not reveal what a person thinks, but how they think. Interestingly, despite small differences in fingerprints, there are six fingerprint patterns:

• Ulnar loop - this pattern occurs in 70% of people and is therefore less interesting for palm reading.
• Whorl - stands for an obsessive thought pattern, individuality.
• Simple arch - pragmatic character.
• Radial loop - likes to care for others. For me, the radial loop is present on the index finger of the active hand, while the passive hand only has a common ulnar loop. The radial loop on the index finger indicates extreme sensitivity to criticism. Very friendly to others. I would say that applies to me.
• Spiked arch - innovative, intense character.
• Composite - indicates an indefinite, insecure character.

When reading fingerprints, it is important to note on which finger the particular pattern is located and whether the fingerprints differ on both hands. This then shows the difference between the true personality and the externally lived personality.

Two female students sat at the table and talked about feelings. I listened a little and tried to read the personality and predict the possible hand shape, finger length, and hand lines.

A short break. I turn my head to the right and see Larissa, the fairytale girl, sitting at the next table. "The most beautiful girl on campus," I think, and get myself a coffee. When I return, she is gone.

Until 4:30 p.m., I was immersed in learning palmistry. I slowly understand how palm reading works and begin to see more of the big picture of the hand instead of just focusing on individual features. A quick glance at the hand is enough to give me a rough idea of the personality of the person standing in front of me. Whether the prognosis is correct, I can then find out in conversation with the person. This way I can also find out whether palmistry is nonsense or not.

Then I went to the city and did something that cost me a bit of effort: I walked barefoot through the city to the train station and from there took the tram home.

On the way, two people approached me and asked if I was afraid of stepping on glass shards. I was not afraid. I hadn’t had that fear for a long time. And I didn’t care how people would react. Nonetheless, you do attract much more attention when you're walking barefoot. But I felt surprisingly just as comfortable as with shoes. It was much nicer to feel the warm ground. And what I also found exciting was that I could keep my balance much better standing in the tram.

Around 5:40 p.m., I was back at the flat share. Lara was there and had baked something. But she somehow ignored me when we met in the kitchen. She left immediately when I came into the kitchen. We just said ‘Hello’. But I also didn’t feel like talking to her. I have nothing against Lara, she has always been kind and empathetic to me, but still, she made plans behind my back with Thomas and Lina to throw me out of the flat. Basically, she betrayed me.

In my search for the reasons for my sudden severe hair loss, I came across a function of scalp hair that gave me the idea to stimulate hair growth on the scalp: The hair on the head functions to protect the scalp from UV radiation. Could I inhibit or reverse my "genetically determined hair loss," as the doctor called it, by exposing myself to more sunlight so that the body produces natural UV protection on the head, namely hair?

I have always wondered why students in computer science lectures go bald so early. If you look at indigenous people, most of them have a full head of hair, even the elders. Maybe computer scientists are more indoors, not exposed to UV radiation, and thus the body lets the hair on the head fall out (to be more energy-efficient, since hair also requires resources to grow). So, it's not enough to replenish the body's mineral stores (which I do with supplements), but you also have to give the body a signal on how to use the minerals. Just as muscles atrophy when they are not needed, hair also atrophies when it no longer has a function, or so my guess goes.

Despite the sudden severe hair loss, I feel that my bald spot on the back of my head is somehow getting hairier. Maybe the body lets the old hair fall out and new ones grow? Or is the severe hair loss (which, according to my research, might have been caused by severe stress 1-2 months ago) overlapping with the hair growth stimulated by supplements and UV radiation?

Today, I slept again in the community garden. The half-moon was visible in the sky. I realized that I could use it to estimate the west direction. Because the sun sets on the side where the moon shines. Then I looked at the constellation of the Big Dipper. In combination with the half-moon, I knew exactly where the west had to be. With the half-moon and the Big Dipper, I instantly knew all the cardinal directions. These are the things that come to mind when ending the day with a gaze at the stars instead of the smartphone screen.

Today, I am grateful for:

• Advanced learnings in palmistry.
• That I dared to walk barefoot through the crowded city center.
• For the half-moon, which brought me an insight.