Is it okay to touch my hair? I'm not sure

My hair in rollers

I've already outlined how my hair is one of my biggest vanities. Despite my battle with psoriasis, I still take pride in swinging the locks from side to side as I strut, er, walk around the office. Plus I love the color. And apparently other people do too because I get complimented on it from strangers quite a bit. I wish this were my natural color, but c'est la vie.

What I don't normally get is people who randomly put their hands in my hair. I was shopping at Ulta the other weekend with Chef and a sales clerk came up to me and said "I love your hair color. Whoever did this is amazing. I'm a colorist myself. Where did you get this done?" While all of that was coming out of her mouth, her hands were going through my hair. It seemed like the sort of thing only done by stylists who are actually consulting on your hair (I was just walking through the store shopping for nail polish) or toddlers whom you've picked up. The coincidental thing about it was that she had her hair tied back and wrapped for religious reasons.

My hair after rollers

The last time someone randomly combed through my hair with their hands, I was in high school gym class (not being very active, but rather sitting on the bleachers) and they found a bald spot on the back underside of my head. This turned out to be alopecia areata and the treatment was about 30 small injections of steroids into the bald spot which hurt like hell. The dermatologist said one of the causes was stress; I was 16. From then on whenever I got a little nervous about something, my mom would hug me and say "Don't stress out. I can't afford for you to go bald again." Which undoubtedly made me stress out.

When was the last time you had a stranger run their hands through your hair?