I had really thick dark unmanageable hair. Hair product doesn’t work very well with it, and there were limits on how it could be cut, so it always looked dorky. I started losing my hair in my late 20s, though it didn’t really start to show until my early 30s. Now it’s clear; I look just like my Granddad on my Mum’s side.
It sucks. I don’t look good shaved, and anyway that’s just high maintenance that I can’t be bothered with. I’m not vain enough to wear a hairpiece. I don’t even dye it. I wear a cap, but that’s also to protect my newly exposed skin from the sun.
So I just let it do what it’s doing and reluctantly accept it.
Annoyingly, my brother’s got a full head of hair, and takes after my Dad’s side of the family.
Emotionally difficult? Even if you start balding in your 20’s, by then you’ve experienced spontaneous erections in your early teens, acne soon after, getting shot down by women and employers, browbeat by teachers, yelled at by coaches and sergeants, etc. etc.
Funny, because I assume that these guys aren’t trying to hide anything but instead choose to bypass the Friar Tuck look. As a woman, I’d much rather see a completely shaved head than the bald on top and ring of hair around the bottom. The latter ages a man far beyond being shaved entirely, IMO.
As soon as I started to understand hereditary aspects of male pattern baldness, I realized I was going to go bald. I was about 12, or 13. Since all the men in my family were bald, it just seemed a normal thing. I was expecting to be a chrome dome by about 23, instead I had significant hair into my early 30s. It never bothered me. Part of this may be because I had/have highly unmanageable hair, that would never stay in any kind of grooming. Without fail, the only way to avoid the Albert Einstein look was either a cruise cut, or enough hair cream to qualify as an oil spill hazard.
This doesn’t mean that no one will suffer emotionally from going bald. Just look at how much money Rogaine (and related companies or treatments) can charge. Each person’s individual reaction is their reaction, and no less valid no matter how unusual it might be. There’s no need to validate your own feelings by comparing them to the rest of the herd.
There’s a distinction to be made between shaved and buzzed though. Shaved is of course shaving with a razor to eliminate all hair. Depending on how dark a guy’s hair is, it can sort of hide where his hairline would be if he grew it out. Buzzed is just using the lowest setting on the clippers. There’s still millimeters of hair there, and it’s apparent where the bald spots/ hairline are – they just don’t stand out as much.
Not difficult emotionally that I can recall. I mean on one hand I would like hair but life is easier without it! I used to have long hair and it was a pain. I had a ponytail into my thirties and started noticing I was thinning–so off came the ponytail (in my opinion the only thing as bad as a combover is a ponytail on a bald man!).
So I just cut it shorter then about 5 years ago I started buzzing it short at my wife’s urging. LOVE IT! I mean it is so much easier to deal with. Drying your head takes about 3 seconds. I don’t shave as that is you know actual work, but I do buzz it short. Then once or twice a week I give it a quick buzz over right before I jump into the shower.
As for women it has never been an issue. My wife loves my bald head and as she is a hot babe I am not complaining! My personality is fairly easy going and good natured so my team at work often teases me about it and that is fine as it is all good natured and at the end of the day–I am still the boss
My hairline is retreating like Napoleon from Russia although I’ve got more hair than I expected that I would have at this point in time. Much like OtakuLoki, by the time I began to understand genetics and could see the watermelon roadside stand lookalike that all of my mother’s brothers and father looked like, I knew I had no hope.
It doesn’t bother me in the least. Hair, or the lack of it, is the least of my problems. I’ve always kept my hair cut very short anyway. If my hair is long enough that I need to comb it then it’s time for another buzz cut.
I had a nice full head of hair when I joined the Air Force when I was 18. Then I went to basic training and they buzzed it all off. And it never quite grew back right. I blame the Air Force.
Seriously, I started balding at about 19, and by the time I was in my md-20’s I was pretty far along. I was and am fine with that. I just keep it buzzed down short. Makes for a lot easier maintenance, that’s for sure. And it didn’t stop me from landing a damned fine woman to marry.
I’ve always worn my hair short or shaved, so thinning hair was a complete non-issue to me. I did care about the gray in my beard for about 30 seconds, then I punched myself in the nuts as a little reminder that vanity is not a desirable trait.
Never bothered me. My hair is fairly thin in my wedding pictures at 27. A decade later, I just had a fringe on the sides ((augmented by a full beard). Then the beard started turning white, while the fringe stayed black for the longest time, but now it is white too. Only my eyebrows have resisted turning white.
I dont understand combovers. They look utterly stupid. Have the people doing combovers never noticed how dumb they look on others? Do they think they will escape that demented look?
Not a huge deal. I had Frampton hair in high school but it started going about the end. I really wanted to have a cool wedge/flat top during my punk rock days but managed the fashion by keeping my hair between 0 and about 3 mm long. It’s still about that long decades later but I’ve been bald for a long time.
I was absolutely fucking mortified when, after looking at a snapshot of me playing soccer, an examination of my crown showed I was balding. I was 30. Surely I’d anticipated it? Never crossed my mind. I got over it in a few days, started cutting it shorter and shorter until I reached buzz cut level and have continued ever since.
Now it doesn’t bother me, if someone offered me my hair back, I’d take it because it’d be nice to have the option, but I don’t mind. I’m used to seeing me with no hair now
Even though I had a full head of hair I started cutting it really short in my late thirties-forties and then shaving it completely smooth just because it felt good (probably not the best look for me). I let it grow out from time to time and this last time I grew it out I noticed it had thinned out some. Just age/genetics catching up with me. But it does bum me out knowing the option of letting it grow really long again is slipping away. Unless I want to be that bald guy with the long scraggly ponytail.
To Hari Seldon, as I said in my post I kinda understand how the combover happens. Guys just start combing what is there so it looks good. Some guys continue way too far past that and into the fooling yourself stage.
Oh, I forgot the semi-joke I tell when people have asked me if going bald bothered me. I would reply with “No, I’m too busy wishing I was six inches taller.” In truth, I like me and being short (5’6") and bald are just a part of that. Do I wish it might be otherwise? Yeah, kinda, because I know much of the world judges people by their appearance. Does it really bother me? No, 'cuz I think most of those types of people should just go blank themselves.
In itself, and aesthetically, it doesn’t bother me.
But it was kinda tough for another reason (and sorry for dragging this thread down): it was the first gentle reminder of my own mortality.
I have a young-looking face, and people took me as “early-20s” for many years, which basically made me feel like I had unlimited time.
Now, mostly because of my hairline, I look my age…shit just got real
