I started losing my hair when I was 17 and only had a bit of trouble with it. I was still in high school, so there were complications with self esteem and such, but they only lasted about a year. Once I got out of high school I stopped caring so much. I’m 25 now and it doesn’t bother me in the least anymore. Though I do get jarred every now and then when I am able to view the bald spots. When I look in a mirror I can barely tell. I just see a receding hairline. When I see the top of my head, though, I realize how much hair I am truly missing.
Nah. The only thing I find annoying is that my bitchy sister in law simply MUST comment on it every time I see her. I usually respond by mildly remarking on how much wider her ass is this year. 
I’m 45, and my hair started to thin on me when I was in my mid-20s. I’m not bald yet (the retreat has slowed somewhat), but it’s mighty thin in the “tonsure spot” on the top/back, and I have about a “six-head” now (you start with a four-head, it retreats to a five-head, etc. 
I was a little bothered by it when it first started being obvious, in my mid-30s, and I used Rogaine for about a year. But, it was messy, and it destroyed pillowcases…given that I didn’t really see any positive effect, I stopped using it.
These days, I’m just thankful that I still have some hair (and, it’s not gray yet!)
I would die if I went bald. Fortunately, I have good hair genes (fingers crossed that I’m not the mailman’s kid), but if I were losing it, I wouldn’t really have the option to let it go or shave it all off; my scalp is heavily scarred and a bit misshapen from injuries.
Accordingly, I fret constantly about my hair, so that I can arrest hair loss at the earliest stages if need be.
Huh. What happened (if I may ask)?
My wife has warned me that if I were to shave off my hair, she’d divorce me. 
Ask and ye shall receive.
When I was a kid I was playing around in an attic crawlspace when the floorboard underneath me broke and I fell onto the garage floor headfirst (yeah yeah, explains a lot about me). So that was how I acquired a rather large depression in my skull. The scarring came from the surgery to elevate the bone fragments away from my brain.
My hair is thick enough that you can’t tell anything was ever wrong, and I’ve only recently become a little more comfortable with cutting it short enough to let the scarring show - within reason. Regardless, if I go bald, it’s hair transplant time unless I want to scare kids everywhere I go.
Hmmm…thanks for assuaging my curiosity. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Wow. That sounds like a painful event with an even more painful recovery. I can’t imagine being your parents coming out to tell you go quit making so much noise in the garage and finding what I imagine was a dazed and bloody kid.
To each his own, but imagine the conversation starters if you do shave your head. You could start with the attic story and embellish whichever direction you like to lead the conversation. Maybe a lion or rabid badger was involved? Both would be good. “Fell out of the attic onto a lion-badger fight. Had to kill em both with my bare hands.” Point to a small scar on your hand as proof.
As a kid, I can’t recall having any adult male relatives who weren’t bald, so I pretty much knew what was coming. Fortunately, I also don’t recall any of them being upset about it; my template was to embrace it and be happy.
In my case, it happened quickly. I think I started noticing the receding hairline at about 18. and by 25 it was about even with the top of my ears in the back. I never had a “bald spot,” the hair just kept moving further and further back. I never made any attempt to hide it; I started combing it straight back as soon as it started receding.
If anybody didn’t like it, that was their problem. Of course, I can’t say for sure whether I missed out on any female companionship due to my baldness. It’s possible, but nobody ever came out and said as much. I did OK, though, maybe because I didn’t make an issue of it, so it never affected my confidence.
One cringe-worthy aspect, when I look at old pictures, is that I kept it way too long in the back into my late 20’s. Then again, it was the eighties, so what are you gonna do… By the time I hit 30 I discovered electric clippers, and to this day I buzz myself about twice a month. My wife says she can’t even imagine me with hair, and she enjoys rubbing my dome. No complaints here!
Appreciate the kind words. For what it’s worth, I can’t even say it was particularly traumatic because I actually don’t have any memory of it - I remember falling but then nothing until I woke up in the hospital quite a bit later. In fact, the only distinctly painful thing I remember is the urinary catheter. My god, that hurt.
When someone spots my scar and asks about it, I usually joke that it’s from a knife fight before revealing that I’m not actually a badass.
Well, unless they look particularly awed, then I let it percolate for a few more days.
I read a month or two ago that they found out what causes baldness and will probably have a cure for it within 10 years.
When I was 19, I noticed my hair got thinner. I’m nearly 28 now and over the past year, it has thinned out quite a bit. I’m at a stage where I can’t cut it too short or let it grow too long, because scalp starts to show. When I keep it in between those two, I look normal.
Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I wish it would all go so I wouldn’t have to spend any money getting the rest trimmed.
If I had to choose what kind of baldness I got, I would have taken the receding hairline over the bald spot on top any day. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a choice, and I’ll end up with monk hair like my grandfather.
Time to get out the clippers.
FordTaurusSHO94, can you give us a reference to that story?
I started to notice thinning in my mid-20s. One day I decided to just buzz it down to 1/2" with the clippers and see how I liked it. It works for me and in my opinion, the shorter the better. Right now I use a 1/16" guide and give it a going over about once a week to keep everything even.
It’s very easy to maintain, my head is dry seconds out of the shower. I can wash my whole head in a sink and be dry right away with just a hand towel, very convenient.
Anyhow it looks good on me, I guess I don’t have any unusual bumps in my head that need a lot of hair to cover up.
It took me a try or two to learn how to shave the back of my neck evenly with my razor (necessary so that the overall 'do looks neat).
At some point I’m sure I’ll just start shaving my scalp with a blade but for now the ultra-short clipper works perfectly. I haven’t gone to a barber in many years.
Other than the first time (and I was much younger then) no emotional issues. I’ve never felt the urge to hide my thinning hair, I just figured when I got to that point I’d rather start looking like Ed Harris than Gallagher.
Growing up, I always had fairly thick hair. When I hit my mid to late 30s it started thinning on top. It hit me when I got sunburned on the top of my head. I never felt the need to try to hide it and began cutting my hair even shorter until one day just to see I shaved it. I’ve pretty much have kept it shaved for almost 10 years.
Obviously, it is for some, hence all the ads for baldness cures. I’m lucky - I won’t go bald, given my genes. But even if I do, I’ve shaved my head for years, so it won’t bug me.
Joe
I was pretty much bald by 25 and that may have been better in the sense of it not being an age issue. I always had very short hair so a combover was not in the cards even if I had been inclined. And I was not inclined after seeing my dad go that route all my life.
I’m 40 now and can’t even remember what it’s like to have hair. On my head that is. I got lots of new hair in other places to balance it out.
About five years ago, I was throwing out old clothes and found a sport coat that I had not worn in a while. I knew it was REALLY old because I found a comb in the pocket.
I started getting gray around 25, and I’m still salt and pepper at 49. Balding started around 40, and is well advanced now. Neither bothered me, except for mock indignation at the jokes.
What DID bother me was developing hairy earlobes (“grampa hairs”). That has always squicked me out to see them on others, and now I have them myself. :rolleyes:
Woooooossssh!!!