I once heard a balding man respond to a comment about his hair by saying “grass doesn’t grow on a busy street.” Good comeback, I thought.
My son has a hairline that’s receding at the temples at 26, and is extremely sensitive about it. So I never, ever say a word. He did use Rogaine for a while, but it was such a pain to apply it every day that he gave it up.
Being “follicularly challenged” is also a major, major problem for a lot of trans women – hormones and anti-androgens generally stop further hair loss, but don’t reverse what’s already happened – but that’s another subject.
It probably does, Pizzagirl! I seriously can’t remember my male officemates’ hair, but I can tell what kind of shoes my female officemates wore today and last week.
If Mr. B was bold, it would save him a bunch of money on shampoo and haircuts. Since he wears hats when he is the sun anyway, that’s a cost not included in baldness NPV calculation.
I wish men would realize that women - at least a lot of - don’t care as much as they do about it. If the guy has other things going on, I could care less really and would still find him attractive.
Well, I do not really care that I have obvious male pattern baldness (it just needs a little extra sunscreen when I need to put on sunscreen). But it seems that many people do have a worse self-image because of it, according to http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/hair-loss-effects.shtml .
H is bald or balding. Not sure because he now has it all cut off since he starting
losing his hair. Since he has done that, a lot of people call him “sir.”
“I’ll get that sir” or “Thank you sir.” Haha
And dos^, haha.I think what you said applies to many things about the sexes.
I too, like the bald look. H is pretty much bald. It was rapidly disappearing when I started dating him and he keeps what little he has super short. The irony is that he was voted “best hair” back in high school but started losing it early in his twenties so was one of the “younger guys” losing hair. My sons keep a close eye on the mirror, but so far they don’t seem to be impacted hair-wise. My oldest son’s best buddy is 27 and also bald now and started losing it, like my H, in the early twenties. I’d rather have a bald husband than one of those guys with the thin hair on top and the pony tail…yuck.
I am going bald. I don’t care if people mention this. I cut the rest of my hair short. A number 2.
I also don’t care if people mention my weight either. I was getting pretty fat several years ago. A guy I like, who I hadn’t seen in a year, came up to me while we were watching a soccer game and said, “You are looking a little pregnant”.
I appreciated that comment. I was putting weight on gradually and I was ignoring it.
I proceeded to lose 25 pounds. Lost a lot of that baby weight.
I have no problem with hearing the truth in most cases. What I did not want to hear was when a close one came down with a major health issue, and someone told me a story about how her brother died from something similar.
That…I did not need to know.
Everything is good.
I am going to be 60 soon. I have this feeling going bald is going to be the least of my problems.
DH really started losing his hair in his 30’s. He got to the point that he basically buzzed it all off. Then a couple of years ago he had to start taking medication for something and one of the side effects is it makes your hair grow! While it’s not as much as hair as when he was young it’s a lot more than he had in his 40’s. I don’t think anyone ever said anything about him going bald or regaining hair.
H is bald and I am sure he got it from his mothers side. My father was bald at 21 so that is all I knew. I actually never noticed that bald thing in men. My father was Polish and every Polish guy I know was bald. My D’s probably carry the gene. I have no idea if anyone said anything to H, as he never mentioned it. We have fun buying new hats. This week we ordered another outback hat that snaps on either side, it looks really good on him. Baldness is a non issue.
@dstark, It takes a strong character to respond to the weight comment and turn things around. Obviously the guy said it being at the right place and the right time for you to respond. It could have gone wrong. I am 60 and it is also a nonissue.
We have two friends (male) with the really, really thick totally silver white hair. I actually think my H with his bald head looks younger than them. The only time that isn’t true is when he doesn’t shave his beard in the winter. He can still grow a full beard in about 3 days so as a female, I think it’s odd that it falls off the head, but not on the face…but his beard is silver and full and he keeps it very trim/short during the winter.
I think what bothers some guys is just suddenly looking older, and nobody really enjoys that. It takes some getting used to, and I think it bothers guys less when it happens later in life. Think of it like wrinkles and grey hair for women. Those things don’t bother guys as much, but women? You expect women to have some wrinkles and grey hair as they age, and men can tell you they don’t care, but that doesn’t stop women from continuing to dye their hair, get botox, facials, etc. Now imagine if you started getting a lot of wrinkles or grey hair in your late teens/early 20’s.
I have a full head of hair, but went through a long bout of alopecia when I was in law school (thought to be caused by stress) where I eventually lost my facial hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and had several bald patches. People would stare and ask what happened. Can’t really blame them, but it wasn’t fun. I never thought about what an important function eyelashes played until I started getting stuff in my eyes all the time. If you work out, even eyebrows help keep the sweat from dripping into your eyes. The only good thing about it was not having to shave for a while.
Interesting comments. DH is not as sensitive about it as it sounds here at all, we just actually find it very weird and strange that people even make a comment. If he posts a photo of us from 30 years ago, people will comment that I haven’t changed a bit but DH lost all his hair - hahahaha! He has also gained 30 pounds too (he was a stick in college) but no one mentions that.
I guess people think they are way funnier on Facebook than they really are
I asked H if anyone ever commented. He said once (in 40 years) a person he worked with (who he thinks was a hyper talkative type) made a rude comment about him. He said he did not take it badly because of the source, and did not respond . We don’t have a facebook for occupational reasons, we do have instagram. Perhaps that form of social media may lend itself to comments.
Every time my H and I would visit his parents, his dad would say, “Getting a little thin there on top, son.” We would have a bet going on how soon the comment would come - usually within the first 5 minutes. I will never, ever say such a thing to my son.
I just googled the cause of hereditary baldness because I had thought it was passed down from the mother’s father. It does seem to be related to the X chromosome, so gramps might be a clue but there are other factors so dad might be responsible. Kind of a non answer. Another factor is higher male hormones in bald men, so maybe that is why women don’t seem to mind baldness!
