The struggles of a balding longhair and the double-standards between men and women

[McCloud90]

It's an interesting point, and one I have considered before. For some reason baldness is not considered 'off limits' when it comes to political correctness - for example, it is deemed perfectly acceptable and amusing to refer to a bald man as a 'slap head', but to refer to somebody with weight issues in a similar way, meets with the strongest censure. Why is this? Not to disparage weight problems, but they are, in the majority of cases, caused by choices. Baldness isn't. I have often thought, that if baldness could be reversed by something as simple as eating less and taking more exercise, there would be zero bald men.

I even once experienced this in my own life, an incident I look back on as odd. There was a chap who lived near me, a young lad, who wore a very obvious wig. I would wince inwardly in solidarity every time I saw him. When I mentioned this to a female friend, she made a joke about it, then said 'Oh, I shouldn't laugh, because he might have alopecia or something, rather than just being bald'. Well, what's the difference? Says I. One is a medical condition, and one isn't, she says. Again I ask, what's the difference? Why is it cruel to mock him if he has alopecia, but not if he has......a different kind of alopecia, that happens to be more common so you don't deem it 'medical'? They both have the same end result - loss of hair.

What Ahab says is correct - in the human species, it is the female who are the preeners. Their looks are more important than ours, and I think it is our responsibility as men, to realise how tough it must be to be a lady in this day and age, of photoshopped celebrity selfies and so on.

It is striking how supportive ladies are of each other when they have this type of issue, and I think that we men should take notes from them. We should support each other, rather than 'joshing' and making fun.

So my friend, if you want to wear a wig, I say more power to you. I hope you wear the magnificent mane you deserve. I don't know about it personally, but I expect there are wigs that aren't obvious even if they're played with, and you could just be honest with a lady as you would be with your brother, and make a joke of it - ask her straight out, "Hey, is my wig on straight?" - she'll probably laugh about it, and if she's shallow and does care, then you wouldn't want to get with her anyway, I'm guessing.

Yes you're right, it does make no sense that some types of baldness are off-limits whilst MPB is still perfectly fine to mock, and it's very true that many of us would do anything to grow our hair back properly, changing my diet wouldn't even seem like a sacrifice by comparison. People just don't think.

I get what Ahab is saying, in any sexually dimorphic species you have one side that focuses more on preening and being desireable, but my follow up point would be:

Why, in an age where society is being progressive about almost everything else, is it acceptable to justify discrimination against balding men based on primitive instincts? Racism is a primitive instinct, but nobody credible would say "oh white people just don't like black people because 10,000 years ago you had to be wary of people who didn't belong to your immediate group, so that's fine". We would, rightly so, call those people backwards morons and ostracise them.

It's very frustating when you live in a time where you are constantly told that you are the priveleged class and that you need to be extra sensitive to everyone else or you're a terrible person, and yet everyone else says it's fine to openly mock you for the one thing that hurts you the most, and that you really can't control. It makes you think "**** the lot of you, how dare you ask my support for your cause whilst you tread all over mine". I know that's not the attitude of an enlightened man, but the experience of balding in today's world makes you bitter.

As for solidarity, it's not men I'm worried about. Like I say I can deal with banter, it's what many guys do and how we cope with things. It's women that seem to really hate the idea of men wearing wigs, even the kinder responses I've seen in forums tend to be "oh bless, you wear a wig if you want, but yeah it'd be too weird for me to date a guy like that..". Most men probably wouldn't notice due to a lack of experience with artificial hair/long hair, it's women who will look at a part and know that it's too perfect and that there's not enough scalp on display.

Anyway thanks for your words of encouragement dude, it's a rare thing on this subject and means a lot. I've made enquiries with a good wig-maker in London that does bespoke handmade wigs and I have asked to see examples of long-haired ones on men. Who knows, maybe they will look more convincing than I anticipate - I hope so for £3,000-£5,000!

[clee984]

It's an interesting point, and one I have considered before. For some reason baldness is not considered 'off limits' when it comes to political correctness - for example, it is deemed perfectly acceptable and amusing to refer to a bald man as a 'slap head', but to refer to somebody with weight issues in a similar way, meets with the strongest censure. Why is this? Not to disparage weight problems, but they are, in the majority of cases, caused by choices. Baldness isn't. I have often thought, that if baldness could be reversed by something as simple as eating less and taking more exercise, there would be zero bald men.

I even once experienced this in my own life, an incident I look back on as odd. There was a chap who lived near me, a young lad, who wore a very obvious wig. I would wince inwardly in solidarity every time I saw him. When I mentioned this to a female friend, she made a joke about it, then said 'Oh, I shouldn't laugh, because he might have alopecia or something, rather than just being bald'. Well, what's the difference? Says I. One is a medical condition, and one isn't, she says. Again I ask, what's the difference? Why is it cruel to mock him if he has alopecia, but not if he has......a different kind of alopecia, that happens to be more common so you don't deem it 'medical'? They both have the same end result - loss of hair.

What Ahab says is correct - in the human species, it is the female who are the preeners. Their looks are more important than ours, and I think it is our responsibility as men, to realise how tough it must be to be a lady in this day and age, of photoshopped celebrity selfies and so on.

It is striking how supportive ladies are of each other when they have this type of issue, and I think that we men should take notes from them. We should support each other, rather than 'joshing' and making fun.

So my friend, if you want to wear a wig, I say more power to you. I hope you wear the magnificent mane you deserve. I don't know about it personally, but I expect there are wigs that aren't obvious even if they're played with, and you could just be honest with a lady as you would be with your brother, and make a joke of it - ask her straight out, "Hey, is my wig on straight?" - she'll probably laugh about it, and if she's shallow and does care, then you wouldn't want to get with her anyway, I'm guessing.

[Ahab]

I suspect that even when it comes to wigs, shorter is better as far as maintenance is concerned. Meanwhile, as for the cultural acceptance of women as opposed to men when it comes to hair loss: men who are vain are at a disadvantage in a fight, as fighting can leave one disfigured. Hence it is, at least at some subconscious level, that a man who exhibits signs of vanity is more likely to back down from a fight. A wise woman would not want a man who is prone to letting other men push him around. Such a man would be an inept protector of her and her children.

Furthermore, other men would also look down upon vanity in other men, because such vain men would not be the best allies should their tribe be under attack. Vain men make poor soldiers; hence the prejudice against signs of vanity in men. This can be offset by otherwise being known as a powerful fighter who is not afraid of disfigurement.

Warriors in "primitive" tribes actually wear makeup (e.g., warpaint) and various forms of bodily adornment--including carefully arranged hair-- yet no one would doubt their ferocity in a fight.

If you want to be treated with respect, be redoubtable first. Then you can do whatever the F you want, including wearing of a wig.

[McCloud90]

I am now on the lowest of the low amongst men, a sad balding man clinging on to long hair, I never thought I would end up here at the age of 27. Yes I've been on the big 3 (Propecia, Minoxidil, Nizoral) plus biotin supplements for a year now, no improvement even if it has slowed the shedding.

I don't want short hair, to me that's just as bad as taking a razor to my scalp. I'm so attached to my long hair and I've put huge effort into maintaining it over the years, it's a lifestyle at this point and one of the things that makes me happy for some stupid reason. I'm so keen on maintaining the long hair look that I am seriously considering getting one of the high quality human hair wigs, but from my reading it seems that men who wear wigs are only one rung up the ladder from balding men clinging on to long hair. I don't understand why?

All over Youtube there are videos of balding women (with far less hair then me) demonstrating how they use wigs, toppers, extensions to cover their scalp, why is it couragous when they do it but 'sad' if I as a man do the same thing? I read the comments from (mostly women) and it's always "you're so brave" "you look beautiful hun" "oh wow you'd never know it wasn't your bio-hair!". Bring up the subject of whether women in their 20's/30's would date a man with a wig anywhere on the internet and strap in for some vicious comments about what 'real men' do.

I'm the last person to whine about equality in general, I get it, double standards exist for better or for worse. This one really bothers me though, because I feel like I am locked out of a perfectly viable option that would allow me to move on with my life purely because I have a dick and, if I want to use it again, I have to pander to what appears to be a very wide-spread expectation amongst women, embrace baldness 'like a man'.

The problem is compounded by the fact that women who are attracted to longhairs WILL run their hands through your hair at first opportunity, guaranteed. They will do it long before you even get to sex, and when you are in the bedroom quite often end up grabbing fistfuls and tug at it. As such there is no way of hiding a wig, I would have to be fully open about it to friends, family, and lovers. I can deal with that, I can handle good natured banter from my brother and friends, hell I'd probably encourage it. What I don't want to deal with is being openly and viciously ridiculed because for some reason bald men are one of the few targets that are still 'fair game' for society to mock - probably because nobody wants to shag us so we don't get protected by the crowd.

I've got to do something either way, I'm so obsessed right now that it's stopping me from enjoying life. Yes I know that life will go on if I just cut it, but then I'm still balding with shit quality short hair, and I've given in to something I don't want to do just because of how I will be judged, which seems even sadder to me.

I don't have any questions, I'm just curious to see what you fellas think and wanted to vent.