Reconsidering my position on reproducing with the balding gene

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Originally Posted by BigThinker

It's definitely noticeable. I've got a handful of comments . It's just early enough that it frames my face and when I have a beard it's detracted. Hell, the girl I'm currently seeing on and off likes my mature look and I'm 25.

Trust me, I know I've got it good relative to some. But, even on treatment, my hair is below baseline. The uncertainly is just as troubling. I'm still gonna get married and pump mini-mes. I've spent a lot of time stressing hair loss, but it just ain't worth it anymore. Honestly, reading this thread has made me feel relatively good about my mental state regardless hair loss.

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Re: your last line.

That's how I feel. Before reading this forum, I used to think I was being particularly vain, being so bothered by my hair. I thought it was just me.

Now I realise, how upbeat I actually have been.

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Originally Posted by 4x4

25/65,

The problem with implementing any kind of eugenics in this matter is that all evidence points to AGA being a polygenic trait. Furthermore the gene set involved is still unknown. There is therefore no one "bald gene" to pass down to offspring. Recombinant factors are at play which makes familial history at best a random guess.

Consider my own situation: My father is 73, and is barely at NW2, and doesn't even have any gray. My uncles are in their 60's and are the same way. My mother's side didn't have it either. Yet here I am creeping into NW4 territory. My point is you couldn't make a "safe" determination to have children simply by the absence of the condition. AGA's properties are ubiquitous enough to manifest under even the most unlikely of ancestors.

<<The biggest parenting mistake most people make is reproducing when their genes are not good enough. Do not be selfish>>

And herein lies our dilemma: Under most scenarios, we don't KNOW what that is. Some of the brightest people on the planet come from average parents. The most attractive people typically come from "ho-hum" lookers. Beauty does not always beget beauty. Ugly does not always beget ugly.

Look, I know you're venting, but stop trying to pretend you're going to do mankind a favor by withholding your crap genetics. Because the truth of the matter is you're not smart enough to make a judgement of what is crap and what isn't. None of us are.

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Gave this some thought. It probably is the best argument anyone can make against my OP
However the evidence is still right in front of my face....couples w/ little to no premature balding in their families seem much less likely to have kids w/ premature balding. Whereas when even 1 parent has 1 parent (ie the child has 1 grandparent) w/ premature balding, the chances of the kid balding before 30 are HUGE

Balding is aesthetic death for almost everyone. I can not see how it is moral to have children, if you have a genetic makeup that almost guarantees disfigurement DURING young adulthood
And yes it is disfiguring

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Originally Posted by 25 going on 65

Gave this some thought. It probably is the best argument anyone can make against my OP
However the evidence is still right in front of my face....couples w/ little to no premature balding in their families seem much less likely to have kids w/ premature balding. Whereas when even 1 parent has 1 parent (ie the child has 1 grandparent) w/ premature balding, the chances of the kid balding before 30 are HUGE

Balding is aesthetic death for almost everyone. I can not see how it is moral to have children, if you have a genetic makeup that almost guarantees disfigurement DURING young adulthood
And yes it is disfiguring

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Balding doesn't bother every man, but if it does, there are far more options available today than there were when I was young. I remember when I was 17, my friend had a neighbor in his late twenties who was noticeably thinning. There was nothing available at that time but snake oil. I still remember my friend telling me his neighbor used a product available at that time called "Iodets". The name implies the user wasn't nice enough to their hair when they were younger, so the product is one that pays your scalp back with some kind of kindness, or something. :) Hair gimmicks go back many years.

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This will be a quite different slant from the rest of the thread but I have reconsidered my position on reproducing with the balding gene too.

My reasons for NOT reproducing with the balding gene (or whatever gene) were very deep, I have to say. Through my young adulthood, coincidentially when I was going about with an NW7 horseshoe all throughout that period in my life, I was getting accused of being a paedophile. Indeed, that was always accompanied with threats or attempts of violence.... therefore I was ending up traumatised again and again and again.

I don't know for sure that this stuff happened because I had a horseshoe, and glasses. There are stereotypes around what combination of traits makes a "paedophile", and things like balding and glasses always seem high on the list. I have Asperger's too and struggled for a long time against coming across as odd, or socially awkward, and would think it's more relevant that I was an introvert on the autistic spectrum so seemed "different".

Not surprisingly I avoided children altogether, and certainly didn't ever want to have any of my own, because of what I went through.

I know that besides inevitable personality stereotypes, balding is a thing that still contributes to the paedo stereotype, given my experiences before and after shaving the horseshoe off. A couple of examples are as follows:

I go to a local Starbucks every week, where there are many parents with kids, and they often come and sit at my table and leave the kids alone with me while they order.

I was on the bus to work on Monday and a mother and daughter sat with me (indeed it's always young attractive women who sit beside me on buses, which they never did before). The girl in her buggy was put straight in front of me, was initiating (and allowed to continue) interaction with me, and took to me so much that she expressed wishes that I was her father, with no dissent or revocation from her mother for saying this.

There are many other such cases, but I still don't seek to be near kids, yet they are always being brought near me and to me. When they are, I notice people looking upon this, not to give me dirty looks as if I'm a paedo, but smiling because they think it's a cute and pleasant scene.

This stuff doesn't suggest I come across as a paedo any more, indeed perhaps someone who looks suitable to be near kids and have kids, and only happened since I shaved off what had been a grown horseshoe. It has made me reconsider whether I want to reproduce or not as there are loud and clear signals society is not revoking me if kids are near me.

I just find it highly encouraging and never had thought things like just shacing your head would be THAT transformative.

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Originally Posted by 25 going on 65

Gave this some thought. It probably is the best argument anyone can make against my OP
However the evidence is still right in front of my face....couples w/ little to no premature balding in their families seem much less likely to have kids w/ premature balding. Whereas when even 1 parent has 1 parent (ie the child has 1 grandparent) w/ premature balding, the chances of the kid balding before 30 are HUGE

Balding is aesthetic death for almost everyone. I can not see how it is moral to have children, if you have a genetic makeup that almost guarantees disfigurement DURING young adulthood
And yes it is disfiguring

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Its not necessarily disfiguring. For example Zidane looks great bald.

Keeno,

Sorry if your post went over my head, but if I understand you correctly you are saying that since shaving your head, people have changed the way they treated you. The horseshoe look is pretty bad, especially if you let the sides grow out, but I never really made the connection with NW6/NW7 and pedophilia. Personally I have no doubt that you look much better shaving/close buzzing your head.

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Originally Posted by Notcoolanymore

Keeno,

Sorry if your post went over my head, but if I understand you correctly you are saying that since shaving your head, people have changed the way they treated you.

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Yes, without a doubt. I never seriously thought there would be such a change, but I did see immediate results. Being out in public was different immediately and continued to be. The same is true for people I personally knew who had virtually shunned me before, such as one or two people at work, I can say that they changed.

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The horseshoe look is pretty bad, especially if you let the sides grow out, but I never really made the connection with NW6/NW7 and pedophilia.

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I never in my right mind made this connection either. But there are a lot of stupid arseholes out there and only people who aren't in their right mind make this connection. People will likely say you should just ignore such people, but if you're getting accused of being a paedophile, then Houston you have a problem. Dealing with the horseshoe is one of the things I did to try to address that problem. Just Google for what people say the paedophile stereotypes are and "bald" or "balding" comes up frequently.

I had to figure out all for myself, what to do about my hair, as people don't tend to tell you exactly how bad the horseshoe look is.

Well I'm glad you decided to shave your head, since it appears to have changed your life. The shit that you had to go through is just plain effed up. It's good you didn't let it defeat you.

I wouldnt listen to them Keeno...you get tossers out there you said people put their kids next to you so not EVERYONE thinks this...shit happens im afraid...i got hate when i had hair with no sign of hairloss so it dont matter to me regardless.

Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water!!! You can't be serious?? If one did not reproduce because they have a different gene expression than the majority (balding or low IQ or heart defect for example) no one, I mean no one would ever reproduce!!