Why balding hurts you. Coming to terms

This makes me curious. Just what is it about balding that causes you distress?

For me, when I first noticed my hair taking a hit, I felt almost impotent, like both my youth and manhood were being taken. I felt weak and broken, unable to see a happy future or focus on anything else.

Then I sort of accepted it was happening, and found a fight in me. It still gets be down, some days worse than others, but those initial few weeks nearly killed me.

How about you guys, what does balding mean to you? How have you learned to deal with it?

I think it meant different things to me at different times. When I started to lose my hair at 19, I was just in a blind panic over it. I thought I would be bald in 6 months. I ran to a dermatologist and got Rogaine (this was before keto or fin) and waited. The first year I was losing my hair was an extremely difficult time. I was the first person I knew who was losing his hair.

Years passed, and, while I did not go bald in 6 months, meds only slowed my loss, which progressed quite a lot. At times I was ok with MPB and when things would plateau for a while I could *almost* put it out of my mind, but when I would have periods of accelerated loss it was just profoundly upsetting and would drive me to the point of distraction.

One interesting thing is that throughout the whole process I always had girlfriends and ultimately married and had kids, so I really do not think it stopped me from getting dates, etc.