Coworker with hair loss. Should I get involved?

[Notcoolanymore]

I have been thinking about this topic for about a week now. Maybe some of you can chime in with your experiences and thoughts.

I have this coworker that recently buzzed his head and I noticed his extensive hair loss. He covered it up pretty well before with a comb over. I did notice his crown loss prior to him buzzing his head, but didn't realize how bad the loss really was. I would say he is diffused NW4, in his early thirties. This coworker and I aren't close friends or anything like that, we just talk here and there.

Do you guys think I should get involved and tell him about available treatments? Should I just leave it alone and not get him involved in all this insanity? Have any of you ever given unsolicited hair loss advice? Maybe it is too late to save my coworker, but what about earlier norwoods? What is the protocol on giving hair loss advice?

I wish somebody would have given me advice years ago. A family member, friend, casual acquaintance, anybody. What do you guys think?

[ryan555]

Are you being serious? No, you should not approach him about his hair loss. He might not care at all, in which case you will be perceived as nosy and rude. If he is self conscious about it, he doesn't want you bringing attention to it. He has the Internet, if he's worried about it there is a plethora of publicly available information for him to find on his own.

[Notcoolanymore]

I am serious. You are probably right about him not caring, but it's hard to tell. If you sport a comb over you definitely are not proud of being bald. Him buzzing his head might be a sign that he has come to grips with it, but maybe not. I have been buzzing my head for close to 10 years and still care about hair loss. I understand what you are saying about available information on the internet, but not everybody knows about forums such as these.

Thanks for the response though. I will definitely take it under advisement.

[Jcm800]

Funny you should ask this, this week I approached a guy at work and asked him he felt about his thinning hair, as mine is too, We laughed about it, he denied it's thinning, and we left it at that. He claimed it wasn't a big deal.

[ryan555]

I am serious. You are probably right about him not caring, but it's hard to tell. If you sport a comb over you definitely are not proud of being bald. Him buzzing his head might be a sign that he has come to grips with it, but maybe not. I have been buzzing my head for close to 10 years and still care about hair loss. I understand what you are saying about available information on the internet, but not everybody knows about forums such as these.

Thanks for the response though. I will definitely take it under advisement.

If he doesn't know how to Google "hair loss treatments," then there is no helping him. Trust me, if he's concerned about it, he will seek out and find information. By the way, how would this be different than going up to an overweight person and giving them fitness advice? I say mind your own business. If nothing else, it's a really bad idea to get personal with coworkers.

[Jcm800]

It all depends Ryan, I know the guy I asked quite well, I weighed it up, and no offence was taken..

[rhysmorgan]

I have been thinking about this topic for about a week now. Maybe some of you can chime in with your experiences and thoughts.

I have this coworker that recently buzzed his head and I noticed his extensive hair loss. He covered it up pretty well before with a comb over. I did notice his crown loss prior to him buzzing his head, but didn't realize how bad the loss really was. I would say he is diffused NW4, in his early thirties. This coworker and I aren't close friends or anything like that, we just talk here and there.

Do you guys think I should get involved and tell him about available treatments? Should I just leave it alone and not get him involved in all this insanity? Have any of you ever given unsolicited hair loss advice? Maybe it is too late to save my coworker, but what about earlier norwoods? What is the protocol on giving hair loss advice?

I wish somebody would have given me advice years ago. A family member, friend, casual acquaintance, anybody. What do you guys think?

He's dealing with it in the best way possible. Your approach is to recommend highly ineffectual treatments to someone who has accepted their situation.

[25 going on 65]

I have been thinking about this topic for about a week now. Maybe some of you can chime in with your experiences and thoughts.

I have this coworker that recently buzzed his head and I noticed his extensive hair loss. He covered it up pretty well before with a comb over. I did notice his crown loss prior to him buzzing his head, but didn't realize how bad the loss really was. I would say he is diffused NW4, in his early thirties. This coworker and I aren't close friends or anything like that, we just talk here and there.

Do you guys think I should get involved and tell him about available treatments? Should I just leave it alone and not get him involved in all this insanity? Have any of you ever given unsolicited hair loss advice? Maybe it is too late to save my coworker, but what about earlier norwoods? What is the protocol on giving hair loss advice?

I wish somebody would have given me advice years ago. A family member, friend, casual acquaintance, anybody. What do you guys think?

Let him be if you are not friends. Most likely outcome....he will not take advantage of advice. + is he the type to use it against you later? "This guy tried to talk to me about baldness pills, he takes them" etc

I started a thread in Rants about a NW5 coworker who has been at my work longer than me but gets treated like crap. I keep expecting him to get fired but he still f*cking works there. He has other problems besides hair (does not take great care of himself in general + kind of awkward socially) but for awhile his situation was making my hair anxiety much worse
I have never even considered giving him advice on his appearance or hair, he is smart enough to use Google as ryan555 has said

[Notcoolanymore]

If he doesn't know how to Google "hair loss treatments," then there is no helping him. Trust me, if he's concerned about it, he will seek out and find information. By the way, how would this be different than going up to an overweight person and giving them fitness advice? I say mind your own business. If nothing else, it's a really bad idea to get personal with coworkers.

I see your point, but it is not always this simple. Keep in mind that I have seen two different doctors that told me there was nothing I could do about my hair loss. I could be wrong, but I will assume that these doctors are intelligent enough to use google, since they did graduate from medical school. Also, I have heard Spencer K. mention a few times that people who are pretty well off(millionaires) are asking him for hair loss advice, so it is not always the case that if you are uninformed, then you must be an idiot.

I didn't treat my hair loss for years. I definitely heard about available treatments, just didn't think they were worth a damn. It wasn't until I got desperate that I actually started doing research and found this forum.

To respond to your question about giving an overweight person fitness advice, I could see it not being offensive in certain circumstances. If a person that was out of shape him/herself, I think it would go over better. The same goes for people who are losing hair. I wouldn't personally be offended if a person suffering from hair loss approached me and discussed treatments. There are ways to try to help people without coming across as a D-bag. You don't have to give help by saying: "Damn you fat f***, you need to hit the gym" or "hey kojak, get a wig".

Lastly, I agree 100% about getting personal with coworkers. Even the most simple innocent comment can get your a$$ fired.

[Jcm800]

It depends. I was one to one with a thinning guy my age. Next day a girl at work pointed at my crown, to let me know I'm thinning. Like I needed reminding, that just fkn hurt and upset me deep down, I just smiled and tried to forget it. But it'll bug me forever now. She doesn't realise just how much that did hurt.

[Notcoolanymore]

Let him be if you are not friends. Most likely outcome....he will not take advantage of advice. + is he the type to use it against you later? "This guy tried to talk to me about baldness pills, he takes them" etc

I started a thread in Rants about a NW5 coworker who has been at my work longer than me but gets treated like crap. I keep expecting him to get fired but he still f*cking works there. He has other problems besides hair (does not take great care of himself in general + kind of awkward socially) but for awhile his situation was making my hair anxiety much worse
I have never even considered giving him advice on his appearance or hair, he is smart enough to use Google as ryan555 has said

Interesting point about possibly using the "help" against me. Didn't think about that. I probably should think about making it known that I take hair loss drugs. I will probably be known as the guy taking propecia that suffers from ED.

I remember that thread you started. Surprised that guy still works there since you said he is a poor performer.

[Notcoolanymore]

It depends. I was one to one with a thinning guy my age. Next day a girl at work pointed at my crown, to let me know I'm thinning. Like I needed reminding, that just fkn hurt and upset me deep down, I just smiled and tried to forget it. But it'll bug me forever now. She doesn't realise just how much that did hurt.

You should have pointed out something on her that wasn't great. Oh wait, you would have gotten fired. I forgot that pointing out someone's hair loss is exempt when it comes to workplace harassment.

[Jcm800]

You should have pointed out something on her that wasn't great. Oh wait, you would have gotten fired. I forgot that pointing out someone's hair loss is exempt when it comes to workplace harassment.

Yeah her husband ironically is short bald and fat, might have to remind her off that fact in future..

Times like that make finasteride more tempting.

[Notcoolanymore]

Yeah her husband ironically is short bald and fat, might have to remind her off that fact in future..

Times like that make finasteride more tempting.

You will make your final decision on fin when the time is right. 15 years ago and I would probably be anti fin like many around here. When I started(6 months ago) I was at the critical point: Treatment options suck, take what is currently available or accept going slick bald.

[Jcm800]

You're right. I notice a lot of anti Fin comments cine from guys still in the comfort zone so to speak. As I have been. But getting more and more comments is alarming and hurting too often these days.