Premature Baldness: Options

[Fixed by 35]

Anyone who wet shaves looks like a criminal, a Nazi or a chemo patient. Some men grow those silly little goatie things to avoid the association, although that just makes them look like a twat.

The only real option is to go to ground and wait for the cure.

[Weedwacker]

Yes, I pretty much agree. Waiting for a cure is the best option for most of us. Surgery, hairpiece or au naturale are the current options but they don't suit many of us. I see a lot of guys now who have perfect heads of hair who elect to shave their heads. I look at these guys and think, "Are you nuts?" People don't realize what hair actually does. The point of hair on the head is to protect your head from the elements as well as frame your face. When I shave my head I no longer recognize myself. My facial features disappear. Guys with full heads of hair who shave their heads to look macho are imbeciles. Your hair is as much a part of your body as your arms or nose. Very few guys can shave the head and get away with it; furthermore, most of these guys have darker skin. In my opinion, bladness was probably caused by a DNA mutation which occured hundreds of thousands of years ago. Perhaps it was the result of a virus. Whatever happened, it was a biological error. We are supposed to have hair on our heads for the previously mentioned reasons. It is amazing to me that, as a society, we put a person on the moon in 1969. Now, the moon is 250,000 miles away using rocket propulsion; not very easy. Why the hell can't they grow hair?!

[Fixed by 35]

Going to the moon has been overhyped. Once Britain had designed the jet engine, it was only a matter of time before a man landed on the moon. The science behind it is positively easy compared to fixing this defect in the human body.

Who here is seriously contemplating spending the next 50 years plus with this shit? I've decided that if I don't have a full head of hair by the age of 35, I'm throwing in the towel on this crappy life. I'm going to stop working and live on welfare, take up smoking and excessive drinking and hope to be dead by 36.

[gmonasco]

I've decided that if I don't have a full head of hair by the age of 35, I'm throwing in the towel on this crappy life.

What's your option going to be when you get a full head of hair back and realize your life is still crappy?

[Fixed by 35]

I have the power to change everything, except hair loss! Once I fix baldness, I'll have the confidence and the ability to make everything else better. Life was good before baldness, and it will be good after baldness too.

[Weedwacker]

Well, Britain gets credit for the design of the jet engion via Whittle, but it was the German Hans Ohain who invented the first turbojet engine. I disagree that the physics of rocket propulsion is so very easy compared to curing baldness. Sending a rocket to the moon but not being able to block DHT, a f---ing hormone, from affecting a few damn hair follicles is absurd. For me, the answer is simple. Baldness is not something the medical establishment has put a great deal of funding into for a remedy; the reason being that baldness, while being a biological mistake is not a life threatening malady such as tuberculosis, cancer, spinal-cord injury, ALS, Parkinson's Disease and so on. I don't believe that baldness ought be compared to more serious illnesses which leave people for dead in agonizing physical pain and suffering. I have severe Crohn's Disease, which came pretty close to ending my life in 2008. I had my large intestine, as well as 6 inches of my small bowel removed in order to save my life. I was in severe pain and felt sick as hell for 8 years. I have to live with the surgery I had which sucks; however, there are children dying as we speak in cancer wards across the world. There are millions of people who are starving. There is ethnic genocide. If baldness completely destroys one's life then one's priorities must be reevaluated. Don't get me wrong; balding changes your life. Wear a good hairpiece or do what you must in order to feel comfortable. There are worse things, such as being in a slave camp. It's important to develop the inner strength to not care about the opinions of others. Life is too short to bitch and moan about something over which we have no control. GET A HAIR PIECE!! I used to see a kid who had been severely burned in some sort of accident, and he had the balls to go out in public and work at a local electronics store. He was so disfigured he looked like a monster. Much of our panic about our "bald" appearance lies within our own minds. As bad as some of us look without our hair, it's 1/100,000 as bad as that hell that burn victim faces everyday.

[Fixed by 35]

Yes, but whilst the burns victim kid may have looked bad, he received sympathy rather than ridicule and was probably perceived as brave rather than a dull, past it man.

Baldness is not just about looking bad; lots of things make us look bad that we'll never care about. It's also about the perceptions of baldness in society as opposed to other disfigurements.

What a lot of us often forget is that those people who have never suffered hair loss really don't understand it. They don't understand the psychology and they don't understand what causes it. Only the other day, I heard some woman talking about her bald son and said he lost his hair because he shaved it too short! Newspapers frequently talk about public figures losing their hair (e.g. David Cameron, Gianfranco Zola) because of stress rather than DHT. Millions of articles exist on the internet that blames baldness on bad circulation or bad diet.

This lack of understanding leads us to be perceived as people who cannot cope with stress, are unhealthy or who don't eat properly rather than the truth which is that our parents decided to pass on their shitty genetics.

These prejudices are borne out in practice. Bald men will never again have a chance of holding high political office and it's not a huge leap of logic to deduce that if voters show this prejudice, and voters are employers, then employers will demonstrate this prejudice too. So will potential partners. I know a lot of people talk about confidence but come on, that's bollocks isn't it? Women don't like a lack of confidence, but they don't seem too keen on over confidence or posturing either. They're more likely to be interested in your looks and your wallet, both of which have taken a hit because of hair loss.

To be honest, I also think the confidence argument is bollocks because it wasn't confidence that hair loss stole. Hair loss has just really pissed me off for the past seven years and has made my life a misery. I'm still good at my job, earn good money, live in a nice enough house etc etc but I get no enjoyment out of any of it.

[Weedwacker]

I take it by your prose that you are British. I am American and I understand the whole image of a bald man thing. In the West, our cultures are obsessed with image. I believe you may be too concerned with the media; however, having said that it's true that women and society do judge bald men in a pejorative light. It's true that baldness harms our lives. It sounds as though you are doing ok seeing as you make decent money and have a house. My situation is worse because I lost 8 years of my life to my autoimmune illness. I am in school now for a specific medical technology which, fortunately, has a good job outlook with plenty of jobs. I am 33 and without much money. If I had not become sick I would be in a better place with a solid career. Even though you are bald you have been able to do well for yourself.

I agree that bald men are discriminated against because of their looks. While watching a TV talkshow recently, there was a prominent British man who was asked if he would be pursuing the Prime Ministership in the future. He responded by saying that he believed that he would not be elected because he is bald. In America, I do not think a bald man would be elected President either. Have I been denied jobs because I am a bald man? I don't know but it's possible. In my opinion, most women will not date a bald man. When I was 27 my Father told me that some of his female friends find bald men sexy; that, of course, did not make me feel any better.

The kid who was severely burned may get some sympathy but that is irrelevant. He probably has had people look at him in disgust. He will likely never find ANY woman who finds him attractive. Bald men, in general, may not look attractive; however, they are not that disfigured compared to someone like him. He was so disfigured he did not look human. There is a French man who has no limbs and who just swam ocross the English Channel. I have a childhood acquaintance who shaves his head; moreover, he suffered a serious injury from a scuba-diving accident 5 years ago. He is a paraplegic and is confined to a wheelchair. He was recently engaged to a really cute woman despite his plight.

I do not believe that online dating and other modern methods for courtship are very legitimate. I do not believe that I will ever date an American woman; they are arrogant, image obsessed, status obsessed and have little respect for men in general. I would assume that British women are not much different. Even average looking and unattractive American women are arrogant with regard to dating. I look at the dating "game" in a similar way as I do the global economy. If I can't find a good woman with whom I can develop a good relationship, I will look abroad. Many Asian and Latin women find Western caucasian men appealing; I will not rule out that option. It would be a waste of my time trying to find an American girlfriend because of their selfishness, lack of commitment to family, mental instability and so on. I am a gentleman, and as such treat women with respect. American women like the "badboy" image and they think decent men are weak, boring or uninteresting. Within my circle of female friends I have seen the typical fu-ked up behavior such as staying with a guy who cheats, treats her like chattel or rapes her; of course, the women keep going back. I don't like the typical American woman with her lack of self-esteem and image-obsession. I have had better luck with Filipinas. Dating an American woman is a joke.

The only thing that balding has done for me as a person is make me focus more on my other attributes. I read a lot, exercise, write music and try to be the best man I can be. I used to be(not to sound arrogant)an attractive guy with a shitload of attention from girls. When I began balding I suffered from low self-esteem and complete misery. My teenage years were robbed from me. While my friends were busy dating and getting naked with girls, I was home, confined to my bedroom and isolated. I remember being 18 and a Norwood 3, and balling my eyes out because of it. I became an utter recluse. The situation was worsened because I have a young looking face. I don't have much hope for hair cloning because it sounds too good to be true. I am a fatalist by nature and I am sceptical of the whole thing. I'll believe it when I see it. I think it's important for us bald men to be supportive of each other because we are the only ones who understand hairloss. People make jokes about it as though it is funny but people won't joke about a fat woman because it's politically incorrect to do so. What pisses me off is the fact that a fat person can change his situation and we cannot. I would probably cut one of my fingers off if it would mean the regrowth of my hair.

[Phatalis]

Dude. Screw it. Go do porn.

Be like Woodman or whatever. Just be a bald dude that bangs out ridiculous amounts of girls.

Bald dudes score too man.

And if they can't normally... **** it, do porn.

[Phatalis]

im about to post a link of a ripped bald dude that does porn and nails all sorts of girls.

im losing my hair too.. and if the miracle isnt out by then.. screw it. The answer is porn.

ill be the biggest name in the industry.