Has your life changed as a result of your hair?

[Ilovehair]

Guys, I am just curious as to how hairloss has effected our lives. Do people threat you differently now that you're balding, have you been screwed over in work for promotions etc.

I've noticed that before I started to lose my hair, girls would be more willing to strike up a conversation and flirt with me, and I just don't mean in night clubs. Say if I was buying groceries in a store, sitting by myself in a public place or checking in at a reception women would be a lot more flirtatious than they are now. You know that feeling when you have a huge zit on your face and everyone is looking at it when they're talking to you, I get that a lot with my hair when I bump into people I haven't seen in a few years, or meet clients in work. I don't particularly like my job but I always give 100% and I feel I have definitely been looked over when it comes to progressing in the company. When my manager is talking to me, he's always looking at the top of my head, I get the impression he thinks I am weak because I am 35 years younger than him and he has a full head of hair. Lately wisecracks about my hair have become more frequent and vicious in work, I try not to let it bother me but peoples perceptions of me have definitely changed.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[RaginDemon]

Guys, I am just curious as to how hairloss has effected our lives. Do people threat you differently now that you're balding, have you been screwed over in work for promotions etc.

I've noticed that before I started to lose my hair, girls would be more willing to strike up a conversation and flirt with me, and I just don't mean in night clubs. Say if I was buying groceries in a store, sitting by myself in a public place or checking in at a reception women would be a lot more flirtatious than they are now. You know that feeling when you have a huge zit on your face and everyone is looking at it when they're talking to you, I get that a lot with my hair when I bump into people I haven't seen in a few years, or meet clients in work. I don't particularly like my job but I always give 100% and I feel I have definitely been looked over when it comes to progressing in the company. When my manager is talking to me, he's always looking at the top of my head, I get the impression he thinks I am weak because I am 35 years younger than him and he has a full head of hair. Lately wisecracks about my hair have become more frequent and vicious in work, I try not to let it bother me but peoples perceptions of me have definitely changed.

Has anyone else noticed this?

hair loss definitely affects one's confidence. Even people are not staring at your hair, you would most likely think they are because of your hair loss.

 

[UK1]

My life has changed a lot so far, I have found some positives but still find it hard at times to deal with the fact that it's taken part of me away physically and mentally, I just know that there's only so much you can do to combat it and the rest is down to your own personal strength.

 

[DaSand]

It didn't change much of my life, I grew to accept it when people told me and well, it hurt my self-esteem.

But I make up for it by losing weight and being more confident. I'll always keep one moment in my mind when I had loss is when I got two girls to talk to me (we had a class) and just had fun conversations. They didn't see my loss, they were just cool people.

Most of the people that told me about just said my hairline receded that's it.

I've accepted I've lost a good amount, but I'm going to take either Revivogen or Propecia to keep it.

 

[barcafan]

It's actually changed my life for the better. I swear in the last 2-3 years i've been loosing my hair i've noticed how much i've matured, especially mentally. Although correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation i guess.... I do sometimes worry about it, but nothing compared to a few years ago. I guess that's a positive of losing it fast.

 

[uncomfortable man]

Loosing your hair puts you in a bad light with a lot of people. They definatley treat you as subhuman, which can make you loose your faith in humanity real quick. You come to realize how shallow people really are, even people who would consider themselves to be good, decent individuals are tested to their limits when having to interact with someone with male pattern baldness. A big part of the problem is that people think you are what you look like, and they read into someone's physical appearance as indicators of their personality- which is totally unfair. But let's face it, over 90% of people out there are brain washed. I blame this fudged-up culture. In school, I learned the definition of culture is- taught and learned behavior. If the culture dictates (amongst other things) that going bald is a sign of weakness, then no matter where you go or who you interact with you will have to contend with those people's influenced perception of you in relation to that affliction- it is inescapable, and consequently makes life very difficult. Human beings are social creatures and as such, love and acceptance are hard-wired instincts. Loosing our hair puts us at odds with the ability to obtain that basic human necessity.

 

[30_going_on_60]

yup..its 100% changed me. Now that I look back on it, it's dumb to let it. I wasted most of my 20's, I made a thread about it in the tell your story part. I come on these boards to try and encourage people to not make the same mistake that I did. But its definately changed my life, and so far, not for the better. I am hoping to find a possitive out of it and make it work for me in my 30's.

 

[antonio666]

totally 100% ,i used to love life,now i can't wait for it to be over,everyday i wake up and my hair is that bit worse than yesreday and i don,t know nearly crying now

 

[blueshard]

Yeah me too. Hair loss has almost completely destroyed me.

Also, it does not get easier with getting older.

 

[Nathaniel]

My biggest problem I've had with hairloss is not the way I've been treated by others but the impact it has made on the way I view myself. It has made me more self absorbed, obssessive and totally devoted to improving my hair appearance with treatments and concealing (be it with hairstyle, hat). I check my hair all the time, I go to the bathroom between work, classes, free time just to check my hairline or just to see if the wind has affected my styling. Its terrible. I don't know what I'll do if I'm ever in the position were I cannot cover it. I admire some of you guys for being so strong for taking comments from people, the day someone makes fun of me for losing it I'll probably have a nervious breakdown.

 

[30_going_on_60]

Yeah me too. Hair loss has almost completely destroyed me.

Also, it does not get easier with getting older.

Just curious, how old are you? I think it gets extremely easier with age. When I was 21, I was in about the 1 percentile of bald people. If I walked by 100 people my age, 99 of them would have more hair. Now that number has changed to about 30%. I never actually took a survey and researched this, but its a relatively good estimate. I'm not saying that other peoples' hair loss makes me feel better about myself, but all of a sudden, I'm not the freak anymore. If theres a hairloss commercial, I'm not the one EVERYONE turns to. Also, the older you get and the more hair you lose, you grow to accept it and embrace it. If you accept hairloss, it will never be an issue. I suspect this is true for most people, save those that come on here and talk about how they;re going to kill themselves because they're a f-ing Norwood TWO!!! in their mid 20's. All in all, I rather it didn't happen, but there comes a time where the bald jokes kinda bounce off or at least you ceratinly don't dwell on them for weeks.

 

[s.a.f]

I think he mean't that although its less unusual for an older person eg 30's to be losing hair as opposed to a 20 yr old with visible hairloss, it still does'nt stop them from wishing they could get their hair back.

 

[PersonGuy]

All in all people can say it's a confidence issue, but I disagree. It's not like when I had all my hair I was surrounded by a cloud of confidence that people found irresistable and now all of a sudden the cloud's gone. It's definitely an issue of having hair or not, and it sucks to have to say it, but it's the case. I understand some guys can look good without hair, but I'm not one of those guys.

So now instead of finding the normal everyday attractive girl, I have to find the normal everyday attractive girl who's okay with hairloss.

 

[metalheaddude]

I avoid swimming a lot, especially with friends. I just make up excuses why i cant get in the water. Really annoys me. Its also causes me to avoid many social situations if im having a bad hair day.

 

[s.a.f]

All in all people can say it's a confidence issue, but I disagree. It's not like when I had all my hair I was surrounded by a cloud of confidence that people found irresistable and now all of a sudden the cloud's gone.

Yeah but maybe it can make a person with a normal level of confidence become a insecure person.
:dunno:

 

[ghg]

I avoid swimming a lot, especially with friends. I just make up excuses why i cant get in the water. Really annoys me. Its also causes me to avoid many social situations if im having a bad hair day.

Would it kill you to admit to your friends that you're losing your hair? Do you think they'd ditch you for that? If so, what kinda friends are they?

 

[metalheaddude]

Nah I have a great bunch of friends, who are very understanding. The thing is, I can hide a lot of my hairloss with product, styling, toppik and hairspray etc. So if I jump in the water it will reveal my giant forehead and receeded temples. Trust me it would be a shock for them to see it, I just couldnt face the embaressment right now. I would rather get a hair transplant first, then they will never know.

 

[uncomfortable man]

Being beautiful is like being rich, everybody wants to be your friend. (mostly by association to make themselves look better) So even though it may be easy to be jealous of them, those people will never truly know who their real friends are, if any at all. On the converse,the poor, bald, ugly people might not win the most votes, but when someone is cool to them, they know it's genuine. That is a luxury not everyone has.

 

[ghg]

Nah I have a great bunch of friends, who are very understanding. The thing is, I can hide a lot of my hairloss with product, styling, toppik and hairspray etc. So if I jump in the water it will reveal my giant forehead and receeded temples. Trust me it would be a shock for them to see it, I just couldnt face the embaressment right now. I would rather get a hair transplant first, then they will never know.

Fair enough. I guess that's what you get if you hide something for a long time. I have never been embarrassed about having a huge forehead, it's part of me and that's that. I know I got it from my mom's side of the family like almost everything else.

 

[IBM]

I dont hide my hairloss and my skin problems. I say to my collegues and friends that I take medicine in hope to control that.