How does hair loss affect your life? How does it make you feel?

[jd_uk]

Sum up how hair loss has affected you...post your stories and vent. I want to know how other people feel.

For me, hair loss has made me lose all confidence in myself. I feel like I am not normal and have low value as a result. I regularly receive negative comments about my appearance compared to none before i started losing hair. I have to listen to women all day long in work discuss the 'hot guys' from their gossip magazines/tv shows etc knowing that no matter what I do I could never be viewed in that way simply because I am going bald. The other day I depressed myself by looking at those 'top 100 sexiest lists' to realise that not a single one of those men had even an inch of hair loss. On TV it is the same. I can't go to the gym to fix it and medication gave me dreadful side effects so I have given up on trying to fight my genetics. A bald or balding man has to try to compensate in other areas just to be viewed as relatively attractive - listening to women in work talk about how guys they knew are now ugly because they started going bald kills me. Still being in my early 20's I feel like I am too young for this. I am angry and frustrated all the time and scared to look in the mirror but I do it all the time anyway just to see how much worse things have become. When I shaved my head to try to embrace hair loss then I just got comments like I was some sort of freak 'a cancer patient, an auschwitz survivor etc' - the first time I did so I smiled at a woman to gauge her reaction...she turned to her friend laughing and patted her head. I am very lonely and would love a girlfriend but know feel terrible all the time and stuggle to imagine any woman finding me attractive when every guy around seems to have normal hair...like the men in the media. I can't enjoy TV anymore...it just makes me depressed seeing that there are barely any men who are balding that women like. I tried online dating and gave up when I saw women specifically ask balding men not to contact them. Hair loss for me has taken away everything that I was. The only way I can cope now is by trying to be a new me - someone who acts the way that I look.

 

[Jaae]

It's affected me socially and in my work life. I started at 15 though it wasn't until about 18 when it became obvious to everyone else. I spent the majority of my years 16-22 being a hat prisoner, which didn't make life very enjoyable. I am beginning to get over that these past few years but there are still times when I feel like wearing a hat. I used to be unable to go out without a hat on at all. I'm over that at least.

I don't think I've ever had any negative comments about my hair, besides my friends teasing me when I was younger. Nobody seems to stare at it when I talk to them either. I am pretty much a complete horse shoe now too, though I am very tall. Since I started buzzing my hair right down I've certainly appreciated how great being tall is. I'm only 6''3, but people seem to notice my height first above anything else. I still tend to have quite a number of women checking me out/flirting with me when I'm out and about. I'm definitely more confident now I've started going to the gym too.

I've only been with 1 girl, never had a girlfriend. I'd attribute this more to my reclusiveness during my receding years rather then how I look. There were a number of girls I knew who liked me back then but my confidence was none existent. I wish I had the confidence I do now I'm completely bald when I was just a receding. That one girl was since I am completely bald too. I am still too reclusive for my liking, but I have pretty much no friends at the moment so it's hard to socialise. There is certainly a brighter future for me, but what should have been my best years were ruined by my hairloss. That's something I'll never get back.

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

damm if i was tall at you maybe i wouldent care

 

[Jaae]

Yeah I certainly appreciate these days.

Being tall, bald and in shape is quite a dangerous combination

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

I don't think being tall makes it better. Nobody likes to be bald.

Yes it does, it's a trait that you can use to build yourself a badass outlook, a 1.70 bald guy however, is a freak for life ( thankfully I will not be like that, started finasteride today)

 

[slipy]

if i had to describe how balding has made me feel for the past years.

i'd say it's like im being trapped by a killer but instead of playing with me and eventually killing me he decides to prolong the torture forever.

while i don't exactly know what physical maiming feels like, im almost sure i've been experiencing the emotional equivalent of it due to this affliction.
im tired i wan't to fall into deep sleep.

 

[HairGuru22]

I definitely agree with this, my frontal recession litterly killed my confidence with everything.

if i had to describe how balding has made me feel for the past years.

i'd say it's like im being trapped by a killer but instead of playing with me and eventually killing me he decides to prolong the torture forever.

while i don't exactly know what physical maiming feels like, im almost sure i've been experiencing the emotional equivalent of it due to this affliction.
im tired i wan't to fall into deep sleep.