It is crazy that old posters have all disappeared.
I don't know if it means they
- gave up
- finally accepted it
- found a solution
Are you kidding me? That the posters all left is the least surprising thing.
- gave up
Perhaps, but probably not. This forum had many places where you can moan to other posters so there is plenty of reason to stick around and be negative.
- found a solution
Yeah right, what could they know that we don't already? We've got people trying drugs before they are undergo trials. We keep up with the hair congress and get as close to the bleeding edge as possible. There is no way that this is what happened. If anything, they may have just accepted the big 3, but we already know that the big 3 can be a difficult solution for many.
- finally accepted it
This is obviously the most probable scenario by miles. They're even talking about it on the first page of the thread you linked. The majority of people go this route and they turn out fine, i.e. they are not living a life of anguish and suffering and they don't all recoil at the sight of their own reflection ad infinitum.
Yes yes fight the good fight but acceptance is a very reasonable route also. And it represents one of the most repressed thoughts on this forum - *I may have to eventually learn to live with Androgenetic Alopecia.* That is like heresy on there. But all the evidence, i.e. the topic of this thread, points out what we should all already know and be ready to deal with.
-Nothing may come out
-Acceptance isn't as bad as you think
-There's more to life than hair and when you move on, like people before us, and move into more important things, it'll be obvious. Yes people look better with hair. But that's just it, looks aren't everything. And even if that played a strong role in dating, dating a bunch of girls isn't everything. And even if you don't care about that, and you want hair for your own self satisfaction, then again, as a practical matter, you can just do without caring about hair so much and find other hobbies. I think it just gets washed out in the end. And I think many people, especially here, choose to remain shackled.
Tl;dr old thread shows balding men feeling fear and anxiety over hairloss and change, just as pretty much every man before them felt.They await a cure but it didn't arrive by a convenient time. They eventually stop spending time on hair loss forums and probably hair loss itself, as do most people, as did pretty much every man who came before them.
People go through the exact same cycle with a myriad of other body dysmorphic perspectives. Some favorites include:
Stretch marks due to growth/exercise/pregnancy
Mild pubertal gyno
Cellulite
Weight gain
Sagging skin/breasts
Acne
Wrinkles
Big nose/big ears/big forehead/whatever flaws people see in themselves
At some point you just stop giving a f*** and relinquish your attempt to control things that are out of your control. But along the way, the insecurity causes great anguish and eventualy acceptance reveals that yeah, the grain of truth driving the insecurity is still real - you would look better off with/without X, Y, or Z. But also true is that people don't give that much of a sh*t on average, and not everybody cares equally about everything; there are plenty of people too wrapped up in other concerns to give particular care about your insecurities, just as you might care too much about hair to care about their concerns.
At the core, confidence in these matters is attractive because it shows people that you aren't going to waste your life obsessing over things they aren't so passionate about. It signals that yeah the situation sucks but you're ready to move on and find something more interesting, making you a better person to hang out with. After all, we are all seeking better days...
. The important stuff in life will work out either way.