I’m bald from 23 years old. I’m 54 years old and I tried with many domestics advises, some of them very dangerous. For example, one friend told me to put in one bottle with alcohol, 3 different type of chilies – very hot chilies. First one Serrano is green, second one manzano, and last one piquin, and leave these mixes in the sun for 3 weeks and after that use this as a lotion on your head. That was very hard and hot on my head, and the result is I’m still bald. After that I decided not to use anything on my head and I’m proud to be bald. I live in Mexico city.
Ken
Can anyone help? I have made the mistake of getting transplants and so much scar tissue has developed that I can not go bald for it will show. I need to fix the scars before I can even consider shaving everything off.
Patrick
I just wanted to say that I am a 19 year old male who is losing my hair significantly. At first I was really devastated, but now I could really care less. It really doesn’t bother me anymore. When it goes, it goes. I’m in really good shape, and as I continue to focus on my health rather than my hair thats all that matters.
Just look at Jason Statham – Beast haha
Body
I am 22 years old and I am from Ireland. My hairline has begun to recede in the last year or so and my confidence has suffered greatly as a result. I have tried various shampoos and other ‘natural’ ways of stimulating hair re-growth without any improvement. In fact, I think these products have done more harm than good! While searching the net looking for other methods of hair restoration, I stumbled across your site ‘Bald R Us’. I just felt the need to thank you. Reading the articles and stories on your site as well as the knowledge that other people have dealt with and are dealing with the same thing as me has helped me greatly and improved my self esteem. With the help of your site, I now feel a little more ready to embrace my baldness!
Thank you and please keep up the good work! Your site has made an impact on me and I am sure that it will help many more people who are also going through this tough period in their lives. Thanks again!
Jude Montassir
You opinion please.
I write romantic novels for a living and recently I wrote a novel with a hero who has a very high forehead. I based him on the actor Jason Statham. When the book came out, a woman by the name of J. Kollasch wrote a mean, nasty review on Amazon.com. Her complaint? She said that a hero who was bald could not be “manly and virile.” She said that to be a hero, a man must have “a full head of hair.” If any of you would like to state your opinion of what this woman thinks of bald men, the book is Scarlet Nights by Jude Deveraux on Amazon.com. Thank you, JD.
Frank Goodman
I shaved my head about 10 years ago, in my late forties. The writing was on the wall;it was thinning, and greying. The day I turned the corner I was looking in the mirror and said to my hair: “You can’t quit on me. You’re fired!”
Never looked back. Never had a bad hair day again, ever.
But I have gotten way into hats. Love fedoras, porkpies, caps of all kinds. I’m even working on a couple of designs.
The day I shaved it, I walked into a Nashville coffee shop. A great drummer who should probably remain nameless stood right up, walked up to me and shook my hand. “Welcome to the other side” he said.
Hopping Mad
Hey guys just want to know what stops or helps an oily head. I mean I’m blinding people out in the street and others are vainly looking at my head for their reflection. Cheers.
K
I LOVE BALD MEN!!!! Go boldly boys–shave it and balance it with a sexy goatee/mustache combo OR not. Be confident, smile broadly and look us right in the eye. Myself and many many of my friends go weak at the knees when we see a beautiful clean, bald head on a confident man. SEXY!!! 🙂
Reese
I just want to say thanks for starting the website. Losing my hair at a young age was very difficult for me. I recently shaved my head with no guard and feel like my old self again. Its weird but I feel like people give me much more respect with the bald head than when I was sporting a bad Jude Law haircut. This website has helped me realize that I am not the only one that was self conscious about their receding hairline. I had actually been calling around to see about hairtransplants and am so glad i didn’t go through with the procedure. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Mike B
I started balding in my teens. By 18, all I had on top was peach fuzz. By 22 and the time I got out of the army, I was fully bald on top. Basically, everything hair-wise went south (i.e. beard city). And considering when I was in the service, I could shave at 7am and have my 5 o’clock shadow by 11am, I said the heck with it…. I’m out, I ain’t shaving and I’m bald. I look at it like this…. I’m bald with a beard. If the girl I’m seeing wants to run her fingers thru my hair, she’s got plenty of other places like the beard to do it. Besides, only so many of us have perfect heads. The rest of them got hair on top. So for those of you doing combovers and/or wearing rugs, just remember this buddy…. YOU’RE BALD! DEAL WITH IT!
Monica Fay
Dear Men of Questionable Hair Mass:
Stop trying to hide that bald patch! all the combing and poofing and teasing in the world isn’t going to trick us from seeing through the flimsy little strands clinging for dear life to your scalp.
For some reason, some strange reason, men think that once they are going bald, if they grow their hair out a bit longer than usual, that nobody will notice. Has there ever been scientific research done to see if the open pores of the missing hair are letting stray particles of air in and are affecting the decision making portions of the frontal lobes in the brain? Maybe the wind sweeping in is altering their choices.
Don’t go snooping through your daughter’s room trying to find the smallest rubber band. Putting the last arc of hair lining the back of your neck into a low sitting pony tail does not distract from the hair missing over 7 inches of your head. Nobody is thinking that you just have a big ol forehead. That isn’t a forehead, that’s a fivehead.
Just shave it off.
Shave it.
Get brave.
Take out the razor, lather up those hands really good with some man power shaving cream, maybe some gasoline if you’re feeling really gritty and get in there with that blade.
scrapey scrapey.
You don’t need to go all Mr. Clean on me. You can do a nice shave job, maybe a one or a two on the razor. Maybe get a high and tight, military style. Maybe get a very cropped faux-hawk type deal if you’ve got a receding hair line that looks like a puddle of pee does when you try to pee out in the wilderness and it hits your shoe and separates around it on each side.
Let me let you in on a little secret: we as women aren’t interested in seeing your ghostly haunts of hair coverage past. We don’t care that you could braid your sideburns down to your nipples at one point in your hair career. So now is not the time to grow the random patches inappropriately long like a dying, untended garden.
All we care about is if you are embarrassing us by trying to conjure up the illusion that the flimsy follicles you pull over that scalp or try to tease up to all oblivion are actually a full head of hair. Nobody wants a delusional mate.
We will still love you and think you are sexy. When you are bald, you’re badass.
Women have to embrace it all the time, especially cancer patients. I wish more women cancer patients didn’t go out and buy wigs. I wish they’d shave their heads and wear jazzy ass sparkle earrings and rock that baldness. I wish there were girls with cancer who’d spray paint their head with hair glitter hair spray or maybe gold. That would be so effing cute.
You’ve gotta feel good about that body you’re in whether you’re sick, fat, strange or just a plain idiot. So embrace the bald.
HonorBound
I would say that I’m still a newbie because it hasn’t been a full year yet since I started shaving my head. The road to hair lost was a murky one for me. I never thought that I would have to “suffer” with hair lost because I always thought my trail with hair was dealing with premature gray hair. I was in the fifth grade when I got my first strand of gray hair. To be honest it never really bothered me all that much. By the time, I was in my late 20s gray hairs started to show in my facial hair. “Oh well,” I thought to myself, “I will never dye my hair.” Anyway, when I was in my early 20s I started having problems with bumps/rashes in my head. I’m a Black American. Some of you may know that we tend you have problems with Pseudo Folliculitis (commonly known as razor bumps). This problem can also happen on the head most commonly on the nape of the neck. That is why you sometimes see men with this gigantic pulse filled bumps on the nape of their neck around their hairline. I did not have that problem; mine was described to me as Acne Folliculitis by my dermatologist. My dermatologist said mine was more Acne than Folliculitis (inflammation of the hair follicles) and that it was more common among young minorities. There really wasn’t an underlying cause; just one of those things I had to go through. He gave me some antibiotics and two topical solutions.
Okay, so here is where the story on hair loss actually gets started for me. I always wore my hair low and even so hair loss really snuck up on me. There were like two people in my entire life who mentioned to me that I had a bald spot. However, I always thought they were just looking at the spot in which I had the breakout of Acne Folliculitis. So I never paid it any mine. I was blissfully ignorant. I mean my hairline was receding but I did not notice. I kept my hair extremely low and I thought I had just had a bad haircut (which happened more often than not because I changed barbers so often on account of traveling). If the barber was inexperienced, rushing, or just not good, he or she would cut the hairline too far back. I knew that if I stopped getting my hair cut every week and a half or sometimes two weeks my hairline would grow back to normal. Now keep in mind that I never really put any thought into hair loss. It is just so obvious now when I’m reflecting on it. Be that as it may, everything changed when I uttered the worst words in my life “I’m going to let my hair grow out.” Then it started, I noticed my hairline was too far back and everyone else noticed that I had a massive bald spot at the crown of my head. Now, I was in denial, I told everyone that my hair was just “growing slow.” I brought tons of natural shampoos, conditioners, and gels that were supposed to promote healthy hair growth. I even shaved my head in an attempt to give everything a chance to grow even. Well, the first time I shaved my head. I hated it. I walked around with a wave cap on my head because I was too embarrassed. Okay two points about that…one, I looked ridiculous with a wave cap on my head at work. Two, everyone could still tell I was bald. Anyway, I allowed my hair to grow back and of course it grew back with the same bald spots, receding hairline, and oh yeah now I noticed that my entire top head was thinning. I could see that I was going to look like Patrick Steward from Star Trek or like Sherman Hemsley from the Jefferson. I was developing the horseshoe…hair on the sides and none on top. Nothing worked and I finally went back to wearing my hair low.
You would think that everything returned to normal after that but one key fact had changed…I knew I was losing my hair! Every time I rubbed my head, I found myself stroking that smooth patch of missing hopes and dreams. Even though I knew I was losing my hair, I was in denial as far as why I was losing my hair. I told myself that “It was that damn breakout that caused this…so it could be fixed.” I went back to my dermatologist (who was now a female because my male dermatologist retired and sold his practice) to get a yearly check up on my breakout condition. She said that my head was doing great and that she did not want me on antibiotics anymore. I asked her about my hair and she uttered the words I dreaded to hear “Male Pattern Baldness.” I was like “F*&@”! Anyhow, she gave me some options. She said I can get an expensive biopsy to make sure there were no other underlying causes for my hair loss. I declined, I was not about to go into debt on some wild goose chase for reasons of denial and vanity. She also told me that I could get two types of medical treatments that MIGHT SLOW the hair loss. I could get regular shots or take pills. I can’t remember which one did what but the side effects were potential erectile dysfunction or a decrease in seamen. I looked at her and I was like “hell no”! Though see said the possibility of me suffering from either of these problems was low, I was like “any possibility is too high”! So I told her that I would just start shaving my head.
I didn’t start shaving my head immediately. I first had my hair cut really low by a professional barber. Then after a few weeks, I shaved my head with clippers without the use of a guard. This brought my hair down to the stubble. For me, the best complements were not “you look nice” which I was told but I really like to hear people said hey something looks different about you. I wouldn’t tell them anything then they would finally guess…”hey, you shaved your head!” I would be like “yeah” and they would say “cool” or it looks “good” or it looks “really nice” or as my boys would say it looks “tough.” Though one of my friends did joke with me about looking like Kojack, the feedback was nothing like my mind had anticipated. Anyhow, I went to shaving with a razor next. It took me awhile to get used to looking at myself in the mirror but I never gave up. I started researching shaving techniques, trying out different types of razors, shaving creams and gels, and I even tried different hair removal creams. I settled on the ‘Schick Hydro 5’ and ‘Bump Stopper Medicated Shaving Gel’ with Aloe Vera and Tea Tree Oil. The combination of these two products feels the best on my head. Because my head can take it and I like the feel of a smooth head, I shave every day. As Monica would say “I went all Mr. Clean.” However, I do keep facial hair.
Anyhow, I’m happy and we need to stand up and tell people it is okay and best to go natural. It has been seared into our brains that hair loss is a sign of weakness. Super heroes tend to always have full heads of hair. There are tons of movies in which bald guys are the butts of many some tasteless hair jokes. For God sakes, aliens are always depicted as miniature bald creatures running around probing people. We are program to think less of ourselves when we start losing our hair. But guess what, it’s just hair and there are a lot more of us losing it and/or destined to lose it than not. Let’s be ourselves and love it. We can’t change the volume of our hair any more than we can change the color of our skin. Sure you can always manipulate it but you will always have to look in the mirror…and when you do…you will always know that the person staring back at you is not a person at all. It’s a caged animal too frightened to step beyond the wall of its captivation to truly live free…..or maybe I’m just being dramatic…shave your damn head and rock out!
Honor
John
Shaved in 2004, never regretted it.
If you want the appearance of confidence, self control and decisiveness…shave it.
HonorBound
Hi Snayd,
I feel your pain. The best thing for me was to jump out in front of it. I started shaving my head early even though I could have still passed for having hair as long as I kept it trimmed low. However, I knew the bald spot was there and I kept rubbing it. Evenly, I just trimmed my hair low for a few days and kept going lower. This helps with getting you adjusted to being seen with less and less hair, and you can also see how low you want to go, you might like the trimmed look better than the clean look. I know some guys prefer the balding look over the bald look (no lie). I went with the clean look because I felt better just knowing that my entire head had the same smooth texture. Anyhow, by the time I actually decided to shave my head, most people did not even notice the difference. Let’s face it, we worry more about losing our hair because we think we are going to become less attractive, or we are just worried about what everyone will say. However, the longer you wait the harder it is going to be because you don’t want to give in and say I’m balding. I look at it like this, if going bald really doesn’t bother you then sport the balding look. At the same token, if you constantly find yourself staring at or rubbing your bald spot, if you are extremely conscious of the fact that you are balding then move forward with shaving your head…you’ll feel better. I think most women will agree that there is nothing less sexy than an unconfident man. Another thing that helps is growing out your facial hair and trying a few different styles to give yourself a completely different and new look.
When someone makes a comments about my baldness, I turn it into a joke…
I say things like, Do you have any idea how long a bottle of shampoo lasts me? or I feel fine to be the point of reference in a crowd.
But seriously, I have been bald since I was 24, I’m now 51 and have never felt bad about it in any ways. Every now and then it crosses my mind to think how I would look if I had a full head of hair, but then again I say, no need for it, I have a beautiful life, beautiful wife and daughter, and I got all these without hair, so I don’t need it.
Guys, Bald is beautiful, it is a matter of mind set.
Roberto Panama City, Panama
HonorBound
Nick,
I loved the video. It was cool, funny, clever, and classy. Nice Job!
Darryl
It seems counter to popular belief, balding happens long before you get old, I haven’t looked at any research, all I know is anyone I have seen or heard about went bald in their 20s. So for the world to associate bald with ‘old’ is stupid. Being bald and being old are only really connected when you try to pretend you aren’t going bald.
I love the bald lifystyle, there are so many perks it is amazing. I don’t have to dry/do my hair after a shower, If I want to wake up in the morning and go about my day I can, I mean, from actors you have the freedom to bic or let it grow out a little bit, Vin Diesel to Jason Statham. Confidence is key, and it’s hard to portray confidence when you are trying to hide something (and deep down you know that they know your hair isn’t there)
K
Remember guys, Bald is incredibly sexy to many many women. Chin up, confidence, shoulders back, look us in the eye and give us a big smile. A bald man seems much more manly and strong. Confidence and a clean shave (skin care, w/no pimples) are key. Go boldly men!!!!
Gary Walker
Finally took the plunge with a little help from cancer! Some of friends said they didn’t even notice, which tells one how much hair I had! It’s gone for now and never to return? Who knows.
Noticed lots of bald advantages. Mentally it was a little difficult at first, but now I like it! Glad I joined your ranks, just not the reason why!
L
Hi, I’m 20 and I started going bald at about 17. I’ve got a pretty big forehead, shit job and no rich family to buy me cars and stuff like that and it all makes me feel alone and weak. I mean I walk up my road, hands in my pockets, looking at the ground and praying that no one will look at me. If I see a group of girls, I will do anything in my power to avoid them. Luckily, I was never a loser or bully in school, my friends have always been popular and I suppose not in a cocky way, but I was a little bit popular as well but as my baldness progressed I found myself moving further and further away. I don’t feel like I have the stuff anymore. I mean, if someone says, “mate you haven’t had a bird in ages,” I say, “Yeah, I can’t afford one.” But the truth is I’m scared to be rejected. If a load of people are doing something, I wonder if I do it, will it taint it or will people think, “What the hell is bald guy doing here?”
Chaz
Hi just happened on this website, I have been shaving my head for 17 years and would love to be totally bald and not have to shave. I have tried everything and it still grows back and would love to be rid of it for ever an y suggestions? I am now completely grey or white and prefer the Kojack look .
HonorBound
Re: Chaz
As far as I know, natural hair loss or laser hair removal are the only ways to permanently lose/remove hair without damaging your skin. Laser hair removal is not recommended for people with darker skin. But I understand about wanting the nice smooth “Kojack” look….I simply shave my head every day. I find going against the grain gives me the closest shave but everyone’s skin cannot handle that. I also, use Bump Stopper Medicated Shaving Gel w/ Aloe Vera and Tea Tree Oil. l don’t have a problem with getting razor bumps on my head but I find that this product gives me the best and closest shave. My razor of choice is the Shick Hydro 5, I’ve tried many other’ including the Gillette ProGlide; but Shick remains my favorite. After shaving, I apply alcohol (many suggests using something less harsh but I like the burn) and sometimes lotion to my head. I rub a few drops of baby oil in my hand and spread that over my head to give it a shinier/cleaner look. The method works well for me, I’ve actually be asked by other baldies what I use to shave my head or how do I get my head so shiny and clean. You just need to find out what technique and products work best with your skin and hair texture.
I know this not the permanent solution that you want but developing a better shaving technique is probably the safest and definitely the cheapest what to go. Also, remember that bald actors usually have make-up applied to their heads so their scalp will often have a nice, hairless gleam that is almost impossible to achieve.
Malik S. Sinorya
I noticed my hairs thinning and i saw that this led to the change of the color of my hairs. And then gradually the hairfall exceeded its daily limits when i could clearly see them lying all over on my study table after combing my head. And from that point onwards my hair fall didn’t stopped and reached higher levels of damage. The colour was changed to reddish brown from jet black full head of hairs. I’m 23 years old but still no one could see that i’m suffering with this phenomenon but i had made up my mind a long ago that i will not be frightened to keep that bald look and i’ve previously shaved my head 7-8 times by myself. I now always think positive about that look i call it cool and tough. Confidence is an another term to describe us. Remember, anyone can walk around with a full thick head of hairs but it takes only a ‘man’ to rock the bald infront of the whole world. A very good job by this website. I appreciate it very much. Thanks a lot
I’m bald from 23 years old. I’m 54 years old and I tried with many domestics advises, some of them very dangerous. For example, one friend told me to put in one bottle with alcohol, 3 different type of chilies – very hot chilies. First one Serrano is green, second one manzano, and last one piquin, and leave these mixes in the sun for 3 weeks and after that use this as a lotion on your head. That was very hard and hot on my head, and the result is I’m still bald. After that I decided not to use anything on my head and I’m proud to be bald. I live in Mexico city.
Can anyone help? I have made the mistake of getting transplants and so much scar tissue has developed that I can not go bald for it will show. I need to fix the scars before I can even consider shaving everything off.
I just wanted to say that I am a 19 year old male who is losing my hair significantly. At first I was really devastated, but now I could really care less. It really doesn’t bother me anymore. When it goes, it goes. I’m in really good shape, and as I continue to focus on my health rather than my hair thats all that matters.
Just look at Jason Statham – Beast haha
I am 22 years old and I am from Ireland. My hairline has begun to recede in the last year or so and my confidence has suffered greatly as a result. I have tried various shampoos and other ‘natural’ ways of stimulating hair re-growth without any improvement. In fact, I think these products have done more harm than good! While searching the net looking for other methods of hair restoration, I stumbled across your site ‘Bald R Us’. I just felt the need to thank you. Reading the articles and stories on your site as well as the knowledge that other people have dealt with and are dealing with the same thing as me has helped me greatly and improved my self esteem. With the help of your site, I now feel a little more ready to embrace my baldness!
Thank you and please keep up the good work! Your site has made an impact on me and I am sure that it will help many more people who are also going through this tough period in their lives. Thanks again!
You opinion please.
I write romantic novels for a living and recently I wrote a novel with a hero who has a very high forehead. I based him on the actor Jason Statham. When the book came out, a woman by the name of J. Kollasch wrote a mean, nasty review on Amazon.com. Her complaint? She said that a hero who was bald could not be “manly and virile.” She said that to be a hero, a man must have “a full head of hair.” If any of you would like to state your opinion of what this woman thinks of bald men, the book is Scarlet Nights by Jude Deveraux on Amazon.com. Thank you, JD.
I shaved my head about 10 years ago, in my late forties. The writing was on the wall;it was thinning, and greying. The day I turned the corner I was looking in the mirror and said to my hair: “You can’t quit on me. You’re fired!”
Never looked back. Never had a bad hair day again, ever.
But I have gotten way into hats. Love fedoras, porkpies, caps of all kinds. I’m even working on a couple of designs.
The day I shaved it, I walked into a Nashville coffee shop. A great drummer who should probably remain nameless stood right up, walked up to me and shook my hand. “Welcome to the other side” he said.
Hey guys just want to know what stops or helps an oily head. I mean I’m blinding people out in the street and others are vainly looking at my head for their reflection. Cheers.
I LOVE BALD MEN!!!! Go boldly boys–shave it and balance it with a sexy goatee/mustache combo OR not. Be confident, smile broadly and look us right in the eye. Myself and many many of my friends go weak at the knees when we see a beautiful clean, bald head on a confident man. SEXY!!! 🙂
I just want to say thanks for starting the website. Losing my hair at a young age was very difficult for me. I recently shaved my head with no guard and feel like my old self again. Its weird but I feel like people give me much more respect with the bald head than when I was sporting a bad Jude Law haircut. This website has helped me realize that I am not the only one that was self conscious about their receding hairline. I had actually been calling around to see about hairtransplants and am so glad i didn’t go through with the procedure. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
I started balding in my teens. By 18, all I had on top was peach fuzz. By 22 and the time I got out of the army, I was fully bald on top. Basically, everything hair-wise went south (i.e. beard city). And considering when I was in the service, I could shave at 7am and have my 5 o’clock shadow by 11am, I said the heck with it…. I’m out, I ain’t shaving and I’m bald. I look at it like this…. I’m bald with a beard. If the girl I’m seeing wants to run her fingers thru my hair, she’s got plenty of other places like the beard to do it. Besides, only so many of us have perfect heads. The rest of them got hair on top. So for those of you doing combovers and/or wearing rugs, just remember this buddy…. YOU’RE BALD! DEAL WITH IT!
Dear Men of Questionable Hair Mass:
Stop trying to hide that bald patch! all the combing and poofing and teasing in the world isn’t going to trick us from seeing through the flimsy little strands clinging for dear life to your scalp.
For some reason, some strange reason, men think that once they are going bald, if they grow their hair out a bit longer than usual, that nobody will notice. Has there ever been scientific research done to see if the open pores of the missing hair are letting stray particles of air in and are affecting the decision making portions of the frontal lobes in the brain? Maybe the wind sweeping in is altering their choices.
Don’t go snooping through your daughter’s room trying to find the smallest rubber band. Putting the last arc of hair lining the back of your neck into a low sitting pony tail does not distract from the hair missing over 7 inches of your head. Nobody is thinking that you just have a big ol forehead. That isn’t a forehead, that’s a fivehead.
Just shave it off.
Shave it.
Get brave.
Take out the razor, lather up those hands really good with some man power shaving cream, maybe some gasoline if you’re feeling really gritty and get in there with that blade.
scrapey scrapey.
You don’t need to go all Mr. Clean on me. You can do a nice shave job, maybe a one or a two on the razor. Maybe get a high and tight, military style. Maybe get a very cropped faux-hawk type deal if you’ve got a receding hair line that looks like a puddle of pee does when you try to pee out in the wilderness and it hits your shoe and separates around it on each side.
Let me let you in on a little secret: we as women aren’t interested in seeing your ghostly haunts of hair coverage past. We don’t care that you could braid your sideburns down to your nipples at one point in your hair career. So now is not the time to grow the random patches inappropriately long like a dying, untended garden.
All we care about is if you are embarrassing us by trying to conjure up the illusion that the flimsy follicles you pull over that scalp or try to tease up to all oblivion are actually a full head of hair. Nobody wants a delusional mate.
We will still love you and think you are sexy. When you are bald, you’re badass.
Women have to embrace it all the time, especially cancer patients. I wish more women cancer patients didn’t go out and buy wigs. I wish they’d shave their heads and wear jazzy ass sparkle earrings and rock that baldness. I wish there were girls with cancer who’d spray paint their head with hair glitter hair spray or maybe gold. That would be so effing cute.
You’ve gotta feel good about that body you’re in whether you’re sick, fat, strange or just a plain idiot. So embrace the bald.
I would say that I’m still a newbie because it hasn’t been a full year yet since I started shaving my head. The road to hair lost was a murky one for me. I never thought that I would have to “suffer” with hair lost because I always thought my trail with hair was dealing with premature gray hair. I was in the fifth grade when I got my first strand of gray hair. To be honest it never really bothered me all that much. By the time, I was in my late 20s gray hairs started to show in my facial hair. “Oh well,” I thought to myself, “I will never dye my hair.” Anyway, when I was in my early 20s I started having problems with bumps/rashes in my head. I’m a Black American. Some of you may know that we tend you have problems with Pseudo Folliculitis (commonly known as razor bumps). This problem can also happen on the head most commonly on the nape of the neck. That is why you sometimes see men with this gigantic pulse filled bumps on the nape of their neck around their hairline. I did not have that problem; mine was described to me as Acne Folliculitis by my dermatologist. My dermatologist said mine was more Acne than Folliculitis (inflammation of the hair follicles) and that it was more common among young minorities. There really wasn’t an underlying cause; just one of those things I had to go through. He gave me some antibiotics and two topical solutions.
Okay, so here is where the story on hair loss actually gets started for me. I always wore my hair low and even so hair loss really snuck up on me. There were like two people in my entire life who mentioned to me that I had a bald spot. However, I always thought they were just looking at the spot in which I had the breakout of Acne Folliculitis. So I never paid it any mine. I was blissfully ignorant. I mean my hairline was receding but I did not notice. I kept my hair extremely low and I thought I had just had a bad haircut (which happened more often than not because I changed barbers so often on account of traveling). If the barber was inexperienced, rushing, or just not good, he or she would cut the hairline too far back. I knew that if I stopped getting my hair cut every week and a half or sometimes two weeks my hairline would grow back to normal. Now keep in mind that I never really put any thought into hair loss. It is just so obvious now when I’m reflecting on it. Be that as it may, everything changed when I uttered the worst words in my life “I’m going to let my hair grow out.” Then it started, I noticed my hairline was too far back and everyone else noticed that I had a massive bald spot at the crown of my head. Now, I was in denial, I told everyone that my hair was just “growing slow.” I brought tons of natural shampoos, conditioners, and gels that were supposed to promote healthy hair growth. I even shaved my head in an attempt to give everything a chance to grow even. Well, the first time I shaved my head. I hated it. I walked around with a wave cap on my head because I was too embarrassed. Okay two points about that…one, I looked ridiculous with a wave cap on my head at work. Two, everyone could still tell I was bald. Anyway, I allowed my hair to grow back and of course it grew back with the same bald spots, receding hairline, and oh yeah now I noticed that my entire top head was thinning. I could see that I was going to look like Patrick Steward from Star Trek or like Sherman Hemsley from the Jefferson. I was developing the horseshoe…hair on the sides and none on top. Nothing worked and I finally went back to wearing my hair low.
You would think that everything returned to normal after that but one key fact had changed…I knew I was losing my hair! Every time I rubbed my head, I found myself stroking that smooth patch of missing hopes and dreams. Even though I knew I was losing my hair, I was in denial as far as why I was losing my hair. I told myself that “It was that damn breakout that caused this…so it could be fixed.” I went back to my dermatologist (who was now a female because my male dermatologist retired and sold his practice) to get a yearly check up on my breakout condition. She said that my head was doing great and that she did not want me on antibiotics anymore. I asked her about my hair and she uttered the words I dreaded to hear “Male Pattern Baldness.” I was like “F*&@”! Anyhow, she gave me some options. She said I can get an expensive biopsy to make sure there were no other underlying causes for my hair loss. I declined, I was not about to go into debt on some wild goose chase for reasons of denial and vanity. She also told me that I could get two types of medical treatments that MIGHT SLOW the hair loss. I could get regular shots or take pills. I can’t remember which one did what but the side effects were potential erectile dysfunction or a decrease in seamen. I looked at her and I was like “hell no”! Though see said the possibility of me suffering from either of these problems was low, I was like “any possibility is too high”! So I told her that I would just start shaving my head.
I didn’t start shaving my head immediately. I first had my hair cut really low by a professional barber. Then after a few weeks, I shaved my head with clippers without the use of a guard. This brought my hair down to the stubble. For me, the best complements were not “you look nice” which I was told but I really like to hear people said hey something looks different about you. I wouldn’t tell them anything then they would finally guess…”hey, you shaved your head!” I would be like “yeah” and they would say “cool” or it looks “good” or it looks “really nice” or as my boys would say it looks “tough.” Though one of my friends did joke with me about looking like Kojack, the feedback was nothing like my mind had anticipated. Anyhow, I went to shaving with a razor next. It took me awhile to get used to looking at myself in the mirror but I never gave up. I started researching shaving techniques, trying out different types of razors, shaving creams and gels, and I even tried different hair removal creams. I settled on the ‘Schick Hydro 5’ and ‘Bump Stopper Medicated Shaving Gel’ with Aloe Vera and Tea Tree Oil. The combination of these two products feels the best on my head. Because my head can take it and I like the feel of a smooth head, I shave every day. As Monica would say “I went all Mr. Clean.” However, I do keep facial hair.
Anyhow, I’m happy and we need to stand up and tell people it is okay and best to go natural. It has been seared into our brains that hair loss is a sign of weakness. Super heroes tend to always have full heads of hair. There are tons of movies in which bald guys are the butts of many some tasteless hair jokes. For God sakes, aliens are always depicted as miniature bald creatures running around probing people. We are program to think less of ourselves when we start losing our hair. But guess what, it’s just hair and there are a lot more of us losing it and/or destined to lose it than not. Let’s be ourselves and love it. We can’t change the volume of our hair any more than we can change the color of our skin. Sure you can always manipulate it but you will always have to look in the mirror…and when you do…you will always know that the person staring back at you is not a person at all. It’s a caged animal too frightened to step beyond the wall of its captivation to truly live free…..or maybe I’m just being dramatic…shave your damn head and rock out!
Honor
Shaved in 2004, never regretted it.
If you want the appearance of confidence, self control and decisiveness…shave it.
Hi Snayd,
I feel your pain. The best thing for me was to jump out in front of it. I started shaving my head early even though I could have still passed for having hair as long as I kept it trimmed low. However, I knew the bald spot was there and I kept rubbing it. Evenly, I just trimmed my hair low for a few days and kept going lower. This helps with getting you adjusted to being seen with less and less hair, and you can also see how low you want to go, you might like the trimmed look better than the clean look. I know some guys prefer the balding look over the bald look (no lie). I went with the clean look because I felt better just knowing that my entire head had the same smooth texture. Anyhow, by the time I actually decided to shave my head, most people did not even notice the difference. Let’s face it, we worry more about losing our hair because we think we are going to become less attractive, or we are just worried about what everyone will say. However, the longer you wait the harder it is going to be because you don’t want to give in and say I’m balding. I look at it like this, if going bald really doesn’t bother you then sport the balding look. At the same token, if you constantly find yourself staring at or rubbing your bald spot, if you are extremely conscious of the fact that you are balding then move forward with shaving your head…you’ll feel better. I think most women will agree that there is nothing less sexy than an unconfident man. Another thing that helps is growing out your facial hair and trying a few different styles to give yourself a completely different and new look.
Honor
Check out my hot new video! “Baldin'”..I think you’ll all appreciate this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J633jn4DPew
When someone makes a comments about my baldness, I turn it into a joke…
I say things like, Do you have any idea how long a bottle of shampoo lasts me? or I feel fine to be the point of reference in a crowd.
But seriously, I have been bald since I was 24, I’m now 51 and have never felt bad about it in any ways. Every now and then it crosses my mind to think how I would look if I had a full head of hair, but then again I say, no need for it, I have a beautiful life, beautiful wife and daughter, and I got all these without hair, so I don’t need it.
Guys, Bald is beautiful, it is a matter of mind set.
Roberto Panama City, Panama
Nick,
I loved the video. It was cool, funny, clever, and classy. Nice Job!
It seems counter to popular belief, balding happens long before you get old, I haven’t looked at any research, all I know is anyone I have seen or heard about went bald in their 20s. So for the world to associate bald with ‘old’ is stupid. Being bald and being old are only really connected when you try to pretend you aren’t going bald.
I love the bald lifystyle, there are so many perks it is amazing. I don’t have to dry/do my hair after a shower, If I want to wake up in the morning and go about my day I can, I mean, from actors you have the freedom to bic or let it grow out a little bit, Vin Diesel to Jason Statham. Confidence is key, and it’s hard to portray confidence when you are trying to hide something (and deep down you know that they know your hair isn’t there)
Remember guys, Bald is incredibly sexy to many many women. Chin up, confidence, shoulders back, look us in the eye and give us a big smile. A bald man seems much more manly and strong. Confidence and a clean shave (skin care, w/no pimples) are key. Go boldly men!!!!
Finally took the plunge with a little help from cancer! Some of friends said they didn’t even notice, which tells one how much hair I had! It’s gone for now and never to return? Who knows.
Noticed lots of bald advantages. Mentally it was a little difficult at first, but now I like it! Glad I joined your ranks, just not the reason why!
Hi, I’m 20 and I started going bald at about 17. I’ve got a pretty big forehead, shit job and no rich family to buy me cars and stuff like that and it all makes me feel alone and weak. I mean I walk up my road, hands in my pockets, looking at the ground and praying that no one will look at me. If I see a group of girls, I will do anything in my power to avoid them. Luckily, I was never a loser or bully in school, my friends have always been popular and I suppose not in a cocky way, but I was a little bit popular as well but as my baldness progressed I found myself moving further and further away. I don’t feel like I have the stuff anymore. I mean, if someone says, “mate you haven’t had a bird in ages,” I say, “Yeah, I can’t afford one.” But the truth is I’m scared to be rejected. If a load of people are doing something, I wonder if I do it, will it taint it or will people think, “What the hell is bald guy doing here?”
Hi just happened on this website, I have been shaving my head for 17 years and would love to be totally bald and not have to shave. I have tried everything and it still grows back and would love to be rid of it for ever an y suggestions? I am now completely grey or white and prefer the Kojack look .
Re: Chaz
As far as I know, natural hair loss or laser hair removal are the only ways to permanently lose/remove hair without damaging your skin. Laser hair removal is not recommended for people with darker skin. But I understand about wanting the nice smooth “Kojack” look….I simply shave my head every day. I find going against the grain gives me the closest shave but everyone’s skin cannot handle that. I also, use Bump Stopper Medicated Shaving Gel w/ Aloe Vera and Tea Tree Oil. l don’t have a problem with getting razor bumps on my head but I find that this product gives me the best and closest shave. My razor of choice is the Shick Hydro 5, I’ve tried many other’ including the Gillette ProGlide; but Shick remains my favorite. After shaving, I apply alcohol (many suggests using something less harsh but I like the burn) and sometimes lotion to my head. I rub a few drops of baby oil in my hand and spread that over my head to give it a shinier/cleaner look. The method works well for me, I’ve actually be asked by other baldies what I use to shave my head or how do I get my head so shiny and clean. You just need to find out what technique and products work best with your skin and hair texture.
I know this not the permanent solution that you want but developing a better shaving technique is probably the safest and definitely the cheapest what to go. Also, remember that bald actors usually have make-up applied to their heads so their scalp will often have a nice, hairless gleam that is almost impossible to achieve.
I noticed my hairs thinning and i saw that this led to the change of the color of my hairs. And then gradually the hairfall exceeded its daily limits when i could clearly see them lying all over on my study table after combing my head. And from that point onwards my hair fall didn’t stopped and reached higher levels of damage. The colour was changed to reddish brown from jet black full head of hairs. I’m 23 years old but still no one could see that i’m suffering with this phenomenon but i had made up my mind a long ago that i will not be frightened to keep that bald look and i’ve previously shaved my head 7-8 times by myself. I now always think positive about that look i call it cool and tough. Confidence is an another term to describe us. Remember, anyone can walk around with a full thick head of hairs but it takes only a ‘man’ to rock the bald infront of the whole world. A very good job by this website. I appreciate it very much. Thanks a lot