Hi everyone, I made a similar post in another section but I just wanted to make a continuation in this sub forum. I just wanted to share my story for anyone else struggling with their body image. I hope this doesn't sound cheesy. I ended up shaving my head about 8 months ago.
I've always struggled with body image issues and somewhat hated the way I looked. I used to compare myself to other guys and hate myself for not achieving some standard of perfection. I was jealous that all my male relatives had perfect looks, while I was some scrawny balding kid. After shaving my head, I was forced to put a flaw in my appearance totally out in the open. At first, I was very anxious about it and would constantly think people were snickering about it behind my back. I hated looking at myself in the mirror even more than before. But I stayed true to doing the 30 day promise. Little by little, I got used to not seeing myself without hair and even laughed at bald jokes my friends would make. As the months went by, I started to notice that no one even cared about my hairstyle and started to receive a few compliments. I slowly realized how trivial this was to stress over.
Getting used to being bald help me get used to other flaws I found in my looks. I figured that it was pointless moping about this and that I should just work with what I have. Since I already stood out by being bald, I was more open to experimenting with clothes and now I just love coming up with new combinations and even designing my own. I even ended up beginning to like my imperfections. I actually have become more comfortable with looking different - that I'm 21 and bald, skinny, kinda lanky, have a weird head shape, and not super buff. I still take care of my appearance and exercise, but now, I don't really sweat it if I don't look like some male model. I like myself more now and I like that I look different. I mean, people clearly stare at my shiny head bc it's an awesome fashion statement and bc they wish they could pull off mbp like I can (lol jk jk jk). Even though I still have automatic negative thoughts about my looks whenever I'm in a social environment, especially my premature baldness, I've learned to simply counter them.
I've learned that being confident, being friendly to people, and 1000000000 other things are more important than being considered attractive. So I just want to say thanks to everyone on the forum who encouraged me to take that bold step! And obviously, don't think that shaving your head is the solution to your body image issues. I'm just saying that we're more conscious of perceived flaws than others and in the end it doesn't matter as much as we think. Obviously, being attractive is nice but beauty in and of itself is so subjective and there really is more to life.
