Coping with balding

[gene8189]

Hey guys . I had experience balding for about 2 years now and it comes to a point where I have to shave it to skin head . I am 23 years old. I had shaved my head for more than 30 days now and I am still coping with the new me . Unlike any of the members here . I am asian and my features doesnt really suit with bald head . I had gotten a few feedbacks and mostly are negative . I am feeling depress and socially awkward ever since I shaved my head . I used to be a popular kid before balding hit me and now I had become anti social. I would appreciate it if I can get some advice how to cope my situation .

[Cave Dweller]

Welcome to the forum, Gene.

I am sorry you are not happy with your smooth head, but may I suggest that allowing yourself to become anti-social is not the answer? I seriously doubt the popularity you experienced as a kid had anything to do with how much hair was on your head. It probably had more to do with who you were and the friendship you gave to others. That part of you will not change due to losing your hair unless you allow it to do so.

I have found that most people really do not care what your head looks like, and do not notice or mention it once the initial surprise of the change in your appearance is over. Your smooth head becomes just another of your features like eye color and shoe size. It all comes down to your attitude about yourself. If you act depressed and like you don't think yourself worthy of respect and friendship, people will pick up on that and will treat you accordingly. Don't fall into that trap, sir.

Be confident in yourself and you will be fine regardless of how much or little hair you have.

Glad you joined us here!

[Razor X]

Eventually we all have to come to terms with the reality that it's a waste of energy to obsess over what we can't change.  Your hair isn't going to grow back; you have no choice but to accept that you are bald.  You have to decide what you can live with: shaved head, buzz cut or horseshoe.  Those are the only options unless you go the plugs & drugs route which we do not recommend.

Let go of the past and focus on looking your best with what you have to work with.  Hang in there; it gets easier.

[Quiet_Dan]

Keep your chin up mate, sure there are options to combat nature and balding, many look pretty dodgy (in my opinion) and often really pricey.

I know for a while i half-heartedly opposed the balding nature with different hair styles, until it was the hairdresser's talking about anti-balding options (no way was I gonna pay that!) and a bit of a talk with my then girl friend, admittedly she wasn't too sure on the idea (but she's never touched a razor in her life, being Chinese and just having really fine hair) but had positive response from girl-friend and pretty much everyone else.  Even with positive responses it did take some time to get used to.

It can be hard to accept things gene, but life tends to be smoother when you aren't fighting your own basic nature

[baldjoeg]

Great advic given Razor, Cave Dweller and Dan. We need to accept ourselves as we are.

[Hieu Tran]

Well, I'm Asian too and I can understand your feeling. You're luckier than me that you got balding spot so you have a reason to shave yours but me. In my point of view, you should follow what you think. Once you think about shave them all, it mean you want it, tell me if you happier yourself  when you shaved it completely bald. I know the negative feedback made you upset, I can feel the same since I'm facing it now, but I think you can't comfort everyone around you, at least you can't comfort yourself.

[wpruitt]

Well said!  It's a very minor worry in the grand scheme of things.

Eventually we all have to come to terms with the reality that it's a waste of energy to obsess over what we can't change.  Your hair isn't going to grow back; you have no choice but to accept that you are bald.  You have to decide what you can live with: shaved head, buzz cut or horseshoe.  Those are the only options unless you go the plugs & drugs route which we do not recommend.

Let go of the past and focus on looking your best with what you have to work with.  Hang in there; it gets easier.

[timtak]

I live in Asia, Japan, where there are very few bald men other than Buddhist monks due to the lower percentage of male pattern balding, and the prevalence of weaves.

Due to the lower prevalence of balding people in Asian and among Asians everywhere, I think it more likely that one will be labelled as "the bald guy." I think that a lot of the time in the West the fact that someone guy is bald may not be all that noticeable facet of their appearance. For instance Vin Diesel is the guy with the deep voice, and I had to check that 'yeah he does also happened to be bald." With a low incidence in the population, or ones own race, it is more likely that this will be a defining characteristic.

In the past here in Japan the standards haircut for men was to shave the top of ones head so that everyone, from young to old, had a male pattern baldness haircut. I think that they did this so that no one felt excluded or stereotyped. 

But I don't believe it looks any worse, and it does not look bad. I think that Asians look fine bald, or no worse than those of any other race. Mokkun (image) looked cool bald.

Masahiro Nakai was said to look cool with very short hair

(better than he usually looks if you ask me).

Anyway, I think it is important to distinguish rare from bad. If you can do that, then the rest is easy, because bald looks okay.