Sly Bald Guys Forum
Discussions About Being Bald => Reactions to being Bald => Topic started by: SultanofSwing86 on August 19, 2009, 03:48:19 PM
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I was wondering about the reactions that people had recieved from other men with balding heads?
My eldest brother who has been very obviously balding for atleast 6-7 years saw me last week with my shaved head. He asked me in a rather aggresive manner "what did you do that for?", it sort of threw me a bit as I wasn't expecting it. I was trying to be careful in my response and just said that I preferred to have no hair than have half a heads worth. I was mostly suprised by his response as he had been quite supportive when I had it buzzed down for a couple of months prior to shaving. He has often had his hair buzzed short but now has it grown to about an inch (which seems to draw attention to how thin it is).
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My experience for what it's worth is totally mixed. Younger, that is less than 50 are either shaved, buzzed or very short. Older guys who are shaved are totally cool w/ it as are the younger guys. Where it gets dicey is the older guys--some are hostile but more interesting to me are a number who quietly come up and ask about it. I can tell they've at least thought about it. The hostile ones never do and we're not talking a great number, always pop off in large crowds--so I let them have the reactions in large crowds, why haven't you thrown that dead animal out yet, etc. Most of them pointedly ignore it, and one said he liked his hair and was keeping what was left of it--I really wanted to ask him if he had one or two boxes of it--but I didn't I was nice.
The younger ones always ask about it, how to do it, do I shave everyday, does it take a lot of time--the whole list. They are going to do it one day in my book.
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I never have received many comments, even when I first went sly. Have had at least 4 guys with MPB comment on it and said they'd been considering shaving their heads...but only one convert so far that I know of.
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I had a guy at work the other day stop me and ask me why I shaved. He said that he has been thinking about it since he is already bald on top, but just didn't have the nerve to do it. I think I may have talked him into it. And a friend of mine who is balding on the top told me Sunday that he is going to buzz the rest of his hair down to a number 1.
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Lately at work, I've had a bunch of guys ask me about my shaving routine. I think some of them want to do it but don't have the nerve. I've really been feeling the sly brotherhood lately too. Yesterday at lunch, a sly waiter told me "hey, nice haircut!" That's been happening to me a lot. Feels great!
On a side note, I'm about to head up north to see my family. My dad hasn't seen me sly yet and I have a feeling I'm going to get a bunch of grief. When I was buzzed to a "1", dad commented several times about my short hair. I don't think he's cool with the bald look. Everyone else in my famly (except my wife, at first) has been supportive. After 15 months of being sly, I have no intention of going back.
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Most of the 40ish MBP's with the bozo ring that I have encountered have kinda looked down on me for it and made negative comments. I think it is more jealousy than anything else. Sorta like "Why didn't I think of that?" The owner of my company commented on it and is considering doing it. He has very little left and it is all buzzed. He just thinks it would be too time consuming to shave every day. I told him he had so little left, it would only take a minute or two. I have little tact.
Went to another customer site today where they had not seen it yet. They loved the look and I got tons of compliments and head rubs from everyone. Even have one of their employees considering it now.
The interesting thing I have noticed between the various customers that I work with - If it is a business that is primarily traditional white collar, they react more negatively. Blue collar (drywall company, body shop) all love it. I never thought of it as a class issue, but there is a pattern emerging.
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I never thought of it as a class issue, but there is a pattern emerging.
Sorry to hear that is your experience, mine is quite the opposite. I had to eat lunch at my desk so I went to the food court in a high rise downtown building, saw at least three other slys. At least here, there isn't any "class" difference, except that personally, in my opinion, fringe longer than 1/4" indicates a slob, a guy w/o any self respect. Sorry if that offends any lurkers, but if you're out there and are offended--look in the mirror and get honest w/ yourself.
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The interesting thing I have noticed between the various customers that I work with - If it is a business that is primarily traditional white collar, they react more negatively. Blue collar (drywall company, body shop) all love it. I never thought of it as a class issue, but there is a pattern emerging.
I do get the impression that shaving the head isn't a very "middle class" thing to do. I think it stems from the image of skinheads/thugs. Though saying that in a business environment it seems that shaving ones head combined with shirt and tie type of dress gives more the impression of someone who is smart and orderly in their appearance. I guess how the shaved head is recieved depends on many other things as well.
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I have been paying more attention to wearing better clothing at work. I dropped the polos and went for the shirt an tie for the most part. Seems to improve the reaction. People seem to more readily notice the 15 pounds I have lost faster than the shaved head. But our former VP of Sales had a shaved head, so it is not a complete negative at work.
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The interesting thing I have noticed between the various customers that I work with - If it is a business that is primarily traditional white collar, they react more negatively. Blue collar (drywall company, body shop) all love it. I never thought of it as a class issue, but there is a pattern emerging.
I have been paying more attention to wearing better clothing at work. I dropped the polos and went for the shirt an tie for the most part. Seems to improve the reaction. People seem to more readily notice the 15 pounds I have lost faster than the shaved head. But our former VP of Sales had a shaved head, so it is not a complete negative at work.
Excuse me, and please don't think I'm "picking a fight" but these statements just don't match up in my mind. A VP of Sales is not "blue collar". Sly dresses up well, and dresses down well--that can't be said of a "Bozo Ring". A slob is a slob in white tie and tails or in overalls. Sly IS NOT A CLASS THING. It is a reasonable and IMO more sensible response to mpb than any other reaction known to the mpb population. It's more acceptable now, but then so is the use of hairspray by guys w/ hair--and that would have made you the brunt of crude jokes not that many years ago. Men go to "stylists" in many cases not barbers. Contemporary life is just more accepting a a man doing what he can to make himself presentable--that includes sly, working out, etc. One article on shaving heads estimated that there are more than 20 million of us out there now and we all know that number grows daily. I saw three slys driving to work today alone, one in shorts-a day off I guess--two in business dress including ties--and that's not unusual. So my point is, this isn't a CLASS thing at all. That attitude kind of gets me going, as if you hadn't already guessed.
MY Rant Is Over.
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I used to work in the Security/Law Enforcement field and the amount of shaved heads that I would run into would make your jaw drop.
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True. Quite common in the military and police forces. Anyone with a gun in fact. :)
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Your brother probably just liked you being in a similar boat to him. There is strength in numbers. Encourage him to shave his too. Tell him about how great it is.
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I am kind of wondering if the "class" thing is a thing in different parts of the country??? Anyway, here in Seattle, I have seen many white and blue collar workers with a totally shaved head or at least buzzed. I also know ministers and Amway salesmen who are sly. But then again, it might depend on the part of the country that you are in.
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I have had a few comments but the over 50 sect seems to comment on it more than the younger sect. For years, barbers and fashion people told me that guys over 40ish keep it short but not shaved. Im glad I do.
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It's funny because guys sometimes fear that they'll be accused of being a skinhead by shaving their head, but in reality that doesn't seem to happen. What does seem to happen is that guys who are going bald will ask in disbelief why I shave my head. A few weeks ago a guy I knew asked me when I started going bald because he assumed that I shaved because I was going bald. When I told him I had a full head of hair he really seemed annoyed that I shave it off. I could tell he was being nice and trying to stay out of my business while also being in such disbelief that he had to say SOMETHING.
I do feel bad for guys like him because it's got to be incredibly irritating to have genetics that kill off the hair that you used to have and continue to like, and then you go around and see a guy with a full scalp of hair shaved to the skin.
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I do get the impression that shaving the head isn't a very "middle class" thing to do. I think it stems from the image of skinheads/thugs. Though saying that in a business environment it seems that shaving ones head combined with shirt and tie type of dress gives more the impression of someone who is smart and orderly in their appearance. I guess how the shaved head is recieved depends on many other things as well.
Yeah, I think alot of it is from the movie "American History X" and others. But it's been 10-15 yrs since it's came out and with more and more people going sly the association between shaved heads and white supremacy is fading as fast as some of our hairlines.
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Okay, I probably shouldn't even write this out, but for those who even think Sly is in any way, shape or form a "blue collar" deal [assuming as I do not that there is anything bad about no tie work], let me tell you, that in the City of New Orleans, that just isn't the way it is. I just got back from a very nice--spelled nice drinks, good wine, great food--lunch at a famous restaurant. Several Sly Guys, and that doesn't even consider the waiters if you please. No, Sly isn't a "class" limited thing, and the only Sly's that could even cause any of us to pause are those who aren't working, aren't interested in looking for work, and don't have any independent unearned income to support such a life. Is that clear :x! :x! :x!. Don't want to hear any more of that manure.
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I apologize Saint if I did not explain my position adequately or implied that Sly was specifically a blue collar style. I also am not trying to start a fight. I make over 6 figures and am a Director for an IT company - a very white collar job with very white collar pay. I was stating that in my experience with customer interactions since shaving my head, the people who are more negative about my bald head are traditional white collar businesses. The people who are more accepting are traditional blue collar businesses.
I do not see it as a white/blue collar look. However, there is still a perception that people seem to retain (call it a stereotype or whatever) based on past perceptions. You still find the same bias with race, nationality, religion, tattoos, gender, sexual orientation, piercings, anything that is outside of a select group's social standard. I am not saying that justifies any of it. It is an inherent trait in people I meet on a daily basis. That they remark on it in such a way as they have eliminated it as being my perception alone that makes me feel that this is the case. And perhaps it is something regional or isolated.
All that being said, it provides me with the opportunity for discussion with those individuals to break the stereotype that they have. I welcome those discussions because it breaks down barriers that these individuals have created based on appearance of an individual rather than who that individual truly is. There is a bias out there as indicated on these forums by people who have encountered difficulty with potential employers. This is not necessarily in all regions of the world or even the United States. It seems to be more compartmentalized as most biases are.
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I never thought of it as a class issue, but there is a pattern emerging.
Sorry to hear that is your experience, mine is quite the opposite.
Same here. I'm seeing more and more guys at work who are ditching the horseshoe and shaving smooth. A couple of them have been sporting horsehoes for years and they weren't really buzzed short, either. The kind of guy who's been bald so long that I figured if they hadn't shaved by now, they never would. But one by one, they're slowly coming over from the dark side. It's almost to the point now where an MPB guy who doesn't shave is the one who looks a bit off.
I do think that 10 or 15 years ago it was more of a blue-collar/white collar thing, simply because the blue collar guys adopted the look first. Typically they have more flexibility in the workplace when it comes to personal appearance. Or at least that's what white collar guys think. Many of us, myself included, hesitated for a long time thinking that we couldn't shave because it wouldn't be accepted at work, only to find afterwards that it was not a problem at all. Often the obstacles are all in our minds.
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It's almost to the point now where an MPB guy who doesn't shave is the one who looks a bit off.
That's so incredibly true from my experience. I remember seeing those horseshoes of hair quite often when I was a kid, but they are extremely rare now. And when someone does have that hairline and doesn't shave it, they usually keep it very short.
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I've buzzed my hair with at least a #2 or #3 for the last 5 or 6 years and then started going down to a #1 then finally last fall to no guard. So when I went completely shaved back in February it was no shock to anyone. Several have asked me about my routine as well.
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I had the best reaction from a balding guy the other day at work, he was walking behind me in the corridor and then came upto me and started rub the back of my head and said he was trying to figure out the future.... It was quite funny and not done in a rude/offensive way, though I don't think that he will drop the horseshoe look anytime soon :/O
There probably isn't much hope trying to convert my brother anytime soon, he also seems to be happy with the dead animal on top, though I reckon he would look awesome sly and probably atleast 10 years younger.
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I had the best reaction from a balding guy the other day at work, he was walking behind me in the corridor and then came upto me and started rub the back of my head and said he was trying to figure out the future....
You're a very understanding guy, if he'd done that to me he would have woken up next week. :x!
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Rusty: Do u have a pic?
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I had the best reaction from a balding guy the other day at work, he was walking behind me in the corridor and then came upto me and started rub the back of my head and said he was trying to figure out the future....
You're a very understanding guy, if he'd done that to me he would have woken up next week. :x!
NOTE TOO SELF ::::NEVER RUB THE BACK OF SAINTC HEAD !
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I had the best reaction from a balding guy the other day at work, he was walking behind me in the corridor and then came upto me and started rub the back of my head and said he was trying to figure out the future.... It was quite funny and not done in a rude/offensive way, though I don't think that he will drop the horseshoe look anytime soon :/O
There probably isn't much hope trying to convert my brother anytime soon, he also seems to be happy with the dead animal on top, though I reckon he would look awesome sly and probably atleast 10 years younger.
Perhaps he was 'trying to see his future' as being SLY! 8)
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You're a very understanding guy, if he'd done that to me he would have woken up next week.
I suppose it sounds worse on here than the moment. It was done out of harmless jest. If I didn't know the guy and if he didn't have an awful bozo the clown look going on then It may not have gone down well.
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You're a very understanding guy, if he'd done that to me he would have woken up next week.
I suppose it sounds worse on here than the moment. It was done out of harmless jest. If I didn't know the guy and if he didn't have an awful bozo the clown look going on then It may not have gone down well.
It does sound hard, but then it sounds weird to me that some random guy, whether he knows you or not, putting his hands on your head--it's just beyond what's acceptable IMO. If I'd been in that situation and he asked what if felt like, probably ok, but unannounced handling my head, yes, it could turn out not so nice depending on my mood.
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doesnt matter to me if you have it shaved skin close or not...I like em shaved, stuble, slicked back, ponytailed, afro'd or cousin It......enjoy lol
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I shaved head is a sign of confidence. Let your bald flag fly!!!! O:O
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I had the best reaction fro m a balding guy the other day at work, he was walking behind me in the corridor and then came upto me and started rub the back of my head and said he was trying to figure out the future....
You're a very understanding guy, if he'd done that to me he would have woken up next week. :x!
I would have to agree....that seems a little weird for a stranger to just rub your head. :/O
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Haven't seen this thread in a while!
At a Halloween Party this year one of the guys I know that gave me the roughest time--in a friendly way though--when I did the deed a couple of years ago pulled me aside after I'd refreshed my cup and asked all kinds of questions, how often, do you cut yourself, is it hot in summer, cold in winter, lots of angles on the issue. His wife, by the way, had really liked it when I did it, and that didn't please wifey at all! ;D ;D
Well, my take away is that he's thinking about it--he's mostly skin and totally white hair--lucky guy won't have any shadow to speak of >:(. My guess is he'll be coming our way.
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A friend of mine - in the morning always comments "nice shin on top Richard" I return by saying "nice shine on you too- Jim" - - - - - - It is starting to get cold and I hate to wear a hat because I want to show off my Bald head
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Hey Guys, hope you all had a happy new year!!
The main response I've had from balding men with the horse shoe look is one of envy.
The look you get is one of "I wish i had the balls to do that ".
Most of the men on my fathers side of the family are bald, but I'm the only sly one!
They all love the look but are too scared to do it! LOL!!
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When I got out of the shower at my gym the other day, this "horse shoe" guy who was about my age gave me this really weird look. Seemed like a mix of being angry and jealous.
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Met a guy in Adams Market (who works there) this morning who commented to me - - - - "You have a nicely shaved noggin" - - - - - he said he has been looking at my BALD head for the last few weeks - - - - - and I said that I had been looking at your "horse shoe" and today you can hardly see it - - - - - He told me he has been trying to get a shave like mine - -and get rid of the - -MPB - -"horse shoe" - - -I told him the best way is to carry a razor in his back pocket and shave that "horse shoe" whenever it starts to appear - - -like I do (I was only kidding) - - -You would never see a "horse shoe" on me because I shave in the morning just before shopping - - - - - my hair is light grey so you would not see a "horse shoe" on me unless I let it grow for a week or more - - -He said "Talk to me when you shop in the market" We can talk "BALD MANS TALK " It was fun - - -
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Two of my brothers (I have 5!) are balding (one has the "combover from Hell"), and can't figure out why I - who largely still had a full head of hair - would choose to shave his head.
They're just jealous but I look fabulous SLY! :-D
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They're just jealous but I look fabulous SLY! :-D
Yes you do!
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I was wondering about the reactions that people had recieved from other men with balding heads?
My experience is very limited as I'm a new SLYguy. Overwhelmingly, I get an enthusiastic "Thumbs up, way to hit it out of the park, bro!!" from our SLY brothers on the street. From the other, less fortunate and obviously disempowered guys out there with the buzzed, horseshoe fringe who are fighting their balding tooth and nail, I get what I’d call a burning glaze of disapproval. The SLY thinks it’s got a lot to do with choice. I love my choice to be SLY and they can’t comprehend it. In a word - jealousy.
-Owen
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A friend of mine - in the morning always comments "nice shin on top Richard" I return by saying "nice shine on you too- Jim" - - - - - - It is starting to get cold and I hate to wear a hat because I want to show off my Bald head
I have a one word solution for that dilemma... ...PARKA... When I lived in Chicago, I learned that when you wear a hood outside, you can flip it down as soon as you walk in the door, giving you maximum sly exposure time. Also you don't have to worry about keeping track of your hat, since its attached to your collar...
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I have had all kinda comments this time around lst few times it was really a high high high and tight but when I cut it down and donated it this time the MBP had set it too much so Iam sly forever now but I had guy one night when we was working out side in the dark in a trailer last week ( Iam a LTL Truck driver ) one of my freinds said hey take your hat off so I can see the flash light is dieing out but I ahve had all types of reactions seeing how I go every place from Corprate offices down town Charlotte to some ones house for deliverys , one old SLY Guy I go to said ,,,what happen to you ? then took off his hat and laughed saying he ask the barber for a discount since he only had a hourse shoe and instead the baber said he should raise the rates for looking for it , but they are still good freinds he said instead he still goes once every two months just to get a straight shave from him ..