There are few things in this life more deeply and personally satisfying than SHATTERING the judgments of those who would underestimate or misjudge us. Allowing your personal value and your own self worth outshine and overshadow the sad, shallow and selfconscious misconceptions of anyone and EVERY one foolish enough to  "Pre-Judge" another human being for his haircut (and yes, even with MPB, thats what the SLY look is, a haircut!) is a very worthwhile and gratifying experience.

 Think of your MPB, not as weakness or even a challenge, but as a chance to enlighten those around you. An opportunity for you to teach them (at ANY age) how little something like MPB really matters to a person who truly loves, respects and accepts himself as he is.

Dude, you have a chance here to be a walking example of what emotional fearlessness looks like.  

Trust me, if it wasn't MPB bringing you down, it would be something else. EVERY person out there has insecurities about the way they look. There is ALWAYS something that we try to de-emphasize, cover up, change or hide from the world. Look at all the products we seek out and use to change our looks. Everything from make-up and tanning beds, to teeth whitening, to hair plugs, to Bow-Flex, to crash diets, to plastic surgery is a testament to humanities collective insecurity about our looks as individuals.

You aren't the first person to go through these thoughts and feelings and you won't be the last. But you won't find a better group of guys to help you get your head right about this. I'm telling you, SLY brother to SLY brother, you have GOT to come to terms with this; and I mean SERIOUSLY ACCEPT it.

A person who is deeply, truly good with his MPB couldn't give less of a damn about the judgments of others. Rarely notices it and pays it no mind when he does. Eventually, it just seems to stop happening.

And this is advice from a guy who's 5'11", 250lbs, bald, heavily tattooed, pierced and wears kilts in public. If you accept yourself hard enough, no one's judgments are strong enough to touch you.

It seems like you are projecting all the uncertainty about your future and unhappiness with your current situation on the MPB and blame it for all that.

Yeah, I think you're right.  Actually, pretty much everything you guys said was spot on.  I was just feeling kind of down the other day, and so I ended up really too far inside my own head and obsessing over sh*t.  After reading over what I wrote then, I realize I sounded like a real whiny little bitch, and for that I apologize.

I'm feeling way better today.  But I'm still not at a point where I'm really used to it and feel like myself... I guess that takes time, and I guess that's why everybody recommends the 30 day rule.  I plan to stick it out at least that long.

Also, while a lot of people buzzed it down gradually, I went from having a lot of hair to absolutely no hair in a day, from being the guy everybody thought was a hippy surfer to a skinhead overnight.  Kind of like going off heroin cold turkey or something.  So it's gonna take me a while to get used to it.  It's tough to have to re-adjust your perception of yourself.  And the even harder part for me is gonna be adjusting how I think the rest of the world perceives me.  Or... maybe what I need to do is re-learn how to not care how the rest of the world perceives me.  Right now I feel kind of like I'm back in middle school, when I was kind of an awkward, shy kid, and always worried about what people thought of me.  Because from about age 15 on, I didn't give a crap, I knew who I was and was comfortable in my own skin.  Now I feel like I've had an identity change forced on me pretty suddenly, and I guess I'll just have to adapt.  When life gives you lemonade, etc.

The part I still haven't learned to like though is shaving.  I do it in five the morning, when I'm getting ready for work and still only half awake, it takes me about 20 minutes and I cut myself up every damn time!  I wish I could just wax it all off or something... haha

Quote from: Vash on April 12, 2010, 06:20:32 AM

There are few things in this life more deeply and personally satisfying than SHATTERING the judgments of those who would underestimate or misjudge us. ... If you accept yourself hard enough, no one's judgments are strong enough to touch you.

Best. Post. Ever.

Agreed.