Is this the worst time in history to be losing hair?

[Boondock]

I think it might be, for a few reasons:

1. Looks count for more now than they used to. 50 years ago, people never used to care so much.

2. Even further back, partners tended to be found younger, and relationships to last for life. For 90% of us, you were locked in to marriage before you lost your hair.

3. We still don't have ideal treatments, and have to work with really quite limited tools.

4. Crucially, we weren't born recently enough to reap the benefits of new technology in time, but we were not born so long ago that new treatments aren't in our minds. They're more a thing to taunt us and remind us of what we don't have, than something we'll get before it's too late.

Just a thought - none of this is particularly serious. I understand that on the flip side we have a) the internet, and b) some moderately effective treatments, so I suppose in some ways things aren't too bad.

 

[Hoppi]

Personally I think we're lucky! Apparently they only worked out that male hair loss was caused by DHT about 10-15 years ago! Can you imagine how screwed we would be before that discovery? We would have been relying on a random snake oil or a 10 year supply of Rogaine lol

and then of course yes we have the internet to discuss the best treatments and help one another out!

We also of course have the opportunity to confuse others who will wonder how we escaped the often inevitability of male pattern baldness (provided we have a good enough regimen to create that illusion )!

But yeah, those are my thoughts. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to "C'est la vie" The way I see it this is like "our thing" as guys. Girls have things like childbirth etc, and we have hair loss! lol

You just gotta keep your chin up and keep fighting!

 

[Artas]

Sorry Hoppi but comparing a womans child birth to a man losing is hair is irrelevant.

I think Hair Loss is becoming a much more important issue now, which is why I think they'll come up with new and/or improved concealers. I mean with technology and all sorts they'll find a lot more interesting stuff. Like in so many films you can obviously tell that many actors have had hair thickening sprays/shampoos/conditoners to make them appear hot. And actors who do have thinning hair would have some some hair fibres appplied to their scalp.

As for treatmens, we wont see nothing big for another 10+ years... We now know the 2 genes that cause hair loss, but can we prevent it?

 

[andrei_eremenko]

the reality is this...no one can defeat this crap right now...maybe if you cut your balls or use those stronger inhibitors...dudasteride or flutamide...maybe you'll gain some hair but you'll lose others...
I think we really live in the worst period...on my parents generation that wasn't a major issue...but right now...a balding guy will not have too much chances to take the minds of 20 years girl...just my opinion...for my...loosing my hair has turned me from a good looking guy to a bad looking guy...I think the hair has a lot to say in your appearance...just my opinion...
a lot of those guys from hollywood are using hairpieces...or lot of concealears...there are a lot of example...al pacino...ben affleck...by the way sometime I've seen him with a receding hairline...and the with a straight line...this is telling everything...
about the future...I think in 20 years something will be for sure available...maybe I should have be born now...

 

[uncomfortable man]

I can't think of anytime during human history when Being bald was "in". Some misinformed people might say that being bald has become popular recently but they are referring to guys with full heads of hair who choose to shave it off which is a totally different situation. Most of those guys are either black or mexican. Anyway, now is a bad time to be bald with the inhospitable climate towards the hair impaired perpetuated by the media in combination with lack of effective treatments. Hairloss is not seen as a "problem" in the medical community so it isn't serious enough to cure but it is still considered an undesireable trait which negatively effects other peoples perception of us. We are stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

 

[s.a.f]

Must've been pretty bad in the 70's and 80's when big hair was in, but yeah in todays society the media puts more emphasis on looks than ever before.

 

[Petchsky]

I think this is the best time to be going bald, if ever there was one, as you can now do something about it, before no, and hair transplant's were totally disfiguring back then, and would makes things even worse than baldness itself.

And not everyone is immersed in the vacuous culture of today. Julius Cesaer wrote about his baldness and tried various tonics to re grow his hair, and he lived around 48BC. I think baldness hits hard in any culture, at any most points in history...as long as you're not too occupied with trying to survive, food and shelter etc, which is a much more pressing problem.

 

[Obsidian]

+1, this is the best time in history to be losing hair. In the decades before hand, you were almost expected to keep the horsheshoe, it was considered controversial to buzz it down to the skin. Look at Yul Brynner or Telly Savelas and a lot of the flak he got for it. Look at all the quacks back then selling all those products that would make you assume your hair would grow back if you used it. hair transplant methods were mostly disfiguring. Plus I see so many guys with full heads of hair and balding who buzz down.

 

[Boondock]

Just to reiterate, this thread was more to pose a question than to state a view myself. However, I shall now state my view!

The big difference for me has been the internet. I really don't know how I'd have dealt with hair loss without it.

When I started losing, I didn't know whether I was actually losing or what the hell was going on. I thought no one else started this process at 19. I knew nothing about treatments.

If I didn't get online, I'd probably only have got information from my GP. And my GP basically said: a) you're losing hair, b) take minoxidil and finasteride if you want it to slow down. I know for a fact that even many derms don't offer much more advice.

This was all well and good, but minoxidil didn't do much for me, and finasteride gave me sides. Going online gave me many more opportunities to read about alternatives. It made me aware of some of the perils of hair transplants, and of bogus treatments. It also made me aware that some 'alternative' treatments (eucapil, spironolactone, nizoral, bla bla) are actually pretty useful.

Finally, it gave me a chance to see that other people were going through this, and many who were actually my age. Since then a few of my friends have started on this path to Norwoodville, but at the time I was alone. The internet stopped that.

And, frankly, it's not like I'm going to phone up one of my friends who's onto NW3 and have a chat about how hair loss bugs me. Never gunna happen!

So for me, it's the net that's made things better. Both to research and to share.

 

[Defiance]

Have to be the 60's/70's wouldnt it, seems long hair defined you back then

 

[Draco88]

^^I guess we can say that 60's onwards: sucks to be losing hair.

I'm assuming it was similar in past decades..but these days, i think it's far worse to be losing hair. That is, losing hair in your 20's, when the majority of guys aren't. However we are fortunate in that there do seem to be more options in maintaining/regrowing, but even then you need the money for that.

 

[BrightonBaldy]

If I was brought up in the 60's or 70's I would've wanted huge hair, it would've been impossible, for me those wouldve been the worst years to lose it.

 

[Artas]

In the 60/70's hair loss wasn't really an issue. It is because the media wasn't constatnly injecting us with what looks good and what doesn't. The media is too blame on many issues beyond hair loss.

 

[FSHGLD]

I think it would have been worse in the 60s and 70s. These days there's guys like Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, Freddie Ljungberg etc who women actually fawn over. There was no one like that back then. Nowadays there's a not inconsiderable minority of women who consider a balding shaved head to actually look ok- in the 60s and 70s, a shaved head made you a freak instantly. When I see photos of my dad when he was 27 with a horseshoe haircut I'm really grateful I can shave my head and not be labelled a thug. Guys wore wigs back then, these days they either use moderately effective treatments or shave their heads and get on with things. Which would you prefer?

 

[Boondock]

In the 60/70's hair loss wasn't really an issue. It is because the media wasn't constatnly injecting us with what looks good and what doesn't. The media is too blame on many issues beyond hair loss.

I think this is a good point. People have always liked pretty folk, but the media (and, in turn, individuals) has distorted and exagerrated this inclination to the point where we're now taking it to the extreme. I think that many people genuinely consider the ugly to be sightly less human than the good looking.

Case in point. I was watching the Apprentice the other day (UK version), and one of the contestants said: "I wouldn't do business with an ugly person, I don't think you should ever have to do that." Scary much?

You can see the same in politics now. 20 years ago Neil Kinnock had a shot at the top job in the UK. Now, image is treated so seriously that people forget how ludicrous it is.

 

[s.a.f]

the media (and, in turn, individuals) has distorted and exagerrated this inclination to the point where we're now taking it to the extreme. I think that many people genuinely consider the ugly to be sightly less human than the good looking.

Case in point. I was watching the Apprentice the other day (UK version), and one of the contestants said: "I wouldn't do business with an ugly person, I don't think you should ever have to do that." Scary much?

You can see the same in politics now. 20 years ago Neil Kinnock had a shot at the top job in the UK. Now, image is treated so seriously that people forget how ludicrous it is.

Yeah its really gotten to an extreme these days, its built into the social conscience that good looking people are simply better. You'll never see a movie where an ugly guy is the hero and a good looking guy is the villain. You'll never see a company use an advert where their customer is portrayed as some bald fat guy.

And as for politics I belive we'll never again see an obese or bald prime minister again.
For example in Britain we recently had our first ever U.S style party leaders debate. Now out of the 3 guys the youngest and probably best looking contender was Nick Clegg before the debate he was in the opinion polls last by a long way his party was almost considered the joke party and hardly anyone knew who he was. After 1 short tv debate he leapt to first place. I have to believe that people were influenced visualy, just like they would be watching pop Idol.

 

[Artas]

^ Yeh it is sad that the media have caused all of this, and things will continue to get worse. If people were more accepting... I probably wouldn't care too much about hair loss, but I don't want to appear ugly to others so I am trying my best to get the supplements for hair loss (too young for finasteride, plus too expensice) and all of this is stressing me out...

 

[Boondock]

^ Yeh it is sad that the media have caused all of this, and things will continue to get worse. If people were more accepting... I probably wouldn't care too much about hair loss, but I don't want to appear ugly to others so I am trying my best to get the supplements for hair loss (too young for finasteride, plus too expensice) and all of this is stressing me out...

I think it may continue, especially as technology progresses to help people look good. Looking bad is starting to be seen as laziness as much as it is genetics, and to some extent that's true (though not with baldness).

 

[sgtpep]

Dude, you can't blame hair loss on you ability to get women,
chances are if you can't pick a girl up now, you never could and this is just a nice excuse for you, sure it doesn't help being bald, but confidence is where it is at.
if your worried, shave it all off, complete skin head is still pretty cool, i rock it here and there.
weak people like to make excuses for things that go wrong in their life.
as soon as you accept that you are balding, life gets heaps better, watch curb your enthusiasm, Larry David is the bald leader of the world.

relax, and do you really want a girlfriend that is so image obsessed, that a little hair missing disgusts her??

 

[s.a.f]

Larry David is one of the most neurotic bald guys on the planet, and we dont have to be worried about women being digusted with baldness just women who prefer a guy with hair because there are plenty more of them about.
Ps do you think Larry would 'rock it' if he shaved his horseshoe off?