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How does it feel to be bald? - Quora

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How does it feel to be bald?

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Im 46 and thinning out on top a bit. Im thinking about going all of the way and just
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Oliver Emberton, founder of Silktide

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I've been completely bald since I was 19. If you're worried about
thinning in your forties, imagine that as a teenager.

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For whatever reason my hair started to go really early; a student friend

suggested that he could trim it to a grade 3 or so to cover it up. Unfortunately
he wasn't an experienced hairdresser and accidentally took the lot off.
Turns out it was a good thing (thanks Ed!), although I won't pretend I was
delighted at the time. Here's what I learned:
So much better than the alternative. For over a decade I've had the
chance to witness others slowly losing their hair, and their increasingly
comical attempts to fight the inevitable. Occasionally I've been sunburnt or
whatever and had to let my own grow for a week. Trust me: you'll soon
prefer a clean shave, and come to retch at the thought of anything else:
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How does it feel to be bald? - Quora

Don't try this at home kids (and yes, that's John McCain).
Badge of distinction. With time, what might seem like a curse can
become something you're proud of. Y ou'll stand out. Y ou've outgrown the
petty concerns of tending to your hair - you face the world without it and
you kick its hairy ass.

Some women love it. Most women are just indifferent. And the few who
are really against it? Fuck 'em. There's plenty of others out there with better
taste. I'm sure even Vin Diesel got rejected once:
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(Just kidding Vin. Don't hurt me).

Times have changed. In my experience, younger people approve more.
The few dissenting voices I heard were universally from 60+ yr old bald men
who preferred to keep their tufts sprouting at the sides. Generally not a
group I'd want to take fashion advice from.

You age more slowly. I look almost the same now as my 12 year old
passport photo. Our hair dates us, and the absence of it seems to throw most
people's senses out. For example:

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(Correct answer, youngest to oldest: 3, 4, 2, 1. I was 33 in the oldest and 24 in

the youngest. 1 is the poutiest. I apologise).
Conveys maturity and attitude. I was once young and looking to be
taken seriously. Aged 21 the people I would pitch business to thought I was
27. Combined with a strong personally, I think being bald adds to your
confidence. Y ou think Patrick Stewart looks half as badass with flowing
locks?

Climate. Y ou're a little more exposed to the hot and cold, but it's rarely a
problem. Don't however do what I did, and spend a day unprotected in the
African savanna. My skin was so seared it essentially liquified for days.
Y ou'll catch sun much quicker at the top of your head than anywhere else.
Now are there times in the last 14 years when I've thought it would be nice to
have hair? Of course. We all occasionally long to fit whatever archetype society
encourages us to believe is 'perfect' from time to time.
But that's never a choice that is laid before us. Our choice is how to make the
best of what we are. If you're thinning on top, shaving your head is absolutely
the best way to embrace that change and make the best of it. And speaking
personally, I'm hugely grateful I discovered this so early.
Written 21 Dec, 2012.
Upvote 1.9k

Downvote Comments 46+ Share 9

Sanjay Mucharla
3.4k upvotes by Shabnam Shaik, Jayan Tharayil, Surya Sankar, (more)

I say just go for it!

Here is my story!
Most of the men in my family and immediate family are bald, and I realized at
a pretty young age that there was a really good chance that I'd go bald too at
some point in my life.
I started losing hair when I was around 21, and everyone started pulling my
leg about the fact that I was going to turn bald soon. I was losing confidence,
and started hating myself every time I looked at myself in the mirror. This lead
me to visit a doctor at a hair loss clinic. I wasn't sure why or what I was doing,
but decided to do it anyway because of pressure from family and friends.
So here I am at this doctor's clinic talking about my life's biggest problem, as I
was made to believe by my family and friends (including bald guys, mind
you!). What was surprisingly shocking to me was that the doctor who was
treating me made it a kind of a joke too about the fact that I was losing hair at
such a young age. I was shattered and paid no attention to what he said after
that. I clearly remember walking out extremely frustrated, and then
something made me stop and think about what was happening to me. I
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realized that my anger and frustration was because of others opinions about
me, and had absolutely nothing to do with how I felt about myself. It was all a
result of people being successful at brainwashing me.
I'm glad I went to the doctor that day, as I have never looked back since then.
Balding, after that day, has never made me feel weak or less confident. It in
fact has made me stronger and taught me not to give a crap about what people
think about me, my appearance, or the decisions I make in life. It has also
taught me not to not worry about things that are not under my control.
Y our attitude is what makes or breaks you. If you feel confident about who
you are, or how you look, no one can change the way you feel about yourself!
This was me at 20, after which I started to lose my hair rapidly. Lost almost
40% of my hair in the next three years.

I didn't wait to go completely bald, and ended up going for an almost bald look
(a buzz cutt) with a stubble. I really like it this way, but wouldn't think twice if
I have to go for a clean shave.
I started focusing my energies on other things that I knew would make me
happy, and better as a person. Fitness being one of them.
This is me now at 26, smiling confidently at the camera, and rocking my bald
look! :)

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Some of the conversations I have with family and friends now still start with
them making a point about my hair. The only change being they don't affect
me anymore. I've grown up. I hope they will too someday!
Ending my rant with some pros and cons from my experience!

Search

Pros
- I spend '0' bucks on haircuts, hair gels, and other styling products.
- I can comfortably wear hats without thinking twice about messing my hair.
Open Questions
Notifications
- I never, like never, have bad hair days! Home

Monsieur

Add Question

Cons
- I can never prove that I am standing against the wind! ;)
Updated 1 Sep.
Upvote 3.4k

Downvote Comments 106+ Share 14

Sanjay Sabnani, YOLO 'cept Hindus.

130 upvotes by Garrick Saito, David Rosen, Gourav Jatav, (more)

I have gone from having as close to an afro as an Indian kid could have, all
the way to being shaved bald. I chose to shave because being bald is an
affirmative decision whereas balding is a passive surrender to nature and
aging.
I was OK with shaving my head because I received favorable feedback from a
lot of people.
In my answer to Why do some women find bald men so gosh darn attractive?
I explain the moment when I was the happiest with my decision.
I went from this...

to this...
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I tend to be frugal so now instead of getting ripped off for paying a barber to
use clippers on my balding head, I instead get to take advantage when I get
spa facials. I mean I am all face after all :)
Written 22 Dec, 2012.

Vijay Singh, Nomad.

43 upvotes by Kiran Kadav, Sridhar Iyer, Dave Garrett, (more)

I once saw a TEDx talk by an bald Indian actor Anupam Kher, in which he
said:
There are two types of people in the world, Baldies and Future Baldies. :)
So I guess it's the same.
Written 21 Dec, 2012.
Upvote 43

Downvote Comment Share

Prarthana Bhat
486 upvotes by Alex Joseph, A Arun Prasath, Sneha Sankar, (more)

I have an uncle who's been bald for as long as I can remember.

Every time I pick on him ( in good humor of course), he very graciously
counteracts it saying,
" God made some perfect heads. The rest, he covered with hair"
It's all about the attitude.
Written 21 Dec, 2012.
Upvote 486

Downvote Comments 8+ Share 1

Surya Sankar, Co-Founder - Inkmonk.com

31 upvotes by Kannan Ganesan, Muthu Raman, Chakradar Raju, (more)

Frustrating.
I started losing my hair at sixteen. Or was it fifteen?
The fact is, I don't remember. I remember being a normal teenager with a
head full of hair. Then I remember being the weirdo with a receding hairline. I
don't exactly remember when the former gave way to the latter. Nevertheless,
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once it started, life quickly took a free fall into a bottomless hell. High school is
already a pretty traumatic experience if you are a nerd. And if you are a
balding nerd? A lamb in the slaughterhouse has a better life.
Most of my evenings were spent planning revenge on the unfair and cruel
world. All my fantasies involved me becoming insanely rich and being able to
afford hair transplantation procedures. I would become rich in the span of one
song, extract revenge on all those who had humiliated me while swaying my
hand through my thick wavy hair, like Rajnikanth does. With this song in the
background probably.

But once I joined college, things changed without me growing hair overnight.
I was a socially awkward nerd with no visible skills to show in a place where
everyone had some unique talent or the other. I wasn't as smart as I had
thought. And I couldn't kick a ball.I couldn't dance. I couldn't act. I couldn't
run. There was very little I could do. So, being bald was no longer my biggest
problem. I was continuing to bald. But I didn't have the time to worry about
that.
It started bothering me again once I was out of college. I moved to Bangalore,
and Bangalore is not kind on those who cannot look like Page 3 models. I
could never hold a conversation with anyone without getting a feeling that
they were looking at those two shiny spots on my forehead. The hardest part of
it all was talking to girls. What is supposed to be a joyous experience was quite
arduous for me. Every other minute, my hand would unconsciously go to my
head, trying to drag the hair to the front, trying to cover the spots.
At that time, I was in the phase where I tried to over compensate by growing a
lot of hair. This was how I looked most of the time - with disheveled hair
clumsily combed to hide the balding spots. Needless to say, I always looked like
I had just got out of bed.

I then moved to Chennai and started forgetting this problem once again by
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doing a bunch of other stuff. But it was still always present in a corner of the
mind, buzzing like a fly that refuses to go away. Then one day, I was watching
some Euro cup match. I noticed that half of the guys were either bald or had
just shaved their hair really close. And just then, in a moment of
enlightenment, I decided that I was going to trim my hair really close.
The first time I did that, I got mixed reactions. My parents didn't quite like it.
But my brother did. My colleagues did. It's always a good sign when your peers
like something and the elders don't. It means that you are doing it right. I
decided to stick to the style
It has been more than a year now, since I started shaving it close.More than
anything else, I feel liberated. It is always soul crushing to hide something
from others. Now I don't have to hide anything. I am exactly what I look like.
What Y ou See is What Y ou Get.
This is what I look like right now. The bald spots are right there for everyone to
see. I have realized that the best way to hide something is to just leave it in
plain sight.

Updated 27 Aug.
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Monsieur Personne
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