“You may as well just shave it off.”
“It’s pretty much gone anyway.”
These are the clichés bald and follically challenged people have put up with forever. “When it’s gone, it’s gone!” But this doesn’t give the truth.
Rarely will an entire head go bald naturally, men are left with the horseshoe (temple to temple around the back and maybe a little dusting on top), the bald spot(s) or the receding hairline, but in all honesty it is very unusual for a person to be completely bald.
So what to do? Leave it and keep it trim as if nothing has happened? Comb over? Or shave the remaining? There is no one correct answer, but in my opinion, and at this stage in my life the shaving option is the best, but let me explain a little further.
When I had a full head of glorious locks, which was my pride and joy by the way, I would get a haircut anything between once and seven or eight times a year. Strange now that I am a bald man, I find myself “cutting” my remaining hair at least once a week. Ok, so it’s free to shave it at home, with an initial investment in barber’s clippers, but the effort is still there and much more than hairy men.
Then there is the quandary of matching. We live in a world where beards of any type, cut and growth are commonplace and fashionable, but once you’ve shaved on top purely from an aesthetic point of view, you are going to have to trim the beard length (at least, style can remain more open) to match the rest of the head. Again effort and limited looks, (lucky I am handsome enough to get away with nearly any style… no?)
Now to the serious issue. Under a certain age, balding or not, having a shaved noggin can be a detriment to one’s life. If you are under 45-50 and are bald or a head shaver, it is very easy and common for some people (and in my experience the older they are the more likely it is) for your “disability” to be confused for a political statement. Skins or skinheads are a different world from those who just can’t grow thatching on the roof, but this doesn’t necessarily mean we are to be avoided or feared, in fact some of the nicest people you will meet are bald brothers (OK, so Larry David’s character is an exception, and a fictional character) but mostly we are normal people, just like you but we have to deal daily in a world aimed at the hairy. To our credit too, some of us are not even bitter about it. Not me however, it breaks my heart everyday. Genetics are only so much to blame, trust me. My Dad is in his 70’s and still has a thick a head of hair as he did when he was a teenager, and sympathy is usually short on the ground too.
Truthfully baldness is not considered an issue or modern problem, but just remember the happy face with the shiny head, maybe secretly crying inside… or not.
