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Comment by throwaway8879 | Hacker News Reader

I do understand why people would feel insecure about baldness. Is it changing for the better though? Loads of "cool" bald people, think Vin Diesel etc. I still have a head full of hair and just turned 30. Not sure how I'd feel as I've had long hair all my life. I do feel that the volume isn't as high as it was in my early 20s..

I hope we make some progress in a cure either way.

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Thanks for encouraging progress in a cure. Honestly, it all really depends on who you are. Some people don't really mind. Other people, like myself, are drastically affected by it emotionally. I've never really been a masculine guy, and having long, thick hair was part of that. Suddenly having it thin, seemingly overnight, at the age of 18 was a really frustrating thing. It gets frustrating when I want to dress certain ways, but can't pull off various looks because my bald head doesn't fit in with it. I feel like I've been roped into a very specific way of dressing as a result and, once again, the whole thing is really frustrating. I see some of my co-workers come in with fresh and stylish hair cuts and I become jealous I can no longer express myself in the same way.

I don't let it stop me from living my life and doing the things I want, but it's still a garbage thing that I absolutely will not deny has affected me every day.

Insecurities aside, I hate not having natural protection from the sunlight and cold. I miss being able to go to the beach without a hat.

I am not, strictly speaking, bald--I have about as much hair as Eisenhower did when he was president. My vanity is much more committed to not caring (or not showing that I care) about such matters than it is to the full head of hair I had years ago.

I went bald very young (started shaving my head around age 20/21 because there just wasn't enough left).

It was a big hit to my confidence, especially as a teen. I also felt it prematurely "aged" me - I used to joke that I turned 28 on my 18th birthday.

It is nice that there are successful/attractive men who are bald to point to, but I was more often compared to Moby or Billy Corgan, not exactly sex symbols.

It all seems silly in retrospect but it felt very serious at that age. I'm so used to it now that I don't even think about it. It helps that I'm old enough that being bald is "age appropriate" and I stick out less than I did in college.

I think it's worse when you're lacking confidence to begin with.

My hair started thinning when I was around 20 and kept thinning till I was about 30. Now it seems to be in a steady state of horse-shoe pattern.

I think it was worse for me when it began, as I started picturing all kind of terrible fates for me. I was obsessed with my hair density and wanted to kill myself. Now that I'm being bald and more mature and self-confident I'm not even sure I'd want to go back to having to do my hair again. And women don't seem to care at all. I'm still surprised by that, but the experiences I make every day make me wish I had lost all of my hair from one day to the next, just to get it over with.

Also, I don't want to romantisize going bald, but I think it rounded out my character.

There is medication that can prevent baldness. It has very rare, but very scary side-effects though. Eventually we might have something that fixes the genes responsible for baldness.

I've been taking finasteride for nearly a decade. No side effects for me and costs $40 a year. Haven't lost an inch of hairline since I started. My hairline is frozen at mild temple recession that looks "age appropriate" now that I'm older.

Yes I do have to keep taking it but I'm fine with that. Can't even imagine being completely bald at 30 which I would be if I hadn't started it young

It also, as far as I know, requires taking indefinitely. Once you stop, if you were going bald before, that process will continue.

I don't feel like baldness is something that needs to be fixed. To me that sounds the same as saying the genes for blonde hair can be "fixed".

Then you’re out of touch. Almost all men are very unhappy about losing hair, but very few mind being blond. Some even like it!

Blond hair is easy to fix. Hair dye has been around for years. Why shouldn’t bald people be afforded the same freedom, in an era where we literally fly through the air on titanium wings just to take vacations?

It's the term "fix" that I don't like. It assumes the opposite state is broken.

A person with normal hair growth can choose to be bald. Someone with alopecia cannot choose the reverse. If baldness were to appear only by choice rather than as a result of low IGF-1 expression in hair follicles, I would imagine it would be more respectable, not less.

It would be helpful. After losing my hair, the sun became the enemy. Easy to forget to bring a hat.

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