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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, no, none of those are a cure for baldness. They might make you more attractive, and if that's your primary concern about being bald, then great, you've found a way to compensate. But you'll still be super bald regardless of your personality, career and physical shape. And also you won't be as attractive as you could be with better hair.

The model is something like:

    attractiveness = personality + career + physical shape + hair + ...

(each one of them with some weight coefficient)

The point is to figure out what parts you can/want to improve and to accept the ones you can't, not to pretend that advancing your career fixes your baldness.

tbh i think there's a special element on baldness but i dont know why. but we haven't elected a bald president since TV (when we rly started seeing them lots) even tho we've elected ppl who aren't otherwise as handsome so that says smth.

We also haven't recently had a short president, or a woman president, or an Asian/Indian president...

America's bald presidents:

* John Adams

* John Quincy Adams

* Van Buren

* Garfield

* Eisenhower

* Ford (not elected)

Some good ones in there. Maybe we could use a baldheaded president about now. Who are the contenders?

> since TV

I think you misunderstood my comment. I wasn't trying to correct anything, just listing them.

Eisenhower was bald, and TV was around for several decades before he became president.

Pedantically, it’s more that we haven’t elected a bald president since hair transplants (it’s widely speculated that both Trump and Biden had them).

Also, depending on your definition of bald: The Bush’s had pretty severe receding hairlines but styled it well (poorer people might shave in the same situation).

Same for Ford LBJ and Nixon.

I’m not sure Trump had a hair transplant. His hair doesn’t seem to behave at all the way that normal hair (transplanted or not) does. I suppose he might just use a lot of hair spray

Look at his temples. He has a very unnatural line and way more than he used to have.

Interestingly, before the change, he was only really balding in the temples (the form most people don’t find ugly) but he hated it and became somewhat cartoonish in his attempts to hide it.

I think this is quite dismissive and unnecessary. Suppose that someone wants to change their appearance for their own sake?

Sure, but what if you have a good personality, fit body, stable career, _and_ good hair. I don’t think it’s particularly shallow to do a hair transplant.

Of course it is shallow. But it can be OK anyway. A bit of vanity is present in most of us. You don't need to fight it, it is fine to embrace vanity as a hobby or profession.

If the baldness goes beyond being a minor nag in your vanity though, and you start believing that regrowing your hair is truly essential to your happiness and wellbeing, you should perhaps seek professional help for your mind rather than your scalp.

Define shallow?

Is it shallow to get a haircut? To keep a well trimmed beard? To wear clothes without holes in them?

A lot of people draw the line at plastic surgery, which I guess hair transplants count as?

I think it’s possible to be all of those things, and to be in a healthy relationship, and still want to prevent/fix baldness.

Sure but it’s healthier to try and accept things you can’t control. I think a lot of people who obsess over losing their hair see it as a reason their life isn’t going the way they want. You would do yourself a favor by accepting reality and moving on in healthier and more productive ways.

You can control being a fat slob. You can’t control being bald in the vast majority of cases.

The article is about a hair loss treatment. Not sexual attraction

I tend to agree when talking about men, in general. But for women the meaning of hair can be much deeper. So it's good this is being researched.

For balding men, it's a great idea to accept it and work on yourself in other ways. It's also a great idea not to judge people based on their hair. I sort of agree that if you want to get a transplant you're probably making up for insecurities.

But if it makes you feel better, go ahead. No pun intended!

But you can control baldness with a few thousand dollars.

In this reality, we have hair transplants, and I accept that.

100%. On the flip side; Self acceptance is key to sustained personal happiness.

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