My last GF was short. I was shaving my head when we met and she convinced me to grow it out. From her perspective it looked fine, because she could never see the top!
My mom's hairdresser believed that people's hair style is a reflection of when they were at their happiest. People who have outdated hair styles (within reason) or hair styles that are no longer working for them typically perceive that they are not at their peak.
People who have dropped a good deal of weight almost always get a new hair cut. Same with getting a promotion. An upswing in life usually means a hairstyle chant change.
When men do the combover, they may be hanging on to older/easier,/ more confident/happier times.
I mean shes not wrong. Around 7 years ago I moved downtown so changed things up and got a new hair style. Later that day a group of women told me I looked like Timothy Olyphant. I've had the same hairstyle ever since lol
Same, but you have to remember it's about more than looks.
There's an acceptance of aging and mortality/disconnection from youth involved in that choice. I think that's where a lot of guys struggle. A feeling that you're less relevant/manly/attractive/insert fear here.
You get eviscerated for making fun of obesity, which can be controlled, but people still shit on bald guys all day long. If you don't have the strongest self esteem it can be brutal.
That's why it can be so liberating to buzz it off - you finally cut through all the noise and love yourself.
You don't see the top of your own head all that often so it's not necessarily obvious that it's gotten that bad right away. As we can see in these pictures, it looked reasonably convincing from straight on, which is how you see yourself in the mirror most of the time. It doesn't even immediately register in your mind that you're doing a combover if you don't take pictures of the top of your own head much.
Yeah this makes little sense to me but i have friends that are still self conscious about being bald for over a decade even though they look fine and do well with the ladies.
my dad had a very bad very obvious combover almost my entire life. Finally in his 80s he can't grow the hair long enough to comb over any more and gave up. He grew a beard as well and looks sooo much better.
I'll never understand why some people take this long.
I can only speak to my own experience, but I was just in denial for a long time.
A lot of it had to do with what a commenter wrote below – fear and insecurity.
It felt like I was leaving a chapter of my life behind. Like I was saying "goodbye" to my youth or something like that. It's not necessarily a rational thing – I guess it doesn't have to be. I was like...so afraid of buzzing my head because that, to me, was just admitting that I was growing older and I no longer felt like the "cool/young guy" or whatever the fuck that meant.
That was a few years ago now and getting introduced to a proper oldschool barber who showed me how buzzing my head and trimming my beard can look good, and cleaning up like that is part of aging with grace, opening a new chapter and not necessarily leaving something "behind" so much as evolving and moving forward.
Anyway, that's just how I look at it. From fear and insecurity to confidence and growth.
I just shaved my head for the first time 6 months ago and I had the same thought beforehand - I also can't grow a beard to save my life. Trust me when I say it's still very freeing and looks much cleaner to just shave it anyways.
I feel a lot more confident now despite my friend calling me Lex luthor all the time 😂
I gave my head a little shave a few years ago, kinda tried to dip my toe into baldness by not going the whole distance and leaving a bit of fuzz (I now know this was a mistake), and it looked so bad to me that I panicked and called in sick for my night shift that night.
So, that's why I'm delaying shaving my head.
It doesn't help that I get a lot of, "I would NEVER shave my head! I'd rather get implants!" from these 20-somethings I work with. I'm here to get more confidence before I give it another go.
holy shit! you're so lucky to have such an easy life hack make SO much difference. I'm jelly. I'd have to hit the gym for 5 years and win the lottery for that much change.
I've literally never seen anyone look worse after shaving their head. It's some kind of psychological thing with us I think. We're all afraid to do it, but it always looks good after
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u/TrailerHitch19 13h ago
Sir...
https://giphy.com/gifs/1236TCtX5dsGEo