I have been balding for a number of years now. Strange thing is, I have never really gotten any comments about it from almost anyone I am close with. My best friend commented once on how I had lost more hair, but he made it in sort of passing, as if it wasnt anything he put much attention to. Mostly people Im not close to seem to have given looks, others I know have never once so much as made a point of it, not even the occasional stare at my hair.

Now it makes me feel weird. Are they afraid to mention anything? Or is the close relationship I share with them make sort of not really pay attention to it? I know people can tell Ive been balding to a large extant now, it really cannot be hidden anymore... but still, it seems I am by far the most conscious person in the world about it...

I dunno whether to be happy or somewhat annoyed my friends dont mention it. In fact, most stares I get are from other men who are going through the same thing.

Other people couldnt care less if your balding, its only you that it really matters to. I learnt that too late.

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My Hair Loss Website

It really depends on how old you are and how fast you're losing it. If you're 35 or older and slowly losing hair over many years then nobody is going to say anything because that's accepted as normal.

Its a very personal thing. It effects your self esteem hence why we are sensitive about it - others will not realise how it effects you - especially ones who have no hair loss at all.

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Consultant for Dr. Feller, Coalition Member and Dr. Lindsey, Coalition Member.

See my results --->>My Hair Loss Website

I am not a medical professional and my words should not be taken as medical advice. All opinions and views shared are my own. "Research-Research-Research"

What is your age and just how much hair have you lost?

Your age will make a difference. If you're very young then your peers are more likely to point it out to you (as if you hadn't already noticed), but there comes an age when it's just accepted as normal.

I'd be very pleased if I was you. Your friends seem mature or maybe your hair isn't that bad.

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I represent Dr Rahal. I can be contacted for advice and to arrange consultations.

Dr. Rahal is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Baldness looks natural on some people. Maybe you look good bald.

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My Hair Loss Web Site - Hair Transplant with Dr. Wong

I really only care about my own balding head. When I notice someone else balding I quickly forget about it and it is not a big deal. Half the guys I work with are bald/balding and I think that they all look fine and should be perfectly happy with their lives. Two guys I work with have shaved heads and have never been seen without hats on. One time the one guys hat was bumped and fell off revealing his bald head, he quickly scrambled to get his hat back on over his bald spot, obviously embarrased. I actually thought this guy looked quite sharp bald and never would have suspected it would have bothered him so much. It kind of shows that much worse than the actual aestetic aspect of losing your hair Is the phychological, but in reality nobody else cares unless they are a loser. They are too worried about their own appearance to pay much attention to yours.

Like the others have mentioned, age has a lot to do with it...

I started losing it early on, roughly 17. That is an age where you begin to find yourself and appearances play a big part in your life.

If I started losing it 10 years later around 27 or so. As much as it would still suck, I don't think it would have affected me as intensely.

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First transplant with karamikian 6/05, less than 1000 to my hairline, result was mediocre at best.
2nd HT with Feller 2/08, 3000+ to my front third.

Well, I guess my opinion will differ from many here. First of all, unless someone has gone through significant MPB and seen themselves look radically different and much older than their former self-image, then they cannot possibly understand how it feels. To say that "nobody else cares about baldness" is completely meaningless and means the same thing as "nobody cares about obesity." So when you or I see a 600 lb. woman walking by DO WE REALLY CARE that she is fat ? No, we don't. But are we ready to ask her for a date ? No, so obviously we DO CARE on some level.

Baldness is exactly the same thing; in our society people have been conditioned to consider it as unattractive and a sign of getting old. Hence, if you are a young man going bald 9 times out of 10 it will be a significant disadvantage in attracting women, ESPECIALLY the type of sexy looking women that we are conditioned to be attracted to. So it is a societal trap for most, though they may not be aware of it on this sophisticated of a level.

I also disagree that as you get older baldness will bother you less. As a matter of fact, all through my 20s and early 30s it really didn't bother me much because I had no grey hairs in my beard yet and the MPB progressed slowly from a NW2 to a NW4. There are even many pretty good looking NW6/7 bald guys in their 20s who will look ALOT WORSE when they reach 30s and 40s!

For me it wasn't until 35 that it really started to bother me. I was NW3.5/4 and when I looked in the mirror it just seemed that I was staring at this stranger who was too much older looking than my feelings inside. Hairloss in itself is completely meaningless; it's the fact that it makes you look OLDER that is the real problem with it.

This is also IMO the case with women. If you ask them most will say that hairloss in men is normal and does not bother them, some will even say it is sexy. But they have no idea how it makes you look OLDER.

As an experiment to test this I recently posted some pics of myself on a dating website. The first set of pics I ran for 2 months and they were without my bandana and my NW4 front was completely exposed. I actually have very young looking skin for a 41 year old, and my head shape and facial features are quite similar to Bruce Willis. I received on average 2 responses per week, mostly from women age 35-55 with kids looking for a "reliable" man. Then I pulled those photos and posted photos of myself with a red bandana over me head, which makes me look WAY younger and almost like a completely different person! I started getting on average 5 responses per day from women mostly under age 25, some VERY good looking women too! To this day I am getting about 5 per day and rarely is one over 30 or with any kids. Like I said, I have facial features and skin of a guy in his mid 20s and a body in great shape as well. It is ONLY the receeded hairline that makes me look older.

I'm sure that if someone were to ask any of these younger women contacting me what they thought about hairloss MOST (if not all) of them would say they could care less about it. And this is true, they really don't care about baldness. They are innocent and are just responding to their first impression of you. If you saw a photo of them and they look all wrinkled and like an older women it would be the same thing.

Hair is completely meaningless, but what is not meaningless is how (in some people) a lack of it will make you look much different and much older. I just had my HT a little over one month ago. I had to come to terms with the fact that (on the outside) I am a totally different person with hair in other people's eyes. In my case it really has very little to do with what I think of it personally, as my experiment on the dating site proved to me.

Sceptic, i agree with your stand. I met a fellow HT goer from the same country just a day after my surgery at the same clinic i went to, except that she was a lady. Poor thing, she had thinning at the vertex and had abt 2.1k grafts done to it. She told me the reason she did it was actually the perception of others. She din actually mind the thinning herself. Mind u she is only 33, abt same age as me.
However, for my case, like my family members kept saying, u are married, have a kid and budding career. Y do u let yourself get so affected by something as meaningless as hair? Hence, in my case, its not abt what others see of me. Its all abt me myself and again myself. Pple obviously dun care whether i have hair or not, it does not impact anyone but myself.

To sum it up, as long as u feel there is enough reason for u to undergo a HT, that reason, IMO, will be good enough

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View my hair loss website. Surgery done by Doc Pathomvanich from Bangkok http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com...asp?WebID=1730