What are the attitudes of "everyday people" about HT?

[Guest]

Question for those of you who have had HT:

 

How do people in your lives react to the decision to get HTs? (I mean your girlfriends, wifes, coworkers, and strangers)

 

Have any of you run into any "angry hostile bald men" is clubs or other social setting who put you down because of your HT?

 

How about at work? Is there a perception of vanity that could hurt your career?

 

Of course, this all presumes that other people can tell you had a HT, and while I'm sure 99% of the populace cant tell, there will always be those in the know (ie. coworkers who notice you have more hair or who witnessed the healing.)

 

I personally think some kinds of plastic surgery are narcissistic and manipulative (like when an already beautiful woman gets a nose job, boob job, lipo, etc, etc, etc,), but in the case of HT, I think its not giving a man something thats better than what anybody else has. I personally view it as "reconstructive" surgery but I know the media often portrays HT as immature and escapist. (Of course, the media also lampoons balding men so its a no-win.) So what are REAL PEOPLES attitudes about your HT?

[Guest]

Question for those of you who have had HT:

 

How do people in your lives react to the decision to get HTs? (I mean your girlfriends, wifes, coworkers, and strangers)

 

Have any of you run into any "angry hostile bald men" is clubs or other social setting who put you down because of your HT?

 

How about at work? Is there a perception of vanity that could hurt your career?

 

Of course, this all presumes that other people can tell you had a HT, and while I'm sure 99% of the populace cant tell, there will always be those in the know (ie. coworkers who notice you have more hair or who witnessed the healing.)

 

I personally think some kinds of plastic surgery are narcissistic and manipulative (like when an already beautiful woman gets a nose job, boob job, lipo, etc, etc, etc,), but in the case of HT, I think its not giving a man something thats better than what anybody else has. I personally view it as "reconstructive" surgery but I know the media often portrays HT as immature and escapist. (Of course, the media also lampoons balding men so its a no-win.) So what are REAL PEOPLES attitudes about your HT?

[NW]

Sharp,

 

You hit the nail on the head, everyone has differing ideas of vanity etc...

 

In my case it was easy and straight forward..."would being bald bother ..ME ?" my answer was ..yes..and I happily salute my nw2 hairline every morning. Was a bad nw3-4 prior. I now can actually grow frontal bangs etc..

 

But, by the same token I can appreciate a guy who looks fine naturally bald, and alot of guys look absolutely fine..I am fair skinned and looked like a cancer patient in the winter. In my personal opinion darker skinned men look great with a bit of male recession. A short buzz cut can work for most.

 

Cheers !!!!

Count me as pro-vanity

[Guest]

I think most non-balding men and women simply don't have a clue about the recent boom of hair transplantation. In my case, I reluctantly had my sutures taken out by my Primary Care Physician (a family friend) because I had my work done in the twin cities with Dr. Rose at Shapiro and she was dumfounded about the surgery ("Did they say how long the hair would last... Where is the transplanted hair...") I explained the procedure to her and after a while she was intrigued by it and noted that I shouldn't feel any pressure to tell anyone - she couldn't really see the transplants that blended with my native hair.

In one sense, this is good as if you appear slightly different after surgery (FU hair remaining in place, weight line/hair gap over the suture line, etc.) nobody would have the reference point to figure you had an HT done. On the other hand, I often wish that it was an accepted and well-known procedure for us guys so we wouldn't have to over-worry about concealing the HT. Maybe I'm fooling myself (and I have hair to cover the work done), but as far as I can tell, nobody notices at all after taking a 2-week haitus from my community. I would be totally open about it, but I think that anyone who knows nothing of the procedure kinda cringes at itbecause of the surgery aspect, so I chose not to tell.

[Guest]

Matt in St. L. - My thoughts are similar to yours. When I had my sutures removed after my first surgery, I had to explain the whole thing to the medical staff in detail before they would do anything (and even then I don't think they understood it). I choose not to tell people because then I have to explain the process and deal with the dumb questions. Some my favorites are "does it hurt when they do it", "what, you mean it all falls out?", and "are you sure it will grow back?". Of course, I might explain it to certain people if they're real interested and I think the dumb questions will be minimal (and it helps if they're offering to buy me a couple of beers).

SHARP - I don't think it would hurt your career, but then that would probably depend on your occupation. One area where I think it may actually help is for older guys (like me) when seeking a new job, as a more youthful look may improve than very important first impression (much more so than a 50 year old guy with a hairpiece that gives him the hairline of a 18 year old).

[Guest]

I know what you mean. Why explain it all? But if anyone asks, I'll tell em. In the end, you do this for yourself.

For instance, I used to have crooked teeth. But by choice, as an adult I got 'em straightened. It took orthodontics and it took awhile. But now I'm not self-conscious anymore when I smile! That's a step forward, in my estimation.

Life is a series of meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles, at least in my experience. To me the goal has always been a more carefree lifestyle. So if HT gets you to a place where you spend less time concerned about something like hair, that to me is the antithesis of vanity. But I digress...

[Monty]

If you had bad teeth you can get expert dental work performed by most any dentist. If your dentist did not give you the perfect smile you can always get another dentist to easily repair what your previous dentist could not.

 

You can't fix a bad hair transplant so easily. People accept you with thinning hair. People stare at you if have a bad hair transplant.