MIDLIFE HAIR CRISIS?

Do women who date midlife men think that bald really is attractive?  Do people, in general, find bald men good looking? I am 43-years old, and of all the things in life that get my attention on any given day, the one that causes me the most concern lately seems to be MY HAIR.

The first thing I noticed several years ago was that when I went out in the sun to jet ski or wakeboard – that the top of my head would tend to sunburn.  If I stayed out too long, it would actually peel … just like any other sunburn would.   I started either wearing a hat outdoors, or rubbing sun tan lotion right onto the top of my scalp.  And the problem went away.  ;o)

Many months have since gone by, and now I look in the mirror in the morning, and I can tell my hair is thinning.  I can tell that my forehead is a little longer than it was, say, three years ago.  I notice sometimes people who are acquaintances taking a quick look at my hairline.  Maybe they think I don’t notice when they stop looking me in the eye, and glance up just a bit.

Now I’ve been preparing for hair loss or baldness for quite some time.  My father was exceeding bald – to the point that when he finally shaved his head, few people knew the difference.  The men on my mother’s side of the family were not so completely bald – just thin on top.   It is said that in terms of hair, one’s heredity follows the maternal side of the family.  This seems to be true with respect to my own head, as of today.  Where I’ll be three years from now though is anyone’s guess.

Men who lose their hair essentially face three choices:

I know people in each of these three HAIR ACTION CATEGORIES.  My buddy, Kenny, started losing his hair in his late twenties.  I had not seen him in quite a while, and one day he answered the door at a mutual friend’s house … and I didn’t even recognize him.  He had completely shaved his head.  When he said my name, I just looked at him – and after few moments I figured out who he was.  I think I said something like “Whoa – look at that head”, and then I touched it.  Turns out he was fairly self-conscious about it at the time, but fortunately he didn’t take my insensitivity too personally.   [Note to others – never do what I did … it is the LAST THING that anyone with a freshly shaved head wants to hear.]   This was all ten-plus years ago – and Kenny is now very secure with his clean-shaven head.  In fact, I’d say he looks great with it.  Kenny now makes the big bucks, and recently purchased a $100K+ Porsche.  Bald or not – he’s a hell of a lot sexier now (with that Porsche)!   My point – while initially a shaved head may represent somewhat of a shock, eventually it seems the world embraces one’s new look.

What about hair transplants?  My stepmother’s son is roughly fifty-two years old – and had lost a lot of hair (much more than me).  He decided to go the hair transplant route, and spent roughly $14K on it.   He had it done in December 2005, and I was fortunate enough to see the before pictures … the right-after-transplant pictures … plus more photos about every two months for following six months that it took his head to heal.   I’ll admit that he looks great right now – but between the time he had the transplants done and up until roughly six months later, his head looked like he had some kind of serious scalp condition.  In other words, it was scabbing and peeling – it looked horrible for six straight months.   If you ask Mike if this hair transplant procedure (and the ensuing six months of hell) were worth it, I believe he would tell you YES.   Me – I spend quite a bit of time in front of people, and I am personally unsure how I could tell the story ten times a day about what I had done to my head, and why.   I think I’d burn out of explaining it within a week tops – and possibly become annoyed when people might subsequently ask.    Since I work in sales management for a technology company, I cannot exactly wear a baseball hat at work – not even if it matched my suit and tie. Continued on next page >>>

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