Dappered Classics: Balding Men – Do women care?

Ask A Woman: As the head balds…  How should a guy handle hair loss?

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Hey Beth:

I’m starting to lose my hair.  It’s not too noticeable yet but it’s starting.  My forehead is “growing.”  I heard someone make a comment over the weekend (not to me) about when a guy starts to lose his hair, he should just shave it or buzz it super short immediately.  The exact words were “you need to fire it before it quits on you.”

I think I’m in an in between stage.  No one seems to have noticed that my hair is going.  I also think I’ve got a decent head shape.  Should I just cut it all off and embrace my inner Bruce Willis?  Do women really care about a guy’s hair?  Or do you only notice when it’s bad?  Should I try and manage it for a few years?

– Tim

P.S.  I will never do the comb over thing.

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Hi Tim,

I think we should all give a round of applause to Tim, who has vowed here and now never to do a comb over.  (Side note: now that the term “comb over” is part of the vernacular and the public consciousness, what are the men who continue to subject their heads to this hair crime thinking?  Do they think they’re still fooling everyone?)

Here’s the deal with hair loss.  You didn’t mention your age, but I’m guessing early thirties?  Maybe late twenties?  At this stage in life, women are growing accustomed to seeing their male peers with thinning hair.  Many men are lucky enough to keep a thick head of hair well into middle age, but just as many men feel that the Rogaine commercials during the Superbowl are speaking directly to them.  Honestly, it’s not a big deal.  I know men worry about this issue, but you’d be SO surprised to learn how little most women care about it.

You should do what makes you most comfortable.  Not ready to give in and want to manage it until it becomes more obvious?  Do it.  (Jude Law rocks his thinning hair.)  Feeling ridiculous already and want to buzz it?  Do it. Jason Statham has one beautiful melon.)  If you decide eventually that you want to just let it fall out gradually on its own?  Do it.  (Balding, tufting Ed Harris = Stone. Cold. Fox.)  Hair loss tends to be conspicuous and awkward when men try to hide or deny that they no longer have a full head of hair (greasy comb over and terrible toupee, I’m lookin’ at you).  Incidentally, if you decide to deal with your hair loss by getting hair plugs, or by wearing a hair piece, do it right.  Spend the money needed to ensure that it looks natural and flattering.

Let’s end this week’s column with a salute to this country’s most egregious hair criminal…the one…the only…THE DONALD.

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