new thread
Firstly, may I say it gladens my heart to see so many men with long hair here. Some of you are making me positively jealous - my hair will only grow to waist length..if I had my way I'd grow it to the ground.
When I married my husband I said I would divorce him if he ever cut his hair. Sadly, since then he has started to go a bit baldy and reluctantly cut his hair as he felt it looked bad. This has led to the horrible cycle of haircuts and neither of us are happy about the current situation. He acknowledges that having long hair is in his genes, he doesn't feel right without it, and we have resisted cutting it for a while - he is now in his CoCo-the-Clown phase but determined to get past it this time.
Is there any advice on what to do with the long hair/bald patch dilemma especially while waiting for it to be long enough to wear back off the face? The biggest problem is that there is growth at the front, then balding at the crown. We're not attempting to cover up or pretend that the hair loss isn't going on - it's a fact of life for so many men and nothing to be ashamed of, if a little hard to come to terms with for some. I just wondered if anyone else out there had found a satisfactory way of dealing with this turn of events.
Im 18 and my hair is already receding...i've been considering hair transplantation.
Look at historical photos and you will see that it has been acceptable in the past for nearly bald guys to let the back and sides grown to length. I am seeing many longhaired men with thinning spots.
Of course, hats can enhance a man's appearance, thinning hair or not.
Let it Grow !!
Agreed. Plus, hat prevent sunburn in the summer (ouch!) and keep my head warmer in the winter.
Sorry to hear about the clown hair. That's gotta be nasty.
Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure I could persuade him down the hat route, but I will try to get him to try some on - sun protection might be a way to convince him to give it a go this year and double as a way to get past the awkward stage. The trouble with hubby is he's very resistant to using products for some reason. I don't think it's a macho thing, it's just that he thinks everything should just happen without any effort on his part, lol. When his hair was long before it was quite fine and could get into quite a state in windy weather but I still had trouble getting him to use leave-in conditioners or a little bit of serum to protect it. Ho hum. I saw mention of a "skullet" in another thread down the board, lol! This may be our long-term goal now but it's the problem of what to do with the bit of hair that still grows at the front. brucew's hair looks good - if we could achieve something similar that would be great. He will just have to keep at it. I'm trying not to pressurise him because I know it's hard to stick with it even when you're not middle aged and balding! When he wanted it cut short I did it for him because he won't trust hairdressers and we've had several different styles going on. He looks fine with short hair but it just doesn't feel right.
p.s. sorry to be a female barging in here by the way - believe it or not I sympathise with a lot of the sentiments expressed here. My mum verged on being long-hair phobic and as a child I was dragged (literally) into hairdressers for a short back and sides and spent a fair bit of time crying over hair cuts and pointing out Crystal Gayle every time she was on the TV (mum liked her and I thought this might swing things in my favour). As soon as I was old enough to protest strongly enough I grew my hair to a compromise length, not long enough for me, but past shoulder length that my mum could just about handle if she found strays in the plughole or encountered my hairbrush. Needless to say there were no mother-daughter hairstyling sessions! I guess the next step for me, not far away now, will be the ridiculous notion that older women should cut their hair which still prevails. I can already detect latent disapproval (or jealousy, as prefer to view it) from some work colleagues but I can't imagine ever cutting my hair again (apart from doing the ends and cutting/growing the fringe as and when I feel like). I'm also hoping I will go grey sooner rather than later because I think long gray hair is really stunning.
He'll require no convincing after the first major sunburn. I always hated hats--couldn't stand anything on my head. Ten years ago I learned their value when I spent a week peeling after a weekend in the sun. Standing in the men's room at work pulling silver-dollar sized patches of scalp up through the remaining hair was, for me, a painful and embarassing once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Now I have more hats than hatracks to put them on.
[blush] You say the nicest things...
What a shame about the onset of MPB for your husband. I admire the fact that he is still growing to grow his hair long again despite the setback - not because of your pressuring but because as you said "it's in his genes" to have long hair. We call these types born longhairs and they long hairs for life. I think i am one of them, it's just that i couldn't have long hair previously due to uncontrollable circumstances such as school and social pressure.
If he is still in the dreaded awkward stage he might need the help of gels, hairprays or other products to keep his hair looking tame and neat, atleast until he can get a small ponytail going. A tip - try brushing/combing his hair in a direction that may reduce the visiblility of the bald patch. I know comb-overs are horrible but you might find a good style that works and conceals the thinning spot. Good luck for you and him.
