Hair is for pussies

codename_duchess

stillasamountain said:

Never shaved it completely but I do go to the barber once a month and get it buzzed down to a "1" which is pretty close to a boot camp cut. Wonder if there is a perceptual difference between a really short buzz and a fully shaven head?

Anyone want to weigh in on that?

I too, would like to know.
Currently sitting with a #1 cut to hide the widow's peak and tempted to shave it all off. I get a cut every 4-6 weeks and it's short enough to dry quickly. My questions;

• How much more maintenance to shave it clean in the shower?
• I'm in the sub-tropics, does it make a difference for sunburn?
• I'm worried that my skull may be a weird shape and this will draw attention - Anyone seen a skull that shouldn't have been bald?
• If I do this should I grow facial hair (goatee?) to balance it?
  

Reborn

LHK said:

It being inherited friends from a combination of genes from both sides=it not being inherited from the maternal side only="if your maternal grandfather has hair, you're good" being a myth. QED

That idea never made sense to me at all.

If it's inherited from the maternal side, so you get the tendency from your mother ... then she must have got it from HER mother ... so looking at her father would tell you nothing. You would learn more from looking at her brothers (your maternal uncles). (That is, if you believed the maternal inheritance theory, which, as wikipedia says, is oversimplified). 

AlexZ

Wonder if there is a perceptual difference between a really short buzz and a fully shaven head? 

I think it depends on your hairline and skin tone. If you are dark skinned and short hair is almost invisible than there is no much difference. But if you are light skinned and have dark hair - you should reduce contrast as much as possible. Shaving regularly helps to achieve that, and having a goatee helps too. It helps to shift visual focus from you hairline to you face.  

I shave my head every other day, it is simple and takes about ten minutes ones you get used to it. 

Tiger_Lily

LadyOrTheTyger said:

AlexZ said:

Study founds that man with shaved heads are perceived as. . . . .  even a bit higher. 

As in stoned?  Higher what?  

He meant taller.

HowlAtTheMoon

You all have me wanting to ask my h to shave his head for the variety, but I have a feeling he would end up looking like Moby. 

The_Dude

Angeline

The_Dude said:

Holy crap hahahaha that's who plays that character?!? Too funny. I can't seem to bring myself to watch that show, but that transformation is hilarious and impressive.

RebuildingHusband

@Angeline you can't watch Breaking Bad? Wow. One of the best series I've ever seen. 

Angeline

RebuildingHusband said:

@Angeline you can't watch Breaking Bad? Wow. One of the best series I've ever seen. 

I had the same problem with The Sopranos at first, I didn't want to watch thugs and criminals displayed sympathetically. I ended up loving that show, but mostly because they never forgot that point. You'd start to feel sorry for Tony and then he'd finish his drink, walk outside, kill someone and drive home.

I think being on the wrong end of an affair gives me a real short fuse for that kind of stuff.

sorry @AlexZ far the off topic ramble.

Pen_and_Sword

So, thanks to this thread, I busted out the clippers and took things down from 1/4 inch+ to 3/16 inch. Not really bald, but I like it. Going to try working my way down to at least 1/8 inch, although my wife has said in the past that she doesn't like it too short.

JellyBean

@Reborn said:

If it's inherited from the maternal side, so you get the tendency from your mother ... then she must have got it from HER mother ... so looking at her father would tell you nothing. 

You are missing some understanding here. The fact that male-pattern baldness is infrequent in females suggests that MP baldness may be a sex-linked recessive trait. (I don't know if this supposition is correct or not.)

The genes for sex-linked recessive traits can be inherited by children of either sex from either parent but are typically only expressed by males. Examples include color blindness and hemophilia. 

http://umm.edu/health/medical/ency/articles/sexlinked-recessive

If baldness is in fact X-linked recessive, then looking at your mother's father (and brothers, too) does in fact give strong hints as to your hair-related future. 

growingafamily

My husband's dad lost his hair in his 20's, so when I married my husband (we were both 22) I thought it was a matter of a few years. I pretty much got myself used to the idea that I'd have a bald husband. Well here he is mid-30's and not even thinning out. So now I'm thinking it'll never happen and it'll be a surprise if it does. heh. Now looking at his mom's side, her dad is also bald but I don't know when it happened. Maybe he was 40. Or 50. I never asked.

Honestly though I'm not sure my husband has the right head shape for bald. He's not very tall and has a very round head. We've discovered that growing his beard a bit longer in the middle/chin part and having his hair longer on top than the sides elongates his face and gives the illusion of being taller over all. I've seen him with his head shaved, but no beard at the time. I guess I'd have to see beard + bald head to see how that looks, but I won't have to see that until we get to where there's no choice otherwise.

growingafamily

Aaand I just found this:

Rico

Definitely more to it than looking at your maternal grandfather; it's not uncommon to see a pair of brothers where one is balding and the other is not.

JellyBean

Rico said:

Definitely more to it than looking at your maternal grandfather; it's not uncommon to see a pair of brothers where one is balding and the other is not.

It isn't a 1:1 correlation between having a maternal grandfather who is bald and going bald yourself.  If baldness is in fact an X-linked recessive genetic trait (which many people believe it to be) it depends on whether or not your mother inherited that gene, and whether or not she passed it to you.  Plus there are hormonal and other factors at play.

Genetics -- it's like playing dice with billions of pairs!

never_again

^^^ I have 6 brothers.  All different stages of hair loss/non loss.

growingafamily

yeah there's no hair loss in my family but My husband's middle brother is thinning out where my husband is not. The youngest, it's hard to tell, he's a natural blonde with significant natural sun bleaching (lives on the beach in the south) and I haven't seen him in years, only photos.

Lioness

I'm wondering what Mr. Frgldy would look like with a bald head?!  He has thinning, fine, limp hair.  I'm always wanting him to get his hair cut shorter and shorter.  I don't think he'd try a total shave though.  Maybe I'll ask him and see what he says....  

10 minutes later:   just asked him.  It was a hard no. 

Blackwulf

I think baldness depends on way too many factors.  My brother is 5 years older, and isn't losing his hair at 46, but has gotten the Dr. Strange side grey going on.  I always had a high forehead and was going bald by 30, now I just shave it completely.   All my maternal uncles have their hair (4 of them) but all the men on my Dad's side went bald (7).    

Zoroaster

growingafamily said:

Aaand I just found this:

Actually ... That's kind of why I grew a mustache and goatee. Although being slick up top is great, my face looks kind of empty.

And having a salt-and-pepper goatee to stroke whilst pondering something does lend you an air of gravitas to add to the general badassery of the shaved head. A truly devastating combination.