How has hair loss affected your life

[James]

How has hair loss affected your life? Both negative and positive?

For myself, my thinning hair has been a major blow to my self-confidence and has limited how many things I have done socially. It has caused me depression and has had a direct influence on my less than adequate grades in college. The main thing is lack of self confidence though.

For the positive, I would say that I definitely make sure to judge someone based on their character rather than their flaws. It seems as humans we tend to focus on the flaws of people and so I really make an effort NOT to do that.

Jacob, Sam, Tricia?

[Jacob]

I can't say it's done anything negative for my self-confidence or what I do socially. I do see those I know who won't go bald and get a little po'd- because they don't know what it's like. So then again..maybe I don't know how much confidence etc I'd have unless I were like them. Hmmmm

I guess I just go around thinking there are other more important things to worry about. I obviously do apply topicals at least once a day..nearly every day. I do take things that can benefit my hair. So obviously I do care. I'm just not going to let it bring me down if things go bad hairwise or let it take first priority(or even second or third, for that matter).

There are so many around me..no matter where I go..that are balding- at all age levels. It's so natural that it seems like one shouldn't even have to pay attention to it. Only until someone makes some stupid comment does it even matter to some.

[HairLossFight.com]

Hair loss totally robbed me of my confidence in my early to mid 20s. I was extremely self-conscious and felt like I looked 20 years older than I was.

In my mid to late 20s taking action to get it under control gave me back a lot of that lost confidence. It also helped me to realize that when you're doing the best with what you've got anyway, and you project confidence, people find that attractive.

Since I got the hair transplant in April, I have been extremely self-conscious again because of the shock loss that I have suffered. I can't help it. No amount of knowledge that it bothers me more than anyone else helps. Oh well.

Time will tell if I'll get enough growth from the HT, and enough regrowth from the shock loss, to help get some of that old confidence back...

Sam

[James]

Sam I agree that when you feel confident, people find you more attractive as a person.

I predict a major rise in confidence in the coming months when your transplant starts to fill out. You just gotta ride this time out...... and so do I.

[familyguy]

As an individual who started experiencing hair loss in his last year of college when almost all my friends still had a full head of hair it was a bit difficult and frustrating. Comments I would have usually found humorous like people calling me an "old man" or poking fun at my receding hair line quickly became serious and offensive. And of course it took me a bit to adjust and talk to the opposite sex. Self confidence is always an issue but I am so thankful for all the great products and support that is out there to fight this problem. I don't really know exactly how restored my hairline is but its staying where it is as of now and I am hoping will continue to do so until HMT becomes commercial (if they start offering it in the UK first you better believe I'm flying out there!).

In terms of positive effects I think I can attribute my latest batch of self-confidence and pro-active attitude towards my hair loss. Now when I see a problem I don't skulk about it, I start figuring out how to fix it. I feel confident that obstacles which appear in my life have to have a resolution and its in my power to find it.

Would I prefer to have gone through my life without hair loss? Of course! But as long as we're on the boat we may as well make the most out of the ride.

[wraun]

Throughout my ordeal with AA, at least since it started to be very noticeable, I have simply just felt like a freak. I don't know what normal male pattern baldness does to a person but after having read some of your posts here, I see that it must be hard to deal with. I understand the lack of self-confidence. I'm in my forties now, so it doesn't really matter what I look like I guess but when I was young, the girls all used to compliment me on my hair and my eyes. Now my hair is half gone and my eyes are failing me too. So there you go... lacking self-confidence, feeling like a freak and depression. That's how it has affected my life. In a way, I wish I just had male pattern baldness. At least I wouldn't look like a freak.

[Tricia]

It hasn't slowed me down. When I first noticed that I was losing my hair, it freaked me out for the first several months.

Now, I really don't care so much. I have other things to worry about besides my hair. If my hair loss gets too bad, I'll wear a wig with confidence.

[James]

What I find is that if the hair loss of a person is stabilized and isn't too bad then it doesn't affect the person to a significant degree. In this situation they seem to report that hair loss doesn't affect them that much.

When a person's hair loss is accelerating and they are losing ground then it is a totally different story. These people tend to be more depressed and hopeless.

This is obvious I know, but I believe is significant when trying to assess how it affects other people. The degree of hair loss and their response to treatments can drastically change someone's view on baldness. People who respond to treatments may not feel that losing hair is not that bad, but I think this is because they are not there yet, they don't know what happens when thigns really start to go downhill.

This gibberish I have written is just something that I take into account when reading other people's responses.

It is safe to say though, that hair loss causes lack of confidence and negative feelings in the majority of people who experience it.