Tone Down the Humor — There Is Nothing Funny About Hair Loss!!
This blog is very informative, but I really think you should tone the humor down. I notice you make a lot of jokes about balding. There is nothing funny about it!! Especially not today, when there is quite a strong stigma about receding hairlines & thinning hair…i.e. (the creepy old man stigma). People kill themselves every day because of hair loss and I truly believe that there is a strong correlation between suicidal behavior and hair loss.
I think people who are affected by the disfigurement of hair loss, may also suffer from other health problems due to how the extreme stress of the condition affects their entire body and their activity levels. I for one, have experienced major health problems since I started losing hair. I guarantee you most people who commit suicide have some type of hair loss.
If the person losing hair feels disfigured because of the condition, it is one of the most serious medical issues one can suffer from because of how it wreaks absolute havoc on everything and tends to cause a “domino effect” where other organ systems get affected and fail over time (perhaps prematurely) due to the extreme stress hair loss causes. 2% of the male population doesn’t bald….that’s 40,000 people out of a city with 2,000,000. If you think about it, in today’s society..that’s not really that rare; plus, those are the people that are more likely to get the good jobs, be treated favorably, etc.
It’s survival of the fittest at it’s worst! I’ve noticed it is EXTREMELY hard (almost impossible) to get hired for a new job or get a supervisory position if you have any thinning/balding. These are all reasons why there is nothing funny about hair loss and why I hope every day that there is a treatment that can truly halt progressive hair loss.
I never make fun of people who are balding. With close to 10,000 posts on this blog, there are times we feel the need to inject some light-hearted humor. If I have offended anyone here with a particular post, please let me know! In the end, I have great respect for them and empathy for their experience. Only about half of the male population will experience some type of balding, but every part of us is connected. Our overall health reflects many organ systems and our mental health influences our body functions.
Hair loss is one of those things that men have no control over. For some men who take charge of their destiny, they exercise for better body health, eat well to prevent various diseases from impacting their body, don’t smoke, and educate themselves to shape their professional lives; however, other than taking a pill that may or may not control their hair loss, balding is a process that undermines a man’s self esteem. For some men, it even gives them the sense of hopelessness. I believe that is what you are talking about. This is why I love my hair restoration medical practice — I can help men manage their hair loss process, in turn giving them back their self esteem.
Is there any news about regrowing hair? I’m really really wanting hair growth to come around. It’s been years since scientists can clone a sheep but what about hair?
perhaps you are in denial about how badly our society views hairloss as a whole and how it will make it absolutely impossible to have a balanced face in terms of aesthetics. to those who feel they are disfigured by hairloss there is no convincing them otherwise. with modern medicine we should be able to give them their juvenile hairlines back and if Dr. Rassman can’t do this, I will find a way for it to happen. =) however, i’ll agree prozac or any old SSRI/SNRI would be an easy way to sugar coat the issue of hair loss.
Where to start …
… firstly, hair loss is NOT a disfigurement, it’s a genetic trait, influenced by biological and environmental factors – it’s like eye color or how big your feet are. You’re obviously extremely stressed about this, but let’s not blow it out of proportion.
Secondly, people do not simply kill themselves because of hair loss. A man on an desert island wouldn’t care whether he was bald or not – the negative aspects associated with baldness are similar to the stigma attached with obesity. What causes depression is not the baldness itself, but the effects of a society and media increasingly obsessed with a particular image of what the “right” way to look is. Just like other groups who don’t fit into this perfect image (which must be more than 90% of the planet), we can get stressed that we don’t look a certain way, but getting stressed really isn’t a productive way to deal with it. There’s not all that much we can do about baldness at the moment, but try and identify some of the things that you can change and improve on (fitness, education, fashion etc.), and work on those. Don’t waste your time getting stressed about it – it doesn’t help.
Finally, baldness does not stop you getting hired (unless you’re looking to be a hair model). If anything I’ve found it to be an advantage, because people will associate baldness with experience, maturity, and capability. A supervisory position should in fact be easier to get if your bald, since it’s associated with seniority, authority, and intelligence. I understand that you’re looking for reasons to explain why you didn’t get a certain job, but I think you’re putting the blame in the wrong place. What other rational explanations are there for not getting the job?
I wasn’t going to respond to this person’s comment because they were so bizarre. I’ve never heard of a single documented case of a person committing suicide over hair loss, let alone of a person not getting hired for a job because of it. The very suggestion is ludicrous. I agree that it is better to have hair than not to have it, but there are a number of other features that are more prominent and more defining in a person’s appearance than the presence of hair on one’s head (take the nose or eyes for example). There are a number of VERY good looking men who are balding and do nothing to treat it. And they are still very good looking in spite of their hair loss.
I’m all for hair restoration, which is why I follow this blog, as I am for any kind of cosmetic surgery that helps a person look better. But making hair loss the focus of all that is wrong in the world is absurd.
Anyone paying any attention will also note that only a very tiny minority of men share this poster’s views. If half of the adult male population suffers MPB to some degree, what percentage to anything to treat it? Probably less than 1%. And it’s not because of lack of resources to do so (it’s lack of motivation). So it’s not the wrecking ball to every balding man’s self-esteem as the poster suggests.