How to Style Your Hair If You Are Going Bald

You are losing your hair. It happens. It can suck. Hair is an integral part of how we define ourselves and to go without it can be stressful. So you may try all sorts of cures to bring your hair back to what it was, or continue to act as if everything is fine and there is no need to change.

But there is nothing wrong with being 50 unless you try to act like you are 25. We always have to change how we dress, think, and act as time passes on, and thinning hair is just another one of those moments. And while losing hair can hurt your confidence, remember that confidence comes from within you. It is better for you to face the facts on your missing hair than to feverishly deny what you and everyone else can see.

So if your hair is starting to thin, sit down and consider these things to determine what to do next.

Do you keep the hair?

If your hair is thinning, the first thing to figure out is if you want to keep and thicken the hair you have. If you do, you then need to figure out how far you are willing to go in effort and money.

There are a million guides out there on how to prevent hair loss, but the three main methods to prevent hair loss are to lower your stress levels, use Rogaine, and consider a hair transplant. Please make note that lowering stress is always harder than it sounds, Rogaine only works as long as you keep using it, and hair transplants can be expensive.

Are You Ready to Lose your Hair?

You may succeed at keeping your hair at its same thickness with enough treatments. Indeed, you may discover a naturalistic cause for your hair loss, such as stress, which lends itself to many hair loss treatments available at varying costs. But it will take a lot of work and you can always try a different, more natural hairstyle that acknowledges where you are at in life.

Note the word “hairstyle” because there is a midway point between thick hair and baldness. If you really do not want to be bald, consider a buzz cut or Caesar cut. These cuts are a great way to adjust to thinner hair and let you figure out if you want to take the more drastic step of shaving it all off.

We may think that thick hair is necessary to show manliness and virility, but a buzz cut is just as capable of doing that as well. (Just look at Jason Statham or The Rock!) And these sorts of haircuts are much easier to manage compared to the work of trying to keep up your old hairstyle.

In addition to those kinds of cuts, Business Insider has a good list of alternative hairstyles which you can try to adjust for your lessened hair.

Growing a Beard

If you do not like losing hair on your head, you can grow hair on your face. A goatee or mustache will draw attention away from your bald head and towards your face, relieving what you may think is a source of embarrassment. (There is nothing wrong with looking like Walter White or Sean Connery!)

However, note the point about a goatee or mustache as opposed to a full blown beard. The contrast between a full beard and a bald head can be too much for some.

Remember, your goal is to show that your confidence has not been shaken by going bald and that you are choosing to flaunt your baldness. Growing a mustache or a goatee is a nice contrast to a bald or very close shaven head, but a full beard may look like you’re trying to compensate for your lack of head hair and could indicate a lack of confidence.

Ask your Barber

You may come away from all this not sure if going bald, a buzz cut, or some other hairstyle is the best choice for you. If you are not sure about something in life, the best course of action is often to ask an unbiased expert. And who knows your hair better than the person who cuts it every few weeks?

Asking a barber for help with your thinning hair does not mean going in without a clue. Art of Manliness has a great guide on bits and pieces of barber lingo which you can use to give your barber a better idea of what you want. But if you tell your barber that you want to shave all your hair off and he tells you that a bald head may not work with your facial structure, you may want to listen to him.

Your barber and you should develop a give and take relationship over time that lets you figure out what new hairstyle is best for your thinning head. Once you know what works for you, you can be confident in a new hairstyle.

Featured photo credit: Jeroen Benninck via flic.kr

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