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self_made_human  Grippy socks, grippy box  1mo ago (open.substack.com)   1589 thread views

Escaping the Jungles of Norwood: A Rationalist’s Guide to Male Pattern Baldness

open.substack.com

Out of enlightened self-interest, I did a deep dive into the topic of male pattern baldness, and after freshening up on my rather rusty Bayes', I decided that I'd gone to enough effort to justify a proper blog post. Here you go.

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Serious and genuine question:

Why not just shave your head? I ask because I've been balding since 26-27. I took the "plunge" and shaved it at 28 and ... everyone says I look better, I don't stress about going bald whatsoever, and I can get a dirtcheap haircut from anywhere because nobody can fuck up a zero buzz cut.

Because you look worse because of it in most cases. Hair changes your face a lot. Beyond just the look, the hair is a sign of youth as young people have more of it. Some rare cases may look better, most can't.

This is a link to a marketing fluff piece by the company "Hims", which makes its money selling finiesteride, promoting the "sexiness" of shaved / bald heads

The fact that a bullshit e-commerce company that profits off of male insecurity took the time to say "bald is sexy" makes me seriously question your unsubstantiated assertion.

This is obviously not true though? Men can look fine/good without hair but hair is obviously better. Shaved is usually better than balding but nothing beats a full head of healthy hair.

I hate to use the cop-out, but it's so obvious here;

Physical beauty is inherent and always subjective, no? A higher level of body fat, for instance, has objective downsides compared to being within a more normal range, but there are people, both male and female, who viscerally and immutably prefer it. So, even if a full head of hair is objectively a better marker of virility, vitality etc. it can also be subjectively worse. And the whole genesis of this thread was obviously around female sexual interest (or lack thereof) in balding or bald men.

I don’t think I understand your cop-out unless you are saying “some women like bald men”

I'm not even going bald yet! Even from a purely internal notion of aesthetics, I think I'd look better with a full head of hair rather than being bald or shaved.

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