My disturbing supply today

heracles wrote:I was wearing a hat at the time, but I do have male pattern baldness. I'm pretty self-conscious about it, but I'm trying more to go without a hat in public, as a form of exposure therapy. Many young men, good-looking, in their 20's, have MPB. It doesn't always make you look that old. Wrinkles, loose skin and collagen depletion are the main signs of aging.

I have MPB and I just shave that sh1t off. No fux given.

dune 1 wrote:heracles, I agree that appearance is about more than vanity. I'm starting to feel out of place in certain settings, populated by younger people. My appearance has always defined who I am; I don't feel attractive really, even when I've thought that everyone was admiring me. I don't feel any more attractive than a painting of a nice looking person would (back to Dorian Gray); I'm something to admire in the mirror, or for other people to look at. (Less so in recent years.)

I also relate to your feeling of something being 'off', and I worry people will pick up on it, but they rarely do.

Thanks dune.
I'm not going to lie and say it's all about society, but society's one aspect of it, an important one. How one looks DOES matter, despite all the pieties that it doesn't. The younger you are and better looking you are, the more you're sought out, more accepted, better treated. People want to talk to you, and be with you. That doesn't mean the old and less attractive young are spat on. People will "be nice" to them. But they're very seldom really sought after. Not whining, just telling it like it is.
Nobody every really cared about my ideas, my thoughts, my values, my dreams. The only thing anybody ever did care about was my looks. That's the only thing anybody's ever noticed about me or responded to.
I'm not just going to whine about it and wallow in despair. I'm going to work on it. I'm going to re-invent myself and try to work out a plan. Train myself to think right, so I can get myself through my day, for the rest of my life. (Just getting through the day can be a long, grueling, nightmarish process sometimes.) It's scary and I'll admit I haven't quite faced it yet as squarely as I'll need to, but that's the challenge I'm trying to aim for.

-- Fri May 20, 2016 2:03 am --

Spaced wrote:

heracles wrote:I was wearing a hat at the time, but I do have male pattern baldness. I'm pretty self-conscious about it, but I'm trying more to go without a hat in public, as a form of exposure therapy. Many young men, good-looking, in their 20's, have MPB. It doesn't always make you look that old. Wrinkles, loose skin and collagen depletion are the main signs of aging.

I have MPB and I just shave that sh1t off. No fux given.

Plenty of men look good with shaved heads. Montel Williams is one. But not all of us do. I don't think I would. Thinning hear heads don't always look so bad, if they're cut right. A lot of it's what kind of image you're trying to project. A shaved head just wouldn't be me.

Today I started obsessing that I might be getting old-man legs, or already have them.

Spaced wrote:There is no way in hell that you look 30 at the age of 57. 40... maybe... if you're slim, still have hair with no MPB and no greying, and lucky with your face.

I've always doubted that myself and I still do, but just as a case in point, here's one person that makes the "younger than you look" phenomenon more plausible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGC8upyneFY

That's Glen Danzig at age 39. To me he could easily pass for 18 to 22.

And on his Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Danzig, if you scroll down a bit, on the right, there he is two years later at 41. Not much has changed.

It might be rare and it doesn't last forever, but some kind of "Dorian Gray Effect" does seem to happen for some people. So maybe it has for me too.

He's 51.
Died hair?
Skilled camera lighting?
Glasses hiding eye bags?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-f7HzvTsqY

It is very possible to look much younger than one's age Heracles, why is it important to you?

Après L Orage wrote:It is very possible to look much younger than one's age Heracles, why is it important to you?

That's like asking someone why they have anxiety, or depression, why the cut themselves, or why they have body dysmorphia....

It's a very complex and many-layered question I'm exploring but have no definite answers to.

Spaced wrote:There is no way in hell that you look 30 at the age of 57. 40... maybe... if you're slim, still have hair with no MPB and no greying, and lucky with your face.

Dude could be Asian.

Spaced wrote:

heracles wrote:I was wearing a hat at the time, but I do have male pattern baldness. I'm pretty self-conscious about it, but I'm trying more to go without a hat in public, as a form of exposure therapy. Many young men, good-looking, in their 20's, have MPB. It doesn't always make you look that old. Wrinkles, loose skin and collagen depletion are the main signs of aging.

I have MPB and I just shave that sh1t off. No fux given.

Here's an example of somebody with MPB who's pretty good looking despite it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxglF5DipeY&t=76s
His degree of baldness is about the same as mine, but of course, he's much younger and better looking. I don't think he'd necessarily look better if he shaved his head.

I think he'd look better if he shaved it. Just my preference -- shaved heads are kinda sexy.

This disturbs me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiBhJTxLAVo&t=96s