OK, I realize this is going to be a weird one, but it does say something about Japan and America. In the U.S., I see an inordinate number of men with shaved heads. Why? Well, some of them actually look great with a smooth head - like Avery Brooks looked much better without hair than with it (and he actually had a full head of hair). Most of the men I see*, however, are trying to hide their male pattern baldness by shaving all of their hair off. I blame Bruce Willis for this trend, and I think it says something about rejecting your body and natural appearance not because you think you look better, but because you're embarrassed by your bad luck with genes. The ones who don't shave their heads tend to run around constantly with a baseball cap on and that really isn't a whole lot better.
In Japan, I saw plenty of men with male pattern baldness and I felt that they lived more with their natural state of being. Rather than try to cover it up in embarrassment by adopting a look which makes them look like everyone else, they looked their age. I miss this sense of people living with the cards they inherited rather than trying to hide them.
*I realize that I'm living in a particular part of the U.S. and other areas may have different styles. I'm in Silicon Valley, and I have very rarely seen a semi-bald pate here.
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Thank you! I'd rather see an honest balding head than one of those shiny, knobby, purple-veined domes any day. Nothing wrong with a fringe!
ReplyDeleteAs a male who has entered that stage of life where my hair is thinning, at best, I can empathize with the temptation to shave it all off. I have joked about it with my wife but have not done and probably will not do so. She reassures me that she loves 'cute, bald men.'
ReplyDeleteYour point about people in Japan being more accepting of their age missed one important fact. You rarely see a man/woman of middle age or later in life with grey hair. The majority of them typically dye their hair to approximate 'normal' black or very dark brown.
In fact, my wife's uncle suggested to her some years ago during a visit we had with them here in the USA that she should do so in order to look 'motto kirei.' She never did and gets a lot of compliments on her 'beautiful' hair which is mostly white by now.
Ah, Richard... I didn't miss it. Wait for it. ;-)
Deletecan hardly wait to see the next chapter in this saga.....
DeleteAll right. You've talked me out of shaving the last strands on top or turning the fringe around the edges to stubble. The problem with looking one's age it seems to me is that the face in the mirror in the morning does not match the feelings/attitude/spirit inside.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Wally!
DeleteI think that the face in the mirror rarely matches what any of us feel inside - regardless of age. ;-)
This is interesting as the guys who complete shave their head (as in, completely shiny and stubble-free) often argue that it's bolder because "they aren't hiding anything".
ReplyDeleteBut your post made me think that some of them at least think they can hide their baldness with it and keep people guessing if they are bald by choice or nature.
But there's also an argument for shaving - it looks more groomed. Hair doesn't usually fall out along well defined lines, and if you don't shave, it looks patchy and chaotic. Shaving is therefore akin to haircut for people with hair - you can control how you look. People tend to like that, especially in business.
Personally, I think I'd never go full "shiny snooker ball" but keep a good stubble going, at the risk of the pattern baldness still being visible.
I do see your point about the grooming, but I always though Patrick Stewart looked quite well-groomed despite the fact that he didn't shave his entire head and left the sides on. Maybe not all male pattern baldness looks as good as his, but I often thought that the "bar code heads" (as my students called the combover crowd) made it harder on themselves by trying to cover their expanse with a few spare strands. ;-)
DeleteIf I remember correctly, Stewart leaves a very short stubble on the sides. I really liked his role/work in Star Trek, by the way. I was never put off by his being 'bald.'
DeleteNone men on either side of my family have had much problem with "serious" baldness, but if I ever get the nothing on top with curtains around the sides look, I'll take a razor to it in about one second. It isn't an age rejecting thing for me, it is eliminating a rather unattractive---to me---problem.
ReplyDeleteWell, OK, that's overboard, but I would shave my head. What's worse though is the "barcode" head look that is used instead of the shaved head in Japan. Known in the US as a combover, nothing on earth looks more ridiculous. I think it even cause some of the men who have them to actually become ridiculous. You recall the old Japanese version of Rush Limbaugh, Masahiko Fujiwara.
Of course we have the fellows on TV news who were very poorly fitted wigs too, which is so distracting, you can't follow the news they are reading.
And as you noted in your later post, there is a lot of hair dyeing going on. Most men use it too. Eighty-nine years old with hair blacker than a newborn. Nah, shavin' it off, before I do that too.