You just need to own it. It’s a state of mind.

I think this applies either way to some extent.

Obviously there are hair styles which look a bit dicey when you’ve got a massive bald patch. But equally well, there are styles which work. E.g. Mark Bonnar (recently played Max in Guilt on the BBC, if you’ve watched it) is fairly thin on top but still looks good without having resorted to shaving it all off.

I think we should see a before and after!

Escaping the family home and parents rule was a revelation for my hair, grade zero every month or so has been far more comfy when doing sport for nearly 30 years!

Hopefully she did a better job as I had to get it cut again the next day.

OP: That’s what it looked like before.

Dude, there’s, like, you know, a time where you have to realise that talking to the homeless while drinking from a bottle of beer in one hand whilst the other hand pours beer into the gutter…

…there’s a time to STFU 😝

Ha, in ‘88 or ‘89 I lived in embra and was headed down to that there Landan to go see R***man/Dinosaur/Sonic Youth and decided I needed a quick trim before I went so of first I trotted to the barber. One of them, you don’t make appointments you just join the queue. Ended up with the one everybody else was avoiding… sat down. ‘Do you want a flattop?’. ‘No’…

Got home, **** flattop… washed my hair and before my very eyes I’d turned in to Soo Catwoman… I certainly regretted that one!

Started with a shiney spot on the back of the noggin early thirties so decided to get the #1 all over I’d always threatened to get. Oh man, it was bliss, liberation day! Never looked back since. Except now I no-guard it myself when I can be arse (every 3 or 4 weeks I guess).

Also ‘rocking’ The fifty something, over weight, big bushy white beard. Go me…

I have black hair but in the late 90s decided to bleach it. Luckily there are no photos but I imagine it looked a bit odd with my massive black eye brows!

Went to a random hairdresser once and she lopped my sideys off above my lugs, they had been level with the bottom of them. I felt absolutely gutted.

Now it’s starting to thin a bit at the back, when I quizzed my hairdresser she told me it’s “just finer” back there! A buzz/shaved head is in my future, the missus ain’t keen but I really don’t want to have a wee baldy spot.

Regret ?

Yes, I’ve had a few.. to many to mention…

Actually just one I really regret, and it wasn’t my fault.

My finals finished the last event left was the Leavers Ball, Obvz. So we’d been preparing for it for like months.. I’d already left Uni, and was holed up in my Parents house just itching to get away for the summer.. My then GF was all excited, I was excited TBH… It seemed such a BIG event.

So I went and got my hair cut.

Being a rather boring sort, a traditional sort of chap I had a simple side parting slightly swept back floppy top and short into the neck… Nothing radical, nothing remotely “trendy” (because back then it was all curtains or long and shaggy)

I stepped into the Hairdressers (nope, not a Barbers… that was next door) and said “I like it as it is, but just need a trim and I tend to have it short at the back, thanks” and left the hairdresser to it… it wasn’t someone i recognised… and this was BITD when people knew people..

Relaxed..

And time went on-and-on-and-on… and seemed like forever… a lot of movement at the back of my head and not a lot of cutting going on at my fringe….

And then a gasp! And it was’nt from me.

The very posh lady owner stumbled over quickly and said, very plainly to my face “I’m sorry, my trainee seems to have gone quite short at the back”

Erm…

And then the mirror of doom appeared..

She’d almost skinned the back of my hair to a Number 2 at the back and left the rest long and floppy.

I wasn’t that distraught, but I did offer up a whelp as the mirror of doom reflected a very shaun head.

It was too late, obvz. To late to save, so I opted to shave the whole lot off at Number 2 and I looked like a Youth Convict on day release… I had a tan form sailing, yet an iluminus bonce…

And my mates gasped in laughter.

And the photos reflected the flash beam off my bonce.

It ended happily, I set off on a sailing trip for the summer without the worry of washing my hair…

Going back a few years, well, quite a few, I decided I’d had enough of getting my hair cut and just let it grow. Which it did, after a fashion, ending up pulled back in a ponytail.
Which was fine, but that was the problem, my hair is fairly fine, and going thin on top, so I decided to get it cut short again.
I’ve not gone the full buzz-cut yet, but it’s short enough that it doesn’t suffer being under a hat all day – especially in the summer, a peeling thin spot is extremely uncomfortable, I’ve found.

Newly opened hairdresser near me mams mid 90s.

Asked for a short back n sides thinking Noel Gallagher

Got a Bon yed (early Wigan term for chav)

After expressing my disappointment I Walked out without paying

chased by a Vicky pollard type telling me her meatball BF would pay me a visit.

The mrs nearly choked when I got home and promptly sorted it with a No4 skin.

I went 15 years without a haircut from age 15 to 30. Not a single trim.

Was proper long.

Then had a number 1 all over as started thinning on top.

Best thing ever. 2 minute showers, no buying shampoo. No pissing about.

Mid 50s now, and not much choice but regular number 1 😜

Every time I agree to let the barber have a go at the beard. They just make a mess.

The Turkish barber on the high street in Arbroath is the only place I’ve found that does a good job.

Other than that. Had whiteboy dreads at uni and prior to that mid back length hair, got rid of the lot when I started swimming three times a week

No-one seems to have mentioned the horrors yet of that other disaster of male pattern baldness, the ‘hair island’ (aka Shearer’s island)

I would go proper short but I too have the wrong shaped head, and ears like the doors on a London taxi. It would be a disaster. As it was when I got it done before army cadet camp one year…..I looked like a remedial school runaway.

As soon as the hair island appeared it all went to a grade 0, beard and head once a week. When I was younger I had bleached hair, various colours, the dreaded 90s undercut. Been bald and proud since my late 20’s I’m 37 now.

However, going outside at -20 this morning was a bit chilly on my noggin!

I once had an accidental mullet from Mr Lister, the local barber. I had long hair in my early teens, went for a trim, ended up with a mullet. To this day I have no idea how it happened. He just decided I needed a mullet. I was too shocked to say anything and just paid.

Started going bald at eighteen or nineteen and trimmed down to number one. I now use a headblade razor twice a week and go for the full chrome dome look. Just seems neater.

lols at Stoner & Bikebouy . Pics of the latter please.
” Thankfully I’ve got an M head and not a sunroof”
I have both. 🙁
“daddy, why do you wear a hat”….Ha

All those that shave themselves – which clipper set do you use? Do you shave in the shower to avoid hair “debris”? – I’m considering starting to do it myself as the old Cypriot guys at my barbers are going blind. The crack is good though.

After growing my hair long when I chopped it all off it was much grayer underneath – so be aware of that

The Turkish barber on the high street in Arbroath is the only place I’ve found that does a good job.

Pretty much this but I have to keep an eye in a Turkish barbers or the tend to take the cheeks down and remove the meat of the mutton chop.

If you are ever in Edinburgh Ivan & Someone on lieth walk.

Ivan does a great beard.

Aye normal barbers is only interested in running a Number over it so it ends up stubble again . If I wanted that I’d do it at home.

And from lunch room chat it seems the struggle is real….. Some magnificent beards have been trashed at the hands of Shaznay down the barbers pole. ….that’s not to decry all barbers but short of paying 40 quid for some trendy place it’s hard to find somewhere that can do a good beard.

all the **** time.

all i have done is a grade 3 all over. it’s impossible to find a barber who is capable of doing this without leaving random tufts. every time! sometimes i wonder if they’re feeling for braille on my head, or where the bloody assistance dog is.

I was quite sad when the dreads went. Took me a while to get over that I must admit. Went on an impulse one day. First trip to a hairdressers in about 15 odd years. I choose my barbers now on the ones that remember I have no interest in football.

All those that shave themselves – which clipper set do you use? Do you shave in the shower to avoid hair “debris”?

If already stubble and you have shower cubicle then yes. I find it easy to kneel/bend over the bath and do it by feel, then shower and clean up clippings. Long hair is best done this way in dry bath, then scoop up hair and bin before finishing and rinsing, saves blocking drain.

Clipping gets easier to achieve by feel after a few weeks. Normally use the 2 mirror (hand and wall) technique to spot and buzz straggler stubble.

I use rechargeable and washable clippers. Remington Pro Power at the moment. They have worked well for 6 years now, I bought because USB charging and a good deal. Always use without guard. Close-shave is too much hassle and shiny finish not my thing,

Which it did, after a fashion, ending up pulled back in a ponytail.
Which was fine, but that was the problem, my hair is fairly fine

You are Francis Rossi and I’ll take that fiver 😎

My normal barber was off and what appeared to be a member of East 17 was in his place. Alarm bells were ringing but the chap did a fantastic hair cut on me, so much so that I asked him to trim my beard. Mistake! I came out looking like Craig David.

Another time a barber tried to blend a scar on my temple into my forehead and then even it up on the other side. WTF! I shaved it all off when I got home, too polite to complain (and the guy was new.)

All those that shave themselves – which clipper set do you use? Do you shave in the shower to avoid hair “debris”?

I use
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4441586 (£20 off at the mo)
Just do it in the bedroom and hoover up after (I haven’t got a mirror in the shower). The bathroom gets covered in tiny trimming for days after though, where I finish it up 😆

all i have done is a grade 3 all over.

Why pay a barber?

Thanks for the info Malvern & Dez.

We definitely need pics of before and after.
There was a similar post a while ago and the guy (whoever it was) looked soooo much better afterwards. If I remember it got a few women (but mostly men) swooning.