This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

i've had the same hairstyle since i was 15, and it's the buscemi. i'm majorly receding, and also my hair is thinning out in the back. (i'm not sensitive at all about the receding hairline, but for some reason i am about the fact that it's thinning out in the back.)

My youngest brother (35) is sadly going as bald as me (as is my next younger brother, 37) but has opted for what I'd call 'the Brett Gelman' in lieu of shaving, which is a good look if you can pull it off. Which I don't think I can.

I've got hair, kept it all in there even after 12 rounds of chemo ten years ago.

But I don't have any chest hair, and at 44, I'm starting to think I may never hit puberty.

My dad has the Tony-Soporano-in-a-tank-top look down pat. My grandfather had those tufts of hair that came up through his undershirt like a cat. I have no idea what my mother's father looked like without a shirt, but I'll blame him anyway.

It's never bothered me. One time in New Orleans, I took off my shirt in the hotel room and one of my pals, a little guy with a nice, natural sweater vest, pointed at me and went What the fuck? I had just never thought about it before, and it was the first time it had been pointed out like that.

My pal is a cool dude, don't get me wrong. He's also bald as fuck now, hahaha.

But I don't have any chest hair, and at 44, I'm starting to think I may never hit puberty.

I have had a goatee since I was about 20, but couldn't grow a mustache to go with it until I was in my mid-30s. I never had much in the way of chest hair until about the same time, but now it's...not a full-on sweater-vest, but in '70s Burt Reynolds territory.

heh, I'm remembering my grandfather when he was in his late 60s. Maybe in another 20 years, one of these tiny little hairs will work its way up and out.

I've always had a fairly full chest of said hair. It, more than hair elsewhere, is what's going grey quickest. (Well likely my beard too but the world will never know, obviously.)

more than hair elsewhere

Gosh. That must be a lot of hair.

Lol

The main place I’ve gotten gray hair at all so far is my damn nostrils. Shock white, really. And thick, like fishing line :(

I just yank em

My beard's got a gray streak, but none in my head hair. My dad, in his late 70s, still isn't gray, so I may miss that one. I've been balding since I was 19 though, though oddly it hasn't really progressed thaaaat much since then.

beard is graying at the corners of my chin, hair has some gray in the temples but remains ample as ever, fair bit of gray chest hair

none of that is bothersome but i feel like the hair growing out of my damn ears has gone into overdrive

wookieproof

ha!

Apologies to any women present about the long "guy hair" digression; be thankful it's not All Prostates All the Time

I'm given to understand that women have their own set of age-related follicular issues, and I believe there's at least some overlap with the ones we get to enjoy. They're certainly welcome to join in the commiseration-fest!

ya another thing to note is i'm getting hairier and hairier as i get older

nose hair, ear hair, bushier eyebrows (i have to trim my eyebrows now which is a thing i only associated with my grandfathers), etc

just wait...

some slightly tmi info coming but:

i do trim my nose hairs too

i shaved my ear hair but i'm afraid that makes it worse

and hell while i'm at it: i wear flip flops to work sometimes and a lady expressed her disgust at how hairy my feet were

made me feel conscious so now i check out other guys' feet which is a weird thing to do and i have noticed shit maybe my feet are abnormally hairy

My nose and ears are OK but my eyebrows started growing in my mid-30s, just a few hairs on each which almost makes it worse if I leave them, which I don't.

Seriously, wtf is with the eyebrow thing. Like, those hairs managed for decades to grow to an acceptable length and stop. Suddenly, a handful of them start having a midlife crisis and gettin' all rebellious on me. It's not a good look, fellas.

Frankly, I don't mind the thought of having eyebrows that extend two inches from my face once I'm like 75 but can we maybe wait until I'm actually 75?

your fault for drinking the juice of sapho

All this talk of balding makes this thread deeply 'forty-something', although it's confined to forty-something men.

No it is not!

I don’t have much gray, but I do have one gray hair in my right eyebrow that gets the plucking treatment.

My mom is bummed by thinning hair in her 70s. Chemo probably didn’t help.

No it is not!

I meant the eager enthusiasm for discussing the subject of baldness was confined to men.

Yeah I don’t think I realized how sensitive guys were about the balding thing!

Having a hairline that resembles a public toilet seat is a thing that requires some adjustment.

FWIW my best friend has always had a thing for older bad guys (with bad teeth to boot) so for everyone worried about losing their hair just shave that shit. It’s just hair and there are people out there who are totally into it!

Bald not bad thought tbh in her base both work.

xpost lol aww ok fair point

I have so much hair that even if it does start thinning it would still be a lot.

I have a few weird chin and neck hairs but I got those in my 30s.

i had vitamin d deficiency and for a while i seemed to be losing my hair at an alarming rate, it was v unsettling

also thanks to genes inherited from my good old Dad I have hella, mega nose hair, full-on gross spider legs level. they require constant trimming. they havent gone gray yet but i am sure that’ll be the only hair left when i’m like 90

FWIW my best friend has always had a thing for older bad guys (with bad teeth to boot) so for everyone worried about losing their hair just shave that shit. It’s just hair and there are people out there who are totally into it!

making the assumption that bad = bald ..
i can confirm that this is true.
shave and embrace the new world.

This new world for me = small children throw apples at me, I'm effectively Cezanne without the artistic talent!

“I know a few things from his last years when he was old and shabby and children followed him every day on his way to his studio, throwing stones at him as if at a stray dog. But inside, way inside, he was marvelously beautiful.”

Oh, I just thought of a fun thing I'm experiencing lately! So, pretty much totes bald on top, to the extent that I don't really have to do any maintenance aside from pruning the random hair that forgets nothing grows there anymore. Well, since I've also been going grey, those strays tend to now be stark white and go pretty much unnoticed until the lighting is just right and reveals a snowy two-inch strand jutting straight out of my otherwise bald pate like a radio antenna desperately seeking the long-lost signal of youthful dignity.

hee hee

Xposts - lol yes bad = bald there

Xposts - lol yes bad = bald there

losing my hair happened in my twenties so I had to get over it quickly. Once I went through denial/depression/anger/rogaine/acceptance, I was fine. I shaved it to a Statham and never looked back.

Definitely went on dates with people who didn't like the bald thing, but i didn't ever get down about it, weirdly. And eventually I met someone who *really* likes the bald thing.

Shaving your head down is *almost* like hiding it but it's also saying fuck it, this is who I am.

shaved heads look fine and i never think of them as a sign of incipient baldness, i view them as a sound aesthetic choice that’s been made.

This ^^ ! I think that even if it is cause you’re balding, this is helpful to remember.

i agree

mr veg had long hair until his hairline receded too far back - then he cut it all off because he said he didn’t want to look like David Crosby lol <3

I honestly think bald on top with very long hair, inclusive of ponytails and braids, is an extremely strong look and in no way worthy of shame

yeah idk, mr veg had a real thing about that look.

silby: you mean a Mick Fleetwood?

Sorry, the "baldytail" is the worst haircut in human history. Wanna be bald and still have long(ish) hair? Put a hat on and never take it off, like Brian Johnson from AC/DC or Klaus Meine from Scorpions.

Yeah, agreed. That is literally NEVER a good look.

Not even with a brightly coloured waistcoat?