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What do you use for thinning, grey hair and balding on top?

memphislawyer

Practically Family
Messages
771
Location
Memphis, Tn
Thinking that since I have very little hair on top, using a shampoo bar like Leggitts or even Mitchell Wool Fat Bath soap would be good. Maybe stripping the oils from my scalp may not be a great idea, so the Mitchells Wool Fat bar soap or using one of those 72% olive oil soaps would be good?
 

robrinay

One Too Many
Messages
1,490
Location
Sheffield UK
My cousin has thin receding hair on top and swears by the old adage ‘if you can’t hide it make a feature of it!’
Consequently he has his hair very short (a no 1 Summer or no2 Winter crew cut) and uses a drop of whatever liquid shampoo and conditioner his wife buys him.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
Seriously? You’re pulling my leg, right?

No?

I started going bald in high school. By my early 20s there was no denying it.

What remains of my hair is thin and a mousy brownish color where it isn’t a dingy grey.

So when it grows long enough to even consider combing, long enough that my having just worn a hat is apparent, I just cut it all off and start over.

Upside? A few, including not concerning myself much with hair-care products. I use on my head the same soap I use on the rest of me — whatever brand is on sale.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,797
Location
New Forest
I agree with Tony, who would want to have hair like President Trump? However, I do use a specialist shampoo, having been plagued with psoriasis for as long as I can remember. Years ago a doctor told me that the condition is often psychosomatic, usually brought on by severe stress, but I seem to get it for no apparent reason. At least I don't suffer from psoriasis' sibling: eczema, so a small mercy there.

Hats are the way though, if you are sensitive about hair loss, they are also a good way of preventing sunburn and the effects of the sun, such as skin cancer risk. But while my thatch getting thinner doesn't bother me, I was vain enough to shave off a 40 year old beard once the silver threads took hold.
 

memphislawyer

Practically Family
Messages
771
Location
Memphis, Tn
Also i have psoriasis and I did use all sorts of shampoos. However one year I went to Florida and forgot a cap 1 day and got a severe sunburn and for the most part it had never come back.
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
I was vain enough to shave off a 40 year old beard once the silver threads took hold.
"When a gentleman is tempted to color his facial hair to cover it becoming gray, he shaves it off".
I don't recall where I first heard that, but I agree with it. I still have mine, but I have not been tempted yet.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
Also i have psoriasis and I did use all sorts of shampoos. However one year I went to Florida and forgot a cap 1 day and got a severe sunburn and for the most part it had never come back.

Were you spotted on top for a few days after? You know, a nice rosy pink where the skin has yet to peel off, and an almost stark white where it has.

I have no sign of skin cancer, but it would come as no surprise to an oncologist if I were to eventually develop it, seeing how I burned to a crisp pretty much every summer in my early years. If sunscreen existed back then, it never made its way to my neighborhood.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
"When a gentleman is tempted to color his facial hair to cover it becoming gray, he shaves it off".
I don't recall where I first heard that, but I agree with it. I still have mine, but I have not been tempted yet.

I was bearded on and off during my younger years. But now with mostly grey whiskers I fear I would be taken for a chronic street inebriate if I let it grow out. Like the grey a bit further north on my noggin, the whiskers are a dingy grey, not a “distinguished” silver. Touching it up with some kind of dye to improve the color is just something I wouldn’t do, just as I wouldn’t wear a rug. Or a girdle. (Sorry Elvis, but it didn’t fool anyone.)
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
Unfortunately my moustache is not graying evenly either. It is showing a range of colors from brown to dingy gray to silver. According to my wife it is still acceptable in appearance and she is unfailingly honest about such things, but I fear those days are numbered.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
Unfortunately my moustache is not graying evenly either. It is showing a range of colors from brown to dingy gray to silver. According to my wife it is still acceptable in appearance and she is unfailingly honest about such things, but I fear those days are numbered.

I haven't been clean-shaven above my lip in decades. I once sported a long, luxuriant moustache, but in recent years I've kept it trimmed short, which much better suits a fellow of my, um, seniority. Old peacocks lack dignity, generally.
 

Just Jim

A-List Customer
Messages
307
Location
The wrong end of Nebraska . . . .
Thinning/greying hair is fairly effectively dealt with by shaving your head. . . just a thought.

Took the beard off a couple years ago, it was red shot with grey but had been so for a decade. Kept the mustache, which has gone to white (if I don't get the edges trimmed closely enough, I still get a red stripe along the edges). Can't imagine trying to dye the mustache or beard: as much as I hate shaving, dying it would be worse!
 

Lean'n'mean

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,087
Location
Cloud-cuckoo-land
who would want to have hair like President Trump?

Quite a lot of men apparently. :D Please note, President Trump has had scalp reduction surgery, so for those of you trying it at home, results may differ from the illustration.
61SgN8Y3BXL._SS300_.jpg
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,766
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
That section is women-only. Maybe there ought to be a "Men's Grooming" section, though.

The head-shaving option works for those men who have well-shaped heads. But you do see the occasional poor soul who's chosen that course and ends up looking like Dr. Sivana.

sivana-by-beck.jpg
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,797
Location
New Forest
Old peacocks lack dignity, generally.
Couldn't be further from the truth. It's true that teenage ladies won't be queuing at your door, but you do have an eloquent air of dignity, furthermore, you have used those years of experience wisely. In the time that I've been a Lounge member I can't help noticing how you have dealt with a spat or two. You can assert yourself with skill in that you don't try to exchange blow for blow. You instinctively realise the futility of swapping insults, yet you won't be taken for a fool either. It's a great skill that you have, I envy that.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
Couldn't be further from the truth. It's true that teenage ladies won't be queuing at your door, but you do have an eloquent air of dignity, furthermore, you have used those years of experience wisely. In the time that I've been a Lounge member I can't help noticing how you have dealt with a spat or two. You can assert yourself with skill in that you don't try to exchange blow for blow. You instinctively realise the futility of swapping insults, yet you won't be taken for a fool either. It's a great skill that you have, I envy that.

An extraordinary judge of character you are!
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
When my hair started thinning first, when I was twenty-six, I kept it clipped to a number two; by the time I hit thirty, I was clipping it to a one. Bought my own clippers and got so I could do it in under five minutes. By the time I turned 32, a one twice a week wasn't hiding it, so I took the plunge and shaved it completely. My sole regret now is that I didn't do that to begin with. From the time I went to a number one, I stopped using shampoo and just tuck to whatever shower gell I was using anyhow.

Most of us go bald sooner or later. You can either embrace it or develop a hang-up, but it won't make much difference how you wash it.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
Quite a lot of men apparently. :D Please note, President Trump has had scalp reduction surgery, so for those of you trying it at home, results may differ from the illustration.
61SgN8Y3BXL._SS300_.jpg

Gotta wonder how much time is expended in coercing those 27 hairs of his into covering all that hairless scalp.

I’ve yet to see a convincing combover. (But then, if I did see one, would I know it?) But you gotta credit the engineers who do 45’s coif for getting so little hair to go so far. It’s impressive, not unlike, say, the way Evel Knievel’s attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon on his “Skycycle” was impressive.
 
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
When my hair started thinning first, when I was twenty-six, I kept it clipped to a number two; by the time I hit thirty, I was clipping it to a one. Bought my own clippers and got so I could do it in under five minutes. By the time I turned 32, a one twice a week wasn't hiding it, so I took the plunge and shaved it completely. My sole regret now is that I didn't do that to begin with. From the time I went to a number one, I stopped using shampoo and just tuck to whatever shower gell I was using anyhow.

Most of us go bald sooner or later. You can either embrace it or develop a hang-up, but it won't make much difference how you wash it.

I don’t shave my scalp, but I cut what remains of my hair as short as the clippers will take it, which is pretty darned short indeed.

I fear that daily shaving of my noggin top would become a chore. And I also fear I would routinely nick my scalp and be stuck taking several minutes minimally to stanch the bleeding, seeing how one of my medications is a blood thinner.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
I don’t shave my scalp, but I cut what remains of my hair as short as the clippers will take it, which is pretty darned short indeed.

I fear that daily shaving of my noggin top would become a chore. And I also fear I would routinely nick my scalp and be stuck taking several minutes minimally to stanch the bleeding, seeing how one of my medications is a blood thinner.

It's not for everybody. I cut myself a few times early on (mainly when ascertaining that I had to use a cartridge razor for my head, not the DE...), but I've got it down to about five minutes now, every other day or every third day. If anything, I find it less time-consuming than the clippers were. Easier to do by feel, I suppose.
 

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