You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I have reached an age where my hair has turned mostly grey and is pretty thin on top. I am not one to get to the barbers too often so it does get a bit "mad professor" like after a couple of months.
There are quite a few barbers near where I work but they are all a bit too "trendy" for me. The last one straight up asked me "What did you hair used to be like" last time I went there and charged me £24 for the privilege. I did use a more local barber but now find it difficult to visit her due to job and commitments on a Saturday morning.
I am wondering whether it is time to take charge of things myself so thinking of buying some clippers and doing a "buzz cut" at home (not ready for the full shaved head look yet).
Please advise, entertain and inspire me with your tales of middle aged male hair- related adventures.
Not really an exciting tale but buying a set of these has probably been the most cost-effective purchase I've ever made...
https://www.babyliss.com/uk-en/the-crewcut-diy-self-cut-hair-clipper-7758U.html
Shop around and you'll find them cheaper.
It's a tough one. 🤔
Are you gorgeous with a good skull shape and a beautiful complexion?
Handsome blokes --->look good with or without hair.
Ugly blokes --->without hair can look as if they are out on parole.
If in doubt, PM --> TJ (the hair guru) with a photo.
I am sure he will have an answer.
😉 🤣 🤣
Still got mine, but it's gone very grey (55) - still a bit darker on top, but will go grey completely - given how my dad's hair is at 80. I just run a trimmer through it - 12mm sides/back, 18mm top. Shorter and MrsF complains. Still grows fast so needs doing every 6 weeks.
I just zap it myself as I can't be bothered with barbers etc. No patience. If it was to 'go' off the top, then I'll go short or none !
Please advise, entertain and inspire me with your tales of middle aged male hair- related adventures.
Turkish barbers and don't leave it too long between visits. Hair trimmed, eyebrow trimmed, ear hair burnt with a taper and nose hair yanked out with wax on sticks. Keeps the whole shop entertained judging by the mix of oohs, ahhhs and s****s I can hear when my own screams aren't blocking everything else out 😀
^ lolz at the swear filter not liking my use of the word snigggers
Bite the bullet and shave it off, you'll have about 2-3 days off piss taking from friends and colleagues, then everyone will forget what your hair looked like before. Doesn't have to be to the scalp, #1/2 might be good. Do it soon so you can get used to the lack of insulation before winter comes!
I've got a Phillips 7650 which comes with a bunch of adjustable length guides and is waterproof so it works for the beard too. Whatever you get will have paid for itself after a couple of times not going to the barber, so get one with a decent battery life.
The first time you shave it all off is pretty liberating, so make sure you do it yourself, GI Jane style!
Buy some waterproof, cordless and adjustable trimmers and trim away. Just done mine on a No1 setting and when I run my fingers across my head it feels like I have hair 😂
I've been using the same set of Remington clippers for almost 40 years (the instructional video is on VHS 😂) I don't cut my hair close to the scalp, just a "bit short" and have to re-do it every 6 weeks or so. It's not difficult.
Very grey from early 40s. I've not really done anything other than grade 3 or 2 according to season/inclination since. When there was a sensibly priced barber by the office I went there. Now there isn't I mostly do my own.
Barbers will do a neater job and a bit quicker if you exclude going there and waiting but once it is that short it's marginal gains.
I have thick lustrous locks with barely a hint of grey at 50+. Though as a tight yorkshireman i shaved it fortnightly (or so) for over a decade, then "occasionally" for another 5 years. Leaving it to grow wild in-between times.
Disasters include my original clippers corroding a key internal part (they weren't as waterproof as the label said) and it failing after running a Nr1 guard through my hair twice (about 2" long at the time). Then having to go into town to either secure a hair cut or buy new trimmers from the local electrical white good store (cheapest were about 75 quid).
Ended up being laughed at by three very busy hairdressers and buying the clippers.
Another occasion where i'd left it for ~6 months during a very cold winter (it'd been -10 before the end of October IIRC) i did an onboarding for a new starter at work towards the end of the 6 months, looked like a cross between homeless Wolverine and Lemmy when we started. (Yesi also had the *MASSSIVE* sideburns to add to the look.
Turned up Monday of her third or fourth week with about 36 hours of growth from a complete scalping on friday night and started talking to this poor girl not realising she had exactly *no* idea who i was. The growing look of terror on her face was quite concerning until i worked out the problem.
What is left of my hair is very grey. I cut my own with clippers set at 3mm every three weeks or so and have done since I was in my late 40’s when it was fuller and less grey as being an own-up baldy is the only way forward in my opinion.
Ugly blokes --->without hair can look as if they are out on parole.
That’ll be me, then…
Having said that, during lockdown, my already thinning hair was really looking a mess, because I always wear a hat, and while I was in the bathroom giving my beard a bit of a trim, I stood looking in the mirror and said sod it, and went over my head with my beard trimmer.
When I went downstairs, my partner looked at me, and said “that’s better, you should have done that ages ago!” 😋
Still, it allows me to create a reasonable Lego look-alike…
Turkish barbers and don't leave it too long between visits. Hair trimmed, eyebrow trimmed, ear hair burnt with a taper and nose hair yanked out with wax on sticks.
That nose hair thing is agony but worse is when they pluck stray hairs with thread. Excruciating.
Nobody has suggested growing it out so it can be popped into a pony tail yet? Go on. Full denial of the ageing process.
I had been thinning for some time and went to grade-zero buzzcuts with clippers at home during lockdown - and I love it.
The ladies have been quite appreciative too, I must say.
Full Nutkins, it's the only way
OP, depending on your age, there may well be plenty of time yet to go full blindingly bald (like that pic up there); maybe you want to make the most of what you have left for a few more years yet, cause it feels like once you start shaving it all off at our age, there's no going back
A decent barber should be able to tidy it up for you; I'm thin on top and at the stage of basically not having to cut it on top, but #3 back and sides and tidy up the corners (from side to top). £20, 20 minutes, good for another 4-5 weeks and looks fairly tidy.
Buzz cut convert from about 20 years ago when I was in my mid-30s, as I get older I'm catching up with my (lack of) hair style, and most of my peer group have caught me up in terms of their hair loss. Once it gets about 10mm long it feels like a duvet on my hair and I can't bear it, and when it's freshly clippered it feels so refreshing.
Can't upload image, but think cue ball. Pretty sure I look as cool as Errol Brown.
Being bald is perfectly acceptable, having Trumpesque hair wafting around in the breeze is not.
Covid gave me the time and lack of access to barbers I needed. I did it one day and haven't looked back since, the only difference is I now go to a grade 1 not 2 all over. Once a week, a quick buzz and never again will I have to pay someone to do an easy job of trimming my thinning hair again.
I went thin on top quite early on and used to keep it cropped, something like 4 on top and 2 at the sides with Wahl clippers. Don't think I've been to the barbers since the "Thirty Bob Shop" was up and running in Huddersfield.
The Wahl corded trimmers were amazing, but eventually decided a regular scalping/ down to the wood with a beard trimmer with no guard every few days was the future. The last couple of years though has been revelatory. A Remington RX7 every other day for a perfect, shiny, smooth head. Goes well with the white beard now. As for "handsome Vs ugly men" and bald heads, I fing myself unable to give a shit. My only issue is keeping a beanie in the right place as they always tend to ride up.
Nobody has suggested growing it out so it can be popped into a pony tail yet? Go on. Full denial of the ageing process
I'm 44 and have a had a ponytail for the last five years. Sounds like I'm in a minority
I had to go through this in my early twenties. I went from looking like a nice, gentle, long-haired hippy type, to looking like a skinhead, almost over night. The difference in how people reacted to me on the street and, especially, in bars, was noticeable. It was much harder to get eye contact and served in a busy pub.
I think nowadays it's much more common, and expected, for balding men to do the decent thing and shave it all off. And the pubs are never busy any more.
Last time i went to a barber was in 1998 (aged 38) as I needed to look decent for an interview and got charged a lot of money for a experience.
I had a full beard and been losing my hair for a number of years so was miffed at the amount of money charged for a "tidy-up". The following weekend I went out a bought a set of mains clippers and did the job myself from there onwards. Number 3 on top and a Number 2 for the beard.
When I was in my 50's I decided to remove what was left and now wet shave my head and use the trimmer to keep the goatee in check (No. 1).
Was the best thing I did and haven't looked back since.
I'm in no danger of baldness, but at 45 I'm only a shade less grey than Father Ted, and well on my way to the full Alistair Darling. But I will not be purchasing any Just For Men.
A good mate tried Just For Men beard colouring, and it worked surprisingly well. But he is a cool DJ and needs to look down with the kids. Or at least, less like some pervy old man in a nightclub
A hat.
54 here and a proud silver fox sporting 4 on top and 2 on the sides. I tried clippers for a while but it's tidying up the edges and fading in the back that I/my wife couldn't get right; I ended up with a grade 2 mullet so went back to the barber.
#2 all over whenever my Mrs tells me I look like a tramp (8-12 weeks). Early 50s with a full head of hair and little grey (thanks dad).