Hacker News Reader

Comment by jquery | Hacker News Reader

And millions of men (and some unfortunate women) rejoiced at the news.

I've had a widow's peak[1] as long as I can remember, and as I get older, it gets slightly worse every year. It's such a part of my identity I can't even imagine having a full head of hair. This is "just how I look".

I never gave it much thought, except for the teasing in middle and high school (kids are mean). Except... except on Halloween a few years ago, when I put on a goofy wig, and I just kept getting compliments from people about how good I looked.

Be grateful for the hair you have! It's a huge advantage in the looks department. And before someone says "just shave it off bald is beautiful," I agree, except that some of us have oddly shaped heads due to the intensity of natural birth and even balding hair is better than no hair for those of us in that situation. :)

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow%27s_peak

View on HN

I got implants and, when I see people who haven't seen me in a while, they always ask if I grew taller or if I lost weight or why I look more handsome.

Very few people could tell it was the hair, many could tell I just looked better.

Might be the hair, or it might be improved posture from more self confidence.

It's definitely the hair. One of the reasons I didn't want to do it was that I didn't really mind being bald before, so I didn't really get any self-confidence improvement from it. I just look better in photos.

The term "widow's peak" is often misused to describe a receding hairline from the temple. It actually refers to the point at the center of the hairline and is often present in men with little to no recession.

Yeah I have one. Was born with it. Hair things from the sides a peak is literally a point popping out of what can be usually a straight hairline.

It may be misused but almost everyone understands what is meant. Language evolves to fit the needs of people.

In my case I assure you I am not “misusing” it. The widow’s peak gets a little more severe every year, probably due to overall hair thinning that comes from aging. Or MPB interacting with it.

I'm confused, since a widow's peak is not related to hair recession and you're talking specifically like hair recession. What you're describing just sounds like MPB from the temples, which is one of two common ways men go bald.

How else to describe having a widow's peak that gets progressively deeper over a period of decades?

"Male Pattern Baldness"

I was born with my widow's peak. If you look at Leonardo Dicaprio, as he's aged, his "widow peak" has gotten more severe as mine has. You're the first person I've encountered who took issue with me describing my hair as a "widow's peak that slowly got more severe". I think it conjures the proper mental image. It is a form of MPB, yes, but that's a broad category.

My point is the widow's peak is wholly unrelated to baldness and often exists on a full hairline. The recession you're describing is MPB, but again, is independent of the widow's peak phenomenon.

Semantically they're different things that often get conflated.

Went bald (like Elon but more complete) before I entered my 20s. Really wish I knew what having hair into adulthood is like. I’d prefer to just be completely bald all of the time, but shaving takes considerable time.

> shaving takes considerable time.

I had a mohawk for a fairly long time, and shaving didn't take too long - albeit, I didn't shave daily, although I did have to take some care to not shave off the middle bits. Why does shaving take so long? I assume it wouldn't take much longer than shaving your face. Slap some goo on your head in the shower, run a safety razor or a bic over all the bits, run your hand over it to feel for stubble, rinse, repeat, no?

Your scalp is way thinner and much more delicate than the skin on your cheeks and neck. And remember that you can't see the back of your head, so you have to spend extra time shaving that part of yourself because you have to do it with two mirrors.

I shaved my head for a solid year, and I had to be incredibly delicate because any nick or scratch and I would bleed like a stuck pig.

> any nick or scratch

Sounds like cheap razors to me. Get a high quality razor + shaving gel and you'll never cut yourself. I've been shaving my head for 15 years and only bled once, from a crappy budget singly blade razor.

Depends a lot on your skin. I don't shave my head, but I'll not infrequently get little nicks when shaving my face, despite trying all manner of razors, gels, and creams. Best is if I can give it a few days between each shave -- it tends to be much worse if I have to shave on consecutive days, as it's still irritated from one day when shaving the next.

I was using a double-edge safety razor with my preferred blade and shaving cream. It's difficult to shave that part of my head because it's incredibly delicate. On the contrary I've gotten nothing but crap shaves from the cartridge razors.

Shaving is something where you really REALLY have to test different things to figure out what works for you. For example some men really prefer Feather blades because they can get a really close shave with them. For me, those blades actually tear up my face to the point that I break out in a rash. Using the same technique and a Gillette Platinum blade I can get an incredibly close shave in two passes.

Don't use a mirror to shave your head. Shave and verify using your hands, then go back and hit anything you missed the first time around.

But if you're shaving all the hair off, what do you need to see? Maybe I'm weird, but I could do everything except the parts close to the actual hair I wanted to keep without looking at it.

> shaving takes considerable time.

eh? I've been shaving my head for the past 15 years and it's never been a long process. Takes me about 90 sec to shave my head.

Just buy good quality razors and shaving gel and you can do it almost as quickly as someone styling their hair. I spend about as much time brushing my teeth.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com