This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

'Everyone gets much more attractive as they age' vs. Geo. Orwell's remark that 'at age forty everyone has the face they deserve'.

Sheesh, I guess I must have four decades of hardcore assholism under my belt, then.

You have an asshole face?

It probably depends on who you ask.

My hair is still thick and still mostly dark, with some gray at the temples and speckled throughout, but my eyebrows and beard have gone more or less completely gray. :\

Some female comedian did a bit in one of her routines about her pubic hair going grey and how that was what first made her feel really old. That fact that that was even a thing that happens was pretty eye-opening for me.

I think it might have been Jen Kirkman.

YOu know I was giong to mention the salt and pepper pubes but I was afraid of offending ILE

i just noticed this past weekend that some of my aunt's eyelashes have turned grey and i felt sympathetic in an "oh we're getting old right?" kind of way, even though she is much older than i

the underside (?) of my hair is almost white in places, it’s kinda cool
i *almost* have a cruella deville/j jonah jameson streak on my right temple

on top is still dyed and kinda brownish

I don't look forward to going completely gray but I confess I am a big fan of the "skunk stripe" on women (cf. Bonnie Raitt, Stacy London, Rogue/X-Men, JoBeth Williams at the end of "Poltergeist," etc).

can't remember the year i started posting here (it wasn't this account), 2001 maybe, when i was a highly strung and combative 27 (?) year old dickhead. now my hair's fallen out so my head is basically a dick. in fact the only thing that shits me about ageing is having no hair (which makes me lucky tbh).

I don't look forward to going completely gray but I confess I am a big fan of the "skunk stripe" on women (cf. Bonnie Raitt, Stacy London, Rogue/X-Men, JoBeth Williams at the end of "Poltergeist," etc).

― Monster fatberg (Phil D.), Wednesday, January 3, 2018 4:19 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My maternal grandmother had this. I never knew her but it looked awesome in pictures.

^^ I've had my first real 'am I going bald?!' scare last week. It's still early days but that hairline is receding mighty fast all of a sudden.

(15 months away from being completely eligible to participate in this thread; I see this as an apprenticeship)

xp

^^ I've had my first real 'am I going bald?!' scare last week.

my scare lasted a whole day, i found a hairdresser (i was abroad) and got them to shave it all the fuck off. never went back.

I'm thinning a bit at my crown and I've always had a high forehead but I don't think I'll go bald, based on my family. I have a load of greys on the right side above my ear, but I don't really mind that tbh

Is it too challopsy to say I think grey hair is attractive (cf. Emmylou Harris, G. Clooney) and that I'm impatient for more of it?

my scare lasted a whole day, i found a hairdresser (i was abroad) and got them to shave it all the fuck off. never went back.

― rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, January 3, 2018 9:25 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's admirable. I'm not ready to throw in the towel tbh.

The scare was coming home having walked through rain and storm and suddenly seeing the hair on the fore of the top of my head is getting so thin it's like it's isolated from the rest of the hair on my head. If that makes sense. I want both parties to make up and rejoice again, to be one do. I also know wishing this is in vain.

xp not at all. Grey hair rules imo.

otm re grey hair

The scare was coming home having walked through rain and storm and suddenly seeing the hair on the fore of the top of my head is getting so thin it's like it's isolated from the rest of the hair on my head. If that makes sense.

pretty much the same for me, but in a photo i saw a tiny gap in my forehead. that was enough. fuck recalcitrant hair.

people keep telling me how sexy salt and pepper hair is... but i feel like they're just being nice. because i'm old now. also hi, i am now tall enough to ride this thread.

I have a load of greys on the right side above my ear

Same here. I'm not bothered about going grey but I wish it would come in a bit more evenly. My hair was receding at an alarming rate in my early thirties (tonnes of hair on the pillow every morning) but that's stopped at least for the moment. Again, I'm not bothered - there's a picture of my grandfather at my parent's wedding where he's rocking a swept back Jack Nicholson look.

I admire your strength and courage, AA. I'm just not ready yet :-/

it wasn't strength and courage so much as not wanting to look like this guy or this guy

people keep telling me how sexy salt and pepper hair is... but i feel like they're just being nice. because i'm old now.

nah, it's gobsmackingly sexy

Lol, well I've got quite some time left before it turns as ugly as that.

Though, admittedly, in my darkest hour I did google "dick advocaat hair". /shudders xp

the worst thing is how everyone thinks it's fine to openly remark and take the piss out of you

(not *you* lbi specifically)

if i were missing a leg or had giant sores all over my face nobody would say anything, but a few hairs drop out and it's game on

I'd never say stuff like that, but will cop to having had those thoughts abt bald people. I should've known it'd bite me in the buttocks.

me too, if i'm honest

40s eh

Aye

I'm able to console myself wrt my baldness by remembering that the alternative (ie, literally every other hair replacement option) is ten times as gross and unsightly.

That said, there is admittedly some appeal to the thought of procuring a hilariously-awful toupee.

Perhaps coupled with a gaudy, oversized sports jacket and a bow tie?

Yes, for those unsure, I am an idiot.

there’s also hats

which… can be wanky

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOING BALD.

I've got a buddy who went bald like, schzwoop, one year. And now he wears caps indoors and says things like "Ha! Like when I used to have hair!"

It's cool, man!

Baldness does seem to be one of the final frontiers of body-shaming - my boyfriend is mostly bald and it's amazing how people will just make jokes about his baldness to his face in social situations, even people he doesn't know. Not that it bothers him too much, he's thick-skinned, but people wouldn't do the same if he was obese or had a bad stutter or whatever

Thread got too real

i get to die with a full head of hair, everything else is up for grabs tho'

i get to die with a full ear of hair

In re hair, I grew up with dire warnings that my mom's father and brother had both gone completely bald in their 20s, and baldness comes through the mother's side, etc. As it turned out, I had plenty of hair well into my 30s, and since then it's been a long drawn-out matter of thinning on top and receding in front, but still more hair than not. Since I'd sort of made peace with the idea of going bald young, having thinning hair in my late 40s is nbd.

Yeah, I honestly have basically zero sensitivity about it at this point. When I had hair, it was dumb and unmanageable. No big loss.

My hair's been receding slowly for a good decade, but I'm not close to having to shave it yet. Had a smattering of grey for the same amount of time. Now getting to the point where there are too many grey hairs in my beard to tweezer them out individually, which i did for years, less out of vanity than out of the physical sense of satisfaction that removing one gave me. Have tweezered out a handful of grey pubes, a grey chesthair, and, most pathetically, plenty of grey nasal hair. GREY NASAL HAIR wtf.

(Orwell's quote is about being 50, btw; he died at 46 so just missed finding out.)

(Looking at Steve Bannon makes you think there's something in it.)

a mate of mine is undergoing chemo atm for lymphoma and when he first started it he’d had a marvelous rockabilly quiff of hair which rapidly all fell out. he went out clubbing one night not long after and some old goth tart laughed, patted his head and made fun of the baldness. i wish i’d been there when he’d retorted it was due to cancer to see her stupid face.

i hated having hair, my orinal hair was thick and too curly and determined to do anything with.
then in my late 20s i realised i was going to go thin on top.
so, one day i walked into a barbers got a blade #1 cut and went home.
was a sharp cold winters days and my head absolutely buzzed and felt tingly all the way home.
it felt absolutely brilliant.
i walked into our flat, and bh was not too happy, but realised there was no going back and so had to accept it.