Two days ago at the gym, a trainer shared his desire when I was brushing my hair in the locker room. He said that he would have wanted hair like that himself, but it wasn’t possible for him. He was going to have hair transplantation procedures a bit later, as he was fighting hair loss.
Later that day, I saw a video on YouTube where the creator shared that he had shaved his hair several times. He feared going bald, so he put himself in the situation he feared.
I started to grow my hair maybe two years ago. Although I like the results so far, I feel constant pressure from society: relatives, people in the street, videos on the Internet — the list goes on. They keep pushing an image of men with short hair, like I’m not right in what I do.
I felt the same when I was talking to that trainer before. In reality, he wasn’t laughing at me; he just wanted similar results. The norms in society about short hair on men might come from the same fear. Many men are scared to become bald and thus prefer to keep their hair short, installing it as a standard in society.
If you face non-constructive criticism of your choices, it likely shows what those critics fear and not what you should change. Keeping this in mind will help you stay true to yourself — and maybe even think about their inner issues and show some empathy.
Do you often manage to separate critics from yourself?
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