Last Updated on September 27, 2017 by Robert Price
“In Life, It’s Important NOT to Give a Shit.”
-George Carlin
If you’re like most people, you’re stupid in many ways…
I’m an idiot too, so I’m not saying I’m better than you.
It’s absurd when you think about it: We allow other people to control our emotions, and to set expectations upon us for no good reason.
But you have the power to change your situation and your plight in an instant; hopefully this post will help you begin your own, personal revolution.
As Steve Jobs famously once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Carlin’s Story
I’ll embed the video at the end of this article. In it, he talks about how as a young man, he swam against the current of expectations. He got kicked out of summer camps, multiple schools, broke into buildings, became a stoner at 13, and generally just didn’t give a shit. And, he believes there’s no way he would’ve been successful without that mentality.
He started out in his career as a comedian with normal, run-of-the-mill, mainstream expectations.
In other words, he wasn’t making jokes about religion, suicide, incest, or other taboo subjects! It was all right-down-the-middle content geared toward Joe Six Pack from Sandusky, Ohio. He was conforming, trying to be someone he wasn’t.
The Ah-Ha Moment
During the counter-culture revolution in the mid to late 60s, with the protests and the Weather Underground and the hippies and the Vietnam War all raging, Carlin found his voice and his target audience. He didn’t want to speak to Joe Sixpack in Sandusky, he wanted to speak to the anti-establishment forces that were mobilizing across the country.
Ignoring the criticism and the noise and other people’s expectations of him, he was able to become arguably the most successful comedian of all-time.
How Carlin’s Advice Applies with Regard to Hair Loss
So I’m not saying you should become a criminal or get expelled or advise your Grandma to no longer attend her Wednesday Bible study because the Bible is just a bunch of BS. No…
But, when it comes to your career and your life, set your own expectations. Don’t conform for simplicity’s sake. Just because everyone around you is going to college or getting married, doesn’t mean you have to follow that path.
Back to Balding…
When one of your buddies teases you about your hair loss, does it ruin your day? Or, perhaps your little secret isn’t known yet. But maybe you’re quietly dreading that moment your hair loss is exposed to the world.
F…It.
Honestly, anyone who tries to make you feel less because of hair loss is a loser to begin with. Why let them occupy any space in your mind?
A Few More Inspirational & Pertinent Carlin Quotes
These will be encouraging, I assure you.
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
-George Carlin
If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
-George Carlin
I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven’t tried that for a while. Maybe this time it’ll work.
-George Carlin
Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.
-George Carlin
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.’
-George Carlin
“It’s all bullshit, folks and it’s bad for ya.”
-George Carlin
5 More Inspirational, Don’t-Give-a-Shit Quotes
“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.”
― Virginia Woolf
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
— Dr. Seuss
“No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
― Aristotle
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
— Oscar Wilde
Below is the Video I Promised
Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.
I like it when my friends or family tease me about my hair loss. It just reminds me that I’m bald and how lucky I am to have gone bald. I wonder if some of the guys who tease me actually secretly wish they were bald like me. Back in college several of my classmates were already going bald and one guy was already bald. I envied them and wished I was going bald and being teased. When it became noticeable that I was going bald the the good natured teasing began for me. Someone gave me a brush without bristles with an inscription on it that read: ‘Special brush for a bald man’. I loved that gift and I still have it in my collection of special souvenirs.
Thanks for your inspiration and wisdom for my recent post! You have the most positive MPB outlook of anyone I’ve ever come across, and I think the way you were able to accept and love your baldness without strife or insecurity gives hope to many. Some guys just get over going bald, learn to love the look — whether through shaving their heads or not — and move on with their lives.
Some guys truly get depressed, on the other hand. Some even let it ruin their lives (there have been quite a few suicides linked directly to hair loss). I guess I wonder what you’d say to the young men out there who are truly struggling with hair loss. What would your advice be for them, keeping in mind that most people don’t come to “accept” hair loss quite as readily as you did? Most don’t love the look either! I think that’s safe to say, given that many men would prefer blindness over baldness! When you have a chance, I’d love to hear your reply! Thanks again for all the thought-provoking comments and insights. Cheers.
Two weeks ago I got my latest haircut. As always, I especially love my male pattern baldness most immediately after getting my hair cut, because my hair looks best with the fringe neatly trimmed and short, any unwanted ‘fuzz’ is gone and the top of my head is smooth and shiny. So my advice to a guy who has gone bald is to keep it neat and short. Also, for someone who is Norwood 4 or 5 with very sparse hair or very thin ‘fuzz’ on top I would advise buzzing off that sparse hair and fuzz and go Norwood 6. I, for one, look MUCH better Norwood 6 than I did half bald. When my hair regrew after taking saw palmetto, I hated the way I looked and sorely missed my smooth, shiny, bald head. Thankfully, the effect wore off and my hair began to thin out. I was thrilled to be going bald again. I must confess that I stopped taking saw palmetto for about six months hoping my hair would quickly fall out. It did. What little hair I still had on top vanished in just a few months. And best of all, going back on saw palmetto did not regrow my hair. Another bit of advice for a balding guy: if you decide to regrow your hair or hang on to what hair you have, you will have to continue taking the hair regrowth medication (or saw palmetto in my case), or you will lose your hair. And your hair may fall out very quickly, as if to make up for lost time. In my case, it didn’t matter, as I wanted to go bald again as fast as possible. The lady that cut my hair two weeks ago hadn’t cut my hair for over one year, but she remembered me. When she was done with my hair she handed me a mirror to check out the back of my head and told me something I’ve wanted to hear for a long time: my hairline in back has receded noticeable this last year. She said it looks much better now that my hairline in back is a wide ‘U’ shape instead of the old narrow ‘V’ shape. At home I compared photos from several years ago with recent family photos taken at family gatherings and I had to agree, I have balded significantly. It goes without saying that I am thrilled. It seems I will be Norwood 7 in a year or two. Can’t wait!
My last bit of advice to bald guys or balding guys is to relax and surrender to it. Let male pattern baldness happen. Fall in love with it. It’s so much better than going blind. Going blind is a horror. Male pattern baldness is a blessing, as far a I’m concerned. This last weekend we met with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. We met a young guy who was almost totally bald in front, with only the thinnest ‘widows peak’. He was advanced Norwood 4 and not yet 30 years old. I thought, what a lucky guy! I wish I had been that bald back when I was his age. I would have been Norwood 7 by the time I was 40 instead of having to wait until my late 70s. Oh, well, better late than never.