J., this reminds me of an embarrassing moment when I used to work at Texas Instruments, with all male engineers, back in McKinney, TX and many of the local men were quite 'cowboy-ish.' So this one industrial engineer used to visit my office quite frequently, for work purpose, but we became friendly, and I was very pregnant at the time, and this other engineer used to rub my belly for good luck. I was the only token female manager for miles. But this one guy, really put too much effort into his looks and clothes, yet he had an adorable personality. I think I took on a motherly role in his life and he seemed to enjoy my compliments, so one day, in my salesman approach of trying to build him up after a disastrous date, I told him it was such a pleasure working with him, and how much I truly enjoyed his sense of humor and how it was refreshing to meet a young man who was not so hyper focused on his looks and was comfortable with himself, including the fact that he was prematurely balding. Well, for some odd reason, he stopped coming by as often, and when I saw him a couple of weeks later, he had those hair transplants corn rowed across his scalp. Disgusting, to say the least.
I was only 27 years old, and did not get what a deep struggle this can be for some men.
Now, husband, has very thin hair on top, and applies way too much product, making it look like plastic atop his head and I tell him frequently that less product makes his hair look fresh and clean, but he's had the same ol' haircut and style and styling methods forever. But there's not one vain cell in his head. My efforts are lost on him.