Korean Job Discussion Forums

bizrandom · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Location: Busan

So after reading this forum for the last few weeks, and making a decision to give teaching in korea a shot, I am wondering how having a shaved head goes over. I think Busan is where I want to live and teach. I have heard all about the staring, so I am expecting this. Will there be any other type of situation which may arise due to how I deal with male pattern baldness. I am a fairly attractive (straight teeth, blue eyes), in shape, fashionable male, with a goatee and shaved head. I have never lived outside of the country (USA) and want to prepare myself as much as possible for all of the facets of difference I am going to experience. I look forward to your comments.

Fishead soup · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Location: Korea

You'd be much better off with just a close brush cut. Send a private message to Racetraitor he's our resident skinhead

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

If staring bothers you, Seoul would be a much better choice. Nobody ever stares at me, and I've got a shaved head. Not totally bald though, about 5mm.

smwood · Joined: 28 Mar 2006 Location: Over Here.

I had a shaved head when I got here but quickly let it grow out as in the countryside (where I live & work) it freaks Koreans out. In many [Buddhist] cultures a shaved head is a sign of mourning.

I have a really pointy head too, which is fine if you are traveling and moving about but it just feels easier to let a bit of stubble grow. I guess it's your choice: in a big city I daresay people won't care so much.

~ smw

jindodog · Joined: 31 May 2007 Location: not seoul

i dont think it really matters that much...youre white, they expect you to be wierd. (by the way theyre not real big on facial hair either).

my bf just shaved his head the other day, and when he walked into the office the women were asking him, 'did you mean to get that haircut?.....good thing you have a really round head!' and the like...they think its strange but its not life or death. you just gotta have the gumption to be yourself...and to withstand lots of comments about how you look like Bruce Willis or other famous bald people.

cwaddell · Joined: 23 Jan 2006

I have a shaved head, and I notice a few more stares immediately after doing it, but the stares don't bother me anyway. Don't worry about it. Of course the kids will comment on it, and possibly call you Mappaggi (or whatever his name is), this bald buffoon on TV.

It can be funny though. As the above poster mentioned, you might get a lot of Bruce Willis comparisons, but flavour of the month is being compared to Michael Schofield or Lincoln Burrows from Prison Break. This bar owner was so excited, he claimed to be T-Bag and wanted me to hold his out-turned pocket. That'll mean nothing to those who don't watch it, but it was a funny moment.

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

My boyfriend shaved his a while back. He got comments for the first few days, but now it's nothing special to the Koreans. It's just how he is now. I'd imagine if you are in a big city, it wouldn't be that big a deal at all. Perhaps the small towns or in the country would be different.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

I clip my hair to the skin twice a week. It's as short as you can get without shaving. I've done this for many years, in many countries - for cleanliness, sport and through habit.

My original hagwon made me grow hair because my baldie was scaring their country-kid students (it's a K gang member haircut). But after two months of 'monkey hair', I cut it to the bone again. And yes, EVERYBODY on the streets of my country city stared. So I found it easier to teach in my hagwon in a baseball cap.

Now in Seoul - I wear a cap outside school - and teach as a baldie. But, I still got jeered at by kids on the subway when I forgot my cap. And I was publicly ridiculed by some clown official (as a mapogee) at a public school function. So yes, you can expect a bit of attention if you have this hair cut.

Some good explanations are: I'm a sportman, I'm buddhist, I've leukemia etc. It's all good.

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

I shave my head down to about 3-5mm. It hasn't caused me any problems but I am constantly being likened to Michael Schofield (or 'So-Ko-Pild-uh' as they say) from Prison Break. I wish I could could claim the alleged likeness was true, but if he looked like me he wouldn't be leading man in a TV series!

bizrandom · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Location: Busan

Thanks for your comments. I have been shaving since 1999, and I don't plan on stopping, as I just feel silly with hair. But it is good to know what the cultural reaction to this would be. I taught science to 8th graders in a primarily african-american school outside of DC, and had grown my hair out, and a beard. The kids called me Santa Claus, because that was basically the only white guy with a beard they all related to, so getting comments from the kids will not bother me too much. It will be a bit of a bummer if the ladies find it offensive.

Rigamarole · Joined: 29 Mar 2006

I shave my head twice a week and I don't get stared at too often. I often had my students ask me why I shave my head, but that's about it. As long as you don't have a pointy head (like one of my friends found out when she shaved her head), you'll be fine.
My girlfriend also loves my shaved head and nags me to shave it if I get too fuzzy.

excitinghead · Joined: 18 Jul 2005

I've been here 7 years, but didn't have a shaved head until about 4-5 years ago. But well before I changed hairstyles, I think because of the vibe I began to give off, I had less and less people staring at me and/or treating me like a freak regardless, with the result that with my newly shaved head in 2002 I didn't personally get any more or less stares in the small city of Jinju, population 350,000, than I do now in Busan, population 3.6 million.

The people who freak out at and/or comment on my hairstyle are the kind of people who would at anything strange they see foreigners doing...like breathing. As for the other 99% of Koreans, they couldn't care less, and I frankly find it bizarre that posters in similar threads to this one have been told by hagwon directors or bosses or whoever that they have to grow their hair back. If anyone said that to me, I'd tell them to go to hell, and not just because I have a "screw you" F2-visa. But with a good 30-40% of the long-termers I know here having shaved heads...seriously, once I walked into Starbucks and it felt like I was at a neo-Nazi's club meeting...I can't image ever being told to do something like that myself.

Having said all that, I think dating-wise Korean women are very judgemental towards guys with shaved heads. Many of them, thinking I can't speak Korean, comment on my hair-style dismissively as soon as they see me. Sure, me wearing my wedding ring and/or being butt-ugly may have much more to do with that, but then this is in a country where people are so conformist, especially women and body-wise, that it's considered rude and impolite and a dismissable offense (if done repeatedly) for women to come to work without makeup Shocked

...so I don't think that I'm making too much of it. Especially as we all know that my baldness is due to an excess of testosterone, and so women of any culture should instinctively be drawn to me as a prime specimen of raging man-flesh. But in Korea, the cultural baggage is just too strong, at least in my case.

ernie · Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk

people might think you're in the army...

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

excitinghead · Joined: 18 Jul 2005

I was pretty suprised myself when my Korean tutor told me that 2 weeks ago. By coincidence I saw it confirmed (a little) on this blog post here a few days ago:

http://www.feetmanseoul.com/2007/11/05/2801/

I admit, I may have been exaggerating a little when I said it was a dismissable offense, neither my tutor nor that blog says that, but if a woman was repeatedly "rude and impolite" by not wearing make-up then it wouldn't exactly help with that promotion!