There's that, there's also things like meetup.com to just go out and meet people.

The thing I wish I would have done, was ask my female friends to help me out. Sometimes having a woman as a wingman really helps cut down on the bullshit in general. Especially if you're not planning on being an asshole.

If ones going to get friendzoned, one might as well figure out some way of benefiting from it.

I literally almost died and have had a nervous breakdown from my relationships with women. It's really not all that. These days I'm celibate and I don't care what people think. There is nothing wrong with not being in a relationship until you find the right person.

I'm the opposite, I've pretty much been in some kind of romantic relationship since I was 15. I've had a month here and there of being single but then I always get back in a relationship.

If I may, let me offer some blunt advice: the first thing women look for in a boyfriend is someone who thinks they should be a boyfriend. Until you have that you're fucked.

Perhaps yes. I wasn't hit with the conventional MPB thing either since it is more like diffuse all over the scalp. .The donor is intact though.

I am also considering this scalp pigmentation idea....even if painting might seem really vain and pretentious; the truth is that we are all vain and somewhat pretentious.

I am wary of hair transplants since a botched up job could make it look worse.

This takes times and it varies for different. You should concentrate on what makes you happy and improve as a person being in your (early) twenties. Once you are able to love yourself (I'm saying since you mentioned you're overweight and face social awkwardness) and stand up without giving a dam about much, you'll naturally see the what and who to pursue.

So godspeed friend ;)

I've had relationships since I was 16, with no more than half a year in between. Though since my last break up, I've been single for a year, which is, well... I don't know. I do know I need my time to spend on graduating and finding a job, relationship comes afterwards.

To the OP: I'm in my 40s. I've been engaged twice and burned twice, the second time rather badly. I'm no longer actively looking for love, but neither will I automatically slam the door in its face. Oh yeah, THAT guy. I felt like an idiot afterward; but at least I got a small rep bonus for my attempt to help.

Strangest, most roundabout way to make a giveaway thread I've seen so far...

Seriously though, I feel terribly embarrassed for even writing the following wahhfest. But it brought some minor catharsis, I suppose, except for the part some might take it for pathetic self-pitying, which is something I tend to do, but never in public. All I can say is, I am trying not to do this while still just getting out my issues I have out and about, and making sure the violin soloist gets hauled away by security if he shows up, but I thought, hey, this thread, I always like these kinds of threads 'cause I can relate to them the most, sadly, and everyone here is being very polite and civil so I thought, eh, why the fuuuuuuuck not (I really wish though this site had spoiler tags so anyone who doesn't want to read something can easily bypass it - oh, yeah, and also to hide legitimate spoilers when discussing certain movies, games & books too :P):

26 perma-virg here, or, ugh, "incel" if you will (I hate that word more than even perma-virgin mostly because of the association it has with the kind of people who use it). Though I have a long ways to go before I reach that marker, I don't even have friends, much less a girlfriend. I am not close/barely even know any of my immediate family either except one (not counting the pets). Any remotely social event I go to is just another means of going to a place to stand around and do nothing. And if I do get in a group where I get chatty I'm largely unacknowledged. I don't know why but for some reason I lack any kind of... presence. It's even the same on all the message boards I go to. I don't leave much of an impact or seem offer anything interesting, funny or whatever any place I go based on how people react, or rather, don't react to me. Oh and also I am dealing with depression too, whether it's clinical or brought on by my environment (I've gone through some crazy shit the past few years, crazy to me anyway, things that had come about that I would never ever predict would happen - it was all extremely rough-going, at first, but things have stabilized mostly; I still sometimes ponder in amazement that I am where I am today when things have gone by with barely a significant change or a clip for over a decade in a row), I don't know. It's caused me to become highly unproductive most times, make me easily irritable, and just my mood just shifts downhill so easily (and yes I have seen someone about it, I think I've seen like 4 or 5 therapists but they were all useless). Any challenge or task I try to accomplish, significant or not, that I ultimately fail at (which is a lot of things) instantly causes any remotely positive mood I have to go drown in shit creek and makes me volatile (not violent, mind you, let's keep those two things mutually exclusive). It certainly doesn't help improve my social life any. The closest people to "friends" I have are some high school acquaintances who I barely speak to anymore. High school was probably the closest thing to an OK social experience I had but far from great. Still when I see Facebook profiles of people I went to school with and how they're already married and/or have kids always astonishes me, even if there's nothing astonishing about it. I guess it's just high school, which I graduated 8 years ago from, feels like yesterday, and I must be stuck in that mentality while mostly everyone else has moved on.

Though I guess another problem is that I easily panic when I'm in a kind of "social" engagement where I'm trying to make an impression. It could be anything from casually conversing with someone I'll never speak to again in a classroom at a community college or a job interview. I'm not even going to bother asking anyone out, like there are many options for that available (as much as my hormonal states want to; now I'm starting to feel like they're a burden - oh how great it would feel to be asexual, though there is some stigmatization surrounding people who are such - not to the degree that gay people are, but... actually I don't know, never mind that). I must have some listening comprehension issues or something, I've had SO many times where people will talk about something and say/ask something to me, and I can't understand what they just said. I'll ask again, still won't understand, and so not to make things awkward and irritating for the other person I'll just nod along and let them go on.

Yeah, but you look just like Cary Grant. Of course you are going to have lots of girlfriends...

That happens to me all the fucking time. I tend to respond with "Yell at me man, I'm bloody deaf" or some such, which makes people chuckle and repeat whatever they said more comprehensively. I also have a weird issue of speaking too fast in Czech. Never happened to me in english for whatever reason, perhaps because I have to weight my words a bit more, but when I'm speaking in Czech, often enough I confuse others which then makes me even more nervous. Just making fun of myself helps there too tho :-P

At any rate, pretend high self-esteem. Be a bit lound and perhaps a tiny bit obnoxious. When you look like an idiot, shrug it off and say that you're an idiout out loud. Served me well :D Then again, I have been incredibly lucky when it comes to women, so I suppose I'm not the one to speak

You can almost look down right ugly, but if you're sociable say, in a bar or any other social setting you have a better chance than not talking and always keeping to yourself.

And there's no special techniques to use, no pickup lines, just talk to people like fellow human beings and you will do well for yourself.

More like Grizzly Adams in real life, sadly.

I am socially un-intelligent. This is one of the symptoms of my mild autism. However, in the right setting, I discovered that I can be attractive to girls. The right setting for me was university - during the studies my quirky brain had the chance to shine, and believe it or not, some girls actually found that attractive. Also, academic success also made me aware that yes, I am actually good at something and that gave me a LOT of self-confidence.

I was popular. Even without social intelligence, I managed to have both friends and girlfriends.

So my conclusion is, to find a GF, someone like me must find his success zone. I know I would never be good at picking up chicks in a bar - that takes social intelligence/finesse. So I stopped trying, which then also had a positive effect on my self-confidence (not placing myself in situations in which I am handicapped by the very neurological make-up of my brain).

Yeah, but that dude was awesome. I wonder if I can find it on Netflix.

From what I can tell, the decision about facial hair is an important one. A lot of women seem to have strong feelings about it, fortunately, some women like beards, but then some feel strongly that they won't have anybody with a beard. It's very much an alpha male thing to have a proper full beard that looks respectable. A mustache though is great for conveying confidence and security.

The beard is up for negotiation, but I refuse to shave the mustache for anybody.

There's actual SCIENCE on this: women mostly find full beards sexy, moustaches and goatees creepy.