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Notes -
Thailand is too hot in this season for them to make the answer obvious with the complementary garb.
I have some acquaintances in Thailand, could ask later.
My take is, basically there are two things to it. One is a rather dumb post-Soviet prison-informed culture of masculinity that is summed up in the saying «a Man must be not much prettier than an ape», and the suspicion that anyone who tries to look better is an anus-bleaching sissy faggot prison bitch. Thankfully this is a passing sentiment (passing away together with heteronormativity, some would lament) but it still holds sway over older, provincial and lower-class Russians. You don't wear bright colors you don't style your hair you double don't use cosmetics and you go for the most utilitarian, anti-aesthetic, no fucks given look possible. Perplexingly, you also don't have to work out, so this is actually the easy life.
Plus short buzzcuts can be maintained on your own with a trimmer, and feel nice. Many acquire the habit in the army, I gather.
Another is that many among us age ungracefully. Probably mostly alcohol, smoking, climate and stress, but must be some irreducible genetic contribution too. Russians, particularly men, die early, develop chronic age-associated diseases early and start to go bald early, or so it seems. Though statistics point to Caucasians being hard-hit by alopecia in general, with many of our socioeconomic betters being worse off. Not sure if this accounts for age and dynamics. Anyway, buzzcut – with the above justification – is the natural coping strategy when you see hair on your pillow and Norwood in the mirror.
Summed up and polished with some soy sausages and phytoestrogen-heavy beer, those pressures, I surmise, produce the Skuf phenotype and what I call Skufization syndrome – the rapid onset physical deterioration that hits Russian men in their late 20s. It's on us to research this malady and develop countermeasures.
Relatedly, one of the things that surprised me in Turkey was massive numbers of men with freshly done hair transplants, their scalps peppered with red dots, back of their heads clad in bandages (is it supposed to look so crude?).
@orthoxerox may have a better idea.
(self_made_human does not, in fact, have a better idea, because I'm the one who tried to invoke you before the quoting feature broke haha)
On the other hand, if you meant the hair transplants, it's not a pleasant process by any means, one of the few images that makes me squeamish is a picture of a scalp fresh after surgery.
Since transplants are usually charged by the follicle, most people get the minimum viable product, which is why they can look a bit odd until the hair grows back to a decent length and the wounds heal over. From what I understand, it's not pretty no matter where you get it done, and Turkey is quite advanced at the whole cosmetic surgery thing.
One of my stranger brainfarts. Never knew your embeddings are so similar.
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