“Experience is a comb that life gives you after you lose your hair”

“Experience is a comb that life gives you after you lose your hair” is credited to Judith Stern. In his March 1955 syndicated newspaper column “Try and Stop Me,” Bennett Cerf credited the line to Mrs. Edgar Stern.
 
The saying humorously means that you gain wisdom after you’ve lost everything. The saying is sometimes applied to financial investing.
 
 
24 March 1955, Oil City (PA) Blizzard, “Try and Stop Me” by Bennett Cerf, pg. 8, col. 4:
“Experience,” mourns Mrs. Edgar Stern, “is a comb life gives you after you’ve lost your hair.”
     
6 June 1984, Oregonian (Portland, OR), “The Aces on Bridge” by Bobby Wolff, pg. B7, col. 4:
“Experience: a comb life gives you after you lose your hair.”—Judith Stern
   
Google Books
The Quotable Woman:
Words of wisdom from Mother Teresa, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Hepburn, and more
By Carol Turkington
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
2000
Pg. 64:
Experience is a comb life gives you after you lose your hair.
—JUDITH STERN, in Bennett Cerf, The Laugh’s on Me, 1959
 
Google Books
Women Know Everything!:
3,241 quips, quotes, & brilliant remarks
By Karen Weekes
Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books; San Francisco, CA: Distributed in North America by Chronicle Books
2007
Pg. 142:
Experience—a comb life gives you after you lose your hair.
—JUDITH STERN (1942-) . AMERICAN WRITER
 
The Daily Reckoning
The Worst Possible Investing Mistake
By Chris Mayer
02/10/11 Gaithersburg, Maryland – There are many mistakes people make that ensure they won’t get rich investing. In 2011, I think one in particular mistake will hurt more than others. I can sum it up by citing the phrase, “Generals fighting the last war.”
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As the old saying goes, “Experience is a comb that life gives you after you lose your hair.” But seriously, that experience is important, especially if you have a few hairs left. Experience gives you a sense of the market’s habits, its moods and conventions. You have a working knowledge for some of its industries and stocks. And you’ve probably learned a great deal about yourself, such as your tolerance for risk.