Can the Combover! Thoughts on Male Pattern Baldness

There has been much speculation about the authenticity of Mr Trump's barnet. Everything about it is wrong. The colour, the sculpted, undulating waves, the fact you never see an individual strand move, it's all a bit... unnatural. Experts seem to have concluded that it isn't a toupe, despite its resemblance to a well-groomed dead animal. The jury is still out on how he is doing it, and more importantly, why, but it got me thinking; why do a lot of men, especially celebrities, worry so much about their hair? It would be sexist not to expect them to care about their appearance, but some women find bald men sexy, so should they be concerned? 

I put the question to some fellow bloggers, to see what they thought. The opinions from the ladies who commented were pretty much the same as mine. Attractiveness is not measured in hair abundance, but more in personality and confidence. I suppose it's a bit like any other insecurity, such as scars, stretch marks, flabby bits. If you truly love someone, you just don't see it. 

"My partner is 34 and is going very grey and thin on top. By the time he is 40, he will most likely be bald. It suits him at the moment. My dad is 56 and has shaved his head for the past 16 years or so and he looks way younger than his age because he is bald. I think he fancies himself as Bruce  Willis!"

Rachel,  from Coffee, Cake, Kids

"My Dad has been bald pretty much all my life - he blames me for that. As for whether I would care if Si went bald, not at all. I would never be with someone for how they look, it is all about who they are as a person so what difference does hair or no hair make? I also wouldn't be with a really vain person, so I doubt going bald would bother him at all either. He's practical so he'd see it as a time saver ha!"
Stevie,  from A Cornish Mum

"My husband is 30 in a week or so and has started going bald. It was no shock as his dad is too. He isn't worried by it, he said he can't control it so why waste time worrying. If it doesn't bother him it doesn't bother me!"

Gemma,  from Somewhere After the Rainbow

Photo by Rob Bye on Unsplash

Some other comments, however, made me wonder if the issue wasn't as easily fixed as just being told it's not an issue. If something is bothering you that much, that it's affecting your confidence and possibly even affecting your life, what is so wrong with doing something about it? I think what is really important, is that it's done for the right reasons. For the individual, not for a, possibly misheld, belief that anyone else is bothered about it. Wayne Rooney was very open about the fact he felt he was too young to be dealing with thinning hair, when he had a hair transplant in 2011. Which, at 25, is fair enough really. Lots of other celebrities have openly admitted to having treatments and advanced tricho pigmentation treatment is becoming increasingly popular too. 

"I think a bald head suits some people, let's talk Jason Statham for example! If my partner was to lose his hair then I wouldn't be bothered, and I'd try to make him feel better about it too! It's understandable why some men have an issue with it."

Amy,  from All Things Amy

"I can totally understand why losing your hair would make a man feel self-conscious, compared to choosing to shave it off. It doesn't bother me, but I'm not the person who is experiencing it!"

Sophia,  from Tattooed Tealady

"Mike's worst fear is going bald. I think being bald isn't an issue - but trying to hide baldness with comb overs or such like just doesn't work and in my opinion actually looks worse."

Lucy,  from Real Mum Reviews

"My husband said yesterday that he's shocked how much his hairs thining. I hadn't noticed I guess because I see him every day but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. He used to shave his head all over and that's how he was when we met so I'm happy either way! Not a big deal but probably is for him. Some men definitely carry it off better than others and it tends to look worse when they try and cover it up!"

Laura,  from Waffle Mama

"Bald is fine. Skullet is not. That is the sum total of my views on the matter. When the time comes I am prepared to shave my Husbands head in his sleep if it comes to it."

Natasha from Mummy and Moose

So this throws up another angle to the whole bald/not bald debate. Confidently bald is a whole lot more appealing than trying to disguise it. Comb overs are not fooling anyone and trying to balance the baldness with a beard runs the risk of creating a 'head upside down' look, which probably isn't going to help. So, if you're a man and you want to follow in the footsteps of celebrities and put your baldness to bed, a DIY attempt probably isn't wise, unless the celebrity you are keen to impersonate is Donald Trump. Or this guy, from a not-so-PC advert I just remembered from my youth.