Would you rather go blind in one eye or lose all of your hair?
I’d probably take the eyesight, but I hesitated for a minute as I answered my own hypothetical question. Which is nuts! But my guess is, you hesitated for a moment as well. And you’re not alone.
A recent UK survey on hair loss and its effects, commissioned by Asda Pharmacy, found that 41% of men would prefer partial blindness to full, Dr. Phil baldness. And that wasn’t the only shocking statistic I uncovered as I reviewed this survey, which was conducted on just over 2,000 men, all under the age of 35.
5 More Surprising Results from the Survey
- 35% of the men reported turning to drugs and alcohol as a result of their hair loss.
- 38% said they felt depressed due to their male pattern baldness.
- 39% claimed to experience a lack of sex drive.
- 1/3 reported avoiding social activities because of hair loss, and almost 1/3 struggled with confidence issues.
- 31% are already actively considering hair transplantation as a possible solution.
How to Deal With Hair Loss
If you’re struggling with the psychological effects of hair loss, you’re certainly not alone, and you do have options. In fact, in many ways, 2107 is the best year on record to go bald.
Ultimately, there are three ways to deal with balding:
- Fight it, Obsessively – That means you join every hair loss forum on the internet, avoid socializing for awhile and just focus on treating your hair loss, check the mirror multiple times per day, and essentially do nothing aside from work and think about your hair.
- Fight It, Intelligently – This is the better path, obviously. To fight hair loss intelligently, first you want to learn the basics of hair loss and you want to review your treatment options. Then you see a doctor, make a plan to deal with your hair loss, and you move on with your life. I cover all these steps in detail in my post describing the top 10 things you must do when you realize you’re balding.
- Embrace It – Many men look perfectly fine bald. You could be one of them! Shaving your head and forgetting about your hair could end up saving you from years of unnecessary anguish and anxiety. If you’re interested, I have a whole section of articles on this site dedicated to embracing hair loss.
Closing Thoughts
Hair loss is a part of life, and it’s something that the vast majority of us will cope with at some point. By the age of 80, about 4 in 5 men will experience some degree of male pattern baldness. Undoubtedly, men dealing with hair loss in their teens or twenties (even 30s) are particularly vulnerable to depression and other psychological effects related to their hair loss. The good news is, male pattern baldness is usually treatable, and the shaved look has never been more acceptable. So don’t drink (too much) or despair, because you will be okay, hair or no hair.
You May Also Like
- Beat the Balding Blues – How to Overcome Your Hair Loss-Related Stress, Depression, and Anxiety in Two Weeks
- The Best Hair Loss Treatments of 2017
- Visualizing Baldness – An Exercise to Help You Get Comfortable with the Worst-Case Scenario
- George Carlin’s Best Advice for Balding Men
Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.
I don’t understand why male pattern baldness is hated so much. It’s not a disease in need of a ‘cure’. It doesn’t hurt, except for hurt pride. But that is because it gets such bad press. I’ve commented elsewhere on this site how I have loved male pattern baldness since I was a little boy. Watching one of my uncles go bald in less than ten years I realized I loved the look. My uncle actually looked better bald than with a full head of hair. Since then I have wished to go bald, but I was afraid no woman would marry me if I was bald, so I was conflicted. I fought my feelings, but they kept getting stronger. Then in college I was insanely jealous of several college classmates who were already going bald in their 20s. We used to tease them good naturedly about their thinning hair. Secretly, I wished that they were also teasing me.
Ironically, I was deeply depressed because I was NOT going bald. All that changed in my early 50s when I suddenly started boing bald. I panicked until my wife told me she was thrilled I was losing my hair. My dream of male pattern baldness had finally come true. As much as I love being bald, I don’t think about it that much. Except every time I look at myself in a mirror. And every time my wife kisses me on top of my shiny bald head. She does that quite often. What a turn on!