The Fashion For Men – There is probably nothing more contradictory in the world of dating than male baldness. Most men dread the onset of male pattern baldness as though it is a bubonic plague. Different studies give us different statistics but none of them offer much hope – some say half of all men will go bald by age 50, and others say two-thirds of all men will go bald by age 35.
Yeah, not something men like to hear.
But is baldness really all that bad? After all, many of the most successful men in the world are bald. And what’s more, many of them are considered sex symbols like Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Stanley Tucci.
Okay, Stanley Tucci may not be a sex symbol but he is a super successful actor, aka Hollywood megastar, making him one of the wealthiest in the world. And we’ll never know if his baldness may have had something to do with that.
There have been many studies that may unequivocally come up to the same conclusion – that bald men are perceived as being more experienced in life, a little bit more agreeable and a whole lot more dominant. That last one is the real kicker.
Traditionally, people say they consider male baldness to be a sign of weakness and impotence, while a full head of hair signals strength and virility. But these studies proved that at the subconscious level, people actually believe the opposite of what they say to do.
One study had a group of participants, both male, and female, rate a series of photographs of men, some of whom were bald and some of whom had thick gorgeous hair. The overwhelming majority of participants rated the bald men with the traits mentioned above – experienced, agreeable and dominant.
But it could have been due to the fact that the bald men in these photos had other physical features that were perceived as more attractive than the men who had hair.
So the same researchers then divided the participants into two groups. They showed one group a bunch of photos of men with thick, luscious hair, and they showed the other group the same photos, but with the hair digitally removed to make them look convincingly bald.
They did this to avoid the possibility of other physical features affecting the perception of the participants. This part of the study leaned even more to the side of bald men – they were seen as much more experienced, more masculine, more confident, more dominant and strangely enough, taller and stronger.
While we don’t really know why bald men are perceived as being more dominant than their hair blessed brothers, we do know that dominance is a major factor for women when looking for a mate. The actual dominance that a man possesses may vary – it might be physical dominance as in athletes or it might be financial dominance as in businessmen.
It might even be the guy next door who possesses good leadership skills. Whatever the case may be, if dominance can be signaled through a physical trait, then obviously women will be attracted to men who possess that trait.
This is what we see with bald men. Another, perhaps unrelated, a study showed that a vast majority of women require their man to be taller than them. They don’t specifically want a tall man; they just need him to be taller than they are, even if only by a few centimeters. Now if bald men are perceived as being somewhat taller than other men of their stature, then this just gives them another advantage in the dating game.
However, we should specify that this baffling fact of life applies only to men who are completely bald. Similar studies have shown that men with visibly receding hairlines or patchy hair are seen as less attractive than even the men who have all their hair.
It seems to be a case of “all or nothing”, but whatever case it maybe, don’t worry – The Hair Central has your back. They have completed and reviewed a list of great razors for shaving your head, with the express purpose of boosting your love life today!
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