# Are men going bald at a younger age? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 20, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943 "2023-04-20T01:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/1 "2023-04-20T01:47:00Z")
It seems like I am seeing more and more young men who are bald or balding. Especially sports announcers. Is it my imagination, or are men going bald at a younger age than they used to? And if so, why? ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/2 "2023-04-20T02:06:36Z")
If you’re going by sports announcers, it may be that they are going bald at the age they always did, but in other respects, due to the wonderful magic that is cosmetic technology today, they look younger at that age than they did in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/3 "2023-04-20T02:07:45Z")
Hmmm. [This article](https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/amcp-2022-prevalence-of-alopecia-areata-is-increasing) suggests that there is some factual basis for your perception: > [@](#): > > Research presented at AMCP’s annual meeting suggests that the prevalence of alopecia areata is increasing among those with employer-sponsored health insurance. […] > > After applying some statistical adjustments, they found that claims submitted suggest that prevalence (the number existing cases) of alopecia areata had crept steadily upward between 2016 and 2019, from 0.199% in 2016 to 0.212% in 2017, to 0.219% in 2018 and to 0.222% in 2019. A couple of caveats, though: - That stat says nothing about baldness among younger men in particular. The US population overall is aging, and baldness is a frequent effect of aging, so we would naturally see a higher incidence of baldness among men in general as the average age of the male population increases. - Older men may be increasingly overrepresented among workers with employer-sponsored health insurance, which would also explain increasing incidence of baldness. A less useless fact for the OP’s purposes may be the information discussed in, e.g., [this study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24184140/), to the effect that there is some evidence that obesity is associated with greater severity of hair loss. I believe it’s pretty well established that obesity levels have been increasing of recent years among Americans, including younger American men. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/4 "2023-04-20T11:07:52Z")
I know several men who despise comb-overs and toupees. At the first sign of a receding hairline, they simply shaved it all off. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/5 "2023-04-20T11:27:38Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > they look younger at that age than they did in the past. > [@Did people just look older in the past?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-just-look-older-in-the-past/641029): > > I’ve been watching some old '70s childhood favorites on Netflix as background while I level my WoW character, and today I was watching Emergency! One of the rescues was a man they described as “in his late 40s”–I swear, the man looked 60. Wrinkles, graying hair, balding, scrawny…he looked like an old man. I’ve noticed that a lot of people on TV shows from the '70s and earlier look a lot older than their modern counterparts–for example, I think Darrin on Bewitched was supposed to be in his 20s, b… ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/6 "2023-04-20T13:17:54Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I know several men who despise comb-overs and toupees. At the first sign of a receding hairline, they simply shaved it all off. Yeah, I suspect it’s more the fact that men in the public eye are no longer trying to hide their increasing baldness with combovers and toupees. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/7 "2023-04-20T15:04:00Z")
Very short hair is much more common among young men now than it had been in the late 20th century. Without combovers and with the general appearance of having more hair receding hairlines are more apparent. Someone with light colored hair will look bald right after getting a buzz cut. And as others note, you can’t tell from looking at the people in the public eye who use makeup and fake hair to hide their baldness. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/8 "2023-04-20T19:54:19Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I know several men who despise comb-overs and toupees. At the first sign of a receding hairline, they simply shaved it all off. Me. I’ve always despised and ridiculed comb-overs et.al. About a year ago (at age 71) I realized I was at least 60% bald and decided to own it. Set the electric trimmer to 1/4 inch, run it over me entire head/face. I love the simplicity. ---
**Author:** ![Nightaudit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightaudit/32/17181_2.png) [@Nightaudit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightaudit)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2023, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-men-going-bald-at-a-younger-age/982943/9 "2023-04-23T04:06:55Z")
I’ve been balding since my late teens… I’m 44 now and if I grow out my hair on the sides and a goatee I’ll be mistaken for Walter Ulbricht…. On the flip side if I clipper cut and clean shave my face I can pass for Gert Frobe …my ancestors came from the same part of Saxony they came from so it’s possible that we share a common ancestor somewhere…… and I see the similarities when I shave my head vs not and personally I think I look more like Goldfinger then Genosser Walter . I’ve been able to alternate between the two faces since my middle 20s. And in another twist of fate/ irony my grandfather on my mother side looks a bit like Eric Honecker 🤨