Does (Western) society need to change its attitude towards men's hair loss?

[NeedFin28]

Hi everyone,
I'm going to conduct a Masters thesis based on societal attitudes to hair loss and I would like to use this thread as part of my methodology and research, so all input, whether positive or dismissive is welcome.

Now, I'm very much of the opinion that society does need to change how it views hair loss. With the ease of spreading information across the Internet and the more widespread use of finasteride etc. and the increased willingness for men to undergo hair transplants, it is unacceptable imo that many men are uniformed and hence some will believe there is no help available because the media and other sectors of society widely still portrays the thought of all types of balding being irreversible and down to genetics.

I would advocate for society to change its attitude towards discussing both the negative and positive psychological impacts of balding and to also raise awareness of hair loss prevention and early stage hair loss regrowth. Many men (particularly young men) struggle to cope with the distress of losing hair so prior knowledge that there is assistance available can be a huge source of comfort. Some examples of this being done could include hair loss being discussed to varying degrees in schooling systems (particularly Biology classes), barbers being upfront and honest to customers going through early male pattern baldness and lifestyle, chat and health programmes being more informative about hair loss. The hair loss community on sites such as this and the likes of Youtube and Reddit are fantastic, but many men will be unaware of the existence of such a community (or at least take a while to find out) so a notification that help is available form more prominent sources could be hugely beneficial

So, what do you honestly think? Is there some merit to hair loss deserving more societal attention as more information is available to citizens to research (and more treatments are researched and put on the market), if they are made aware of that information? Or is such a thesis complete BS and men should be expected to know there is help and engage in independent research and not call for this relatively trivial matter to receive needless airtime?

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

A couple of things.

Hair loss is correlated with beard growth in most races but significantly so in whites and Semites. Beard growth starts approximately when scalp hair growth declines, in the mid to late teens. This is probably why hair loss has been seen as innocuous generally. Hair increases one place and decreases in the other. Even men who don't visibly appear to be losing hair virtually never have hair equal to their pubertal locks.

Since this is a natural process that is extremely common in certain races/families, we don't want to promote an idea that hair loss is either unnatural or some sort of disease. It isn't.

At the same time, the psychological effects of early-onset hair loss can be unsettling to many, if not staggering and suicidal ideation and depression are often linked to hair loss. Hair dysphoria in my eyes roughly parallels gender dysphoria in terms of its devastating results. Somehow we need to balance the notion that there is nothing unusual or shameful about hair loss or baldness while also addressing the dangerous psychological effects of hair loss.