As John Travolta Debuts His Shaved Head, 4 Other Men Reflect On Embracing Baldness
“I first noticed I was losing my hair when I was 18 and on a trip to London with some school friends,” Scott tells HuffPost UK.
“It was the first time I’d been loose in the big city on my own and we were playing proper tourists, running around the city and taking photographs everywhere (probably to post on MySpace, this was pre -Facebook).
“In a photograph my friend took of me posing next to the road sign at the end of the Portobello Road, my hair blew back in the wind and a terrifying widow’s peak was revealed. It made me feel old when I was only just beginning to feel young.”
After continuing to lose his hair, Scott made the decision to shave his head when he was 26 years old.
“I’d just taken on a very stressful job and I found my desk littered with hair at the end of every day. I thought about it and decided I’d rather be bald than balding, so I took myself to a barbers and had them cut off my remaining beautiful locks,” he says.
Despite hair loss affecting men from all backgrounds, Scott believes people tend to have preconceived ideas about who bald men are.
“I think a lot of people presume young bald men have done it to look tough, more macho, more intimidating. I’m not very muscular or sporty, but the way people started responding to me after I shaved my head was to treat me as much more of a ‘bloke’ than they’d treated me before,” he says.
“I was more likely to have men start up conversations with me about laddish topics, and I’d often find people were a little intimidated by me, even though all I’d changed about my appearance was my hairstyle.”
Scott now “feels great” about his look, but acknowledges going for a complete head shave isn’t easy for everyone.
“I think shaving the head might be harder, more exposing, to men with weird shaped heads, but I think that’s not actually many people and that, to be honest, most men look better and feel more confident with a shaved head than with a scalp decorated with wisps of receding dust,” he says.
“I’ve embraced my bald head and become happier, more confident and a better person all round for doing so.”