Tuesday 25 May 2021

Do some women like bald men?

 

“The most stupid question is the question you never asked,

and the question you don’t know the answer to.”

  

It is a topic you might find yourself hearing amongst female groups, or indeed mixed groups – do women find bald men physically attractive?  Like anything else involved in women’s emotional verbalization and genuine physical attractiveness in men, you should do these two things:

1)    Watch what she does, ahead of listening to what she says.

2)    Analyse her body language when she speaks about her predilections.

As someone who has gone full circle with hair on head prominence, I am in a reasonable position to assess it from both sides.  Prior to six months of aggressive chemotherapy, I possessed a full head of hair without the slightest sign of it receding.  This may sound an obvious statement as a young man, but I’m sure anyone knows at least one man in their life who started to lose his hair as soon as his early twenties came about.  By the time I was into the final month (ironically, it started to slowly grow back prior to the final chemo session) of chemotherapy, I effectively looked like a man who had lost most of his hair on top, and who had opted to shave it.  No longer than three months post chemotherapy completion, it was pretty much back to its previous length, texture, and colour.

How did women receive me on both scales?

The year before diagnosed with cancer, I was at a sweet spot in terms of my physical attractiveness peak.  I was still partly fresh faced as a late teenager/early 20s man, but not too much in the way of a “pretty boy” vision (as one woman I dated pointed that out a couple of years prior).  What I didn’t have as much then, in comparison to post cancer, was as high degree of confidence, self-assurance, and couldn’t give a crap attitude to what people think of me.  I had countless women give me the eye, but I can’t help but confess to, back then, not dealing with every situation with efficient and productive response.

Throughout the six months of chemotherapy was much more complex to evaluate.  To start with, there wasn’t too much change.  The hair loss didn’t come to fruition until about a month into the treatment, but naturally far fewer women noticed my presence (apart from those who may have wondered why I looked different).  After the first month, I may as well have been invisible to most women I didn’t know personally up until the final day.  Ironically though, more than a few women at work, who previously never engaged with me before chemo, were much more engaging and proactive with me.  At the time I thought this was down to nothing more than their concern and sympathy.  In retrospect, I believe it was more down to me looking much more vulnerable and attainable to them.  For the record, I had it shaven after about two months (in truth and hindsight, I should have taken this approach before the first session).

A couple of weeks after my final chemotherapy session, I went on two nights out prior to Christmas approaching.  I hadn’t been out at all for six months in this context.  By now my hair was starting to look like a man who had opted to shave it with a full head of hair (hence the hair follicles had grown back), although, whilst looking younger than myself of receding hair look, I looked five years older than my usual stylish hairstyle look. 

The first night out surprised me.  I went to Germany (Stuttgart) with a friend for a football, Christmas market and beer weekend, and the first night I noticed quite a few women giving me eye contact.  The following weekend I was back in Derby.  It was the night I met my longest term (albeit on and off) girlfriend still to this day.  She looked stunning, yet I had to look behind me to check that she was in fact looking at me.  We joked for years that, considering I was clearly not looking my best, the calibre of men in there must have been pretty dire in order for her to find me the best catch!  In hindsight once more, and I did allude to this with her once or twice (to which, obviously, she both denied and tried to bypass the subject) that perhaps the fact she was looking at a man 10% to 15% less physically attractive than her was what appealed the most.

Three months after chemotherapy, and with negligible differences to this day, I have never had so many women check me out.  This can be women a young as their late teens to women in their 50s.  A lot to do with this is developing into a more rugged and handsome look (even though I don’t think I’m as good looking as I was prior to cancer), but the greater part, I firmly believe, is because I carry my demeanour in a far more confident, assured, and assertive manner.

Q-tip 1:

Women are far more attracted to a man’s positive body language and confidence than his physical allure per se.  A good-looking man with minimal confidence, who can’t look people in the eye and carry himself with self-assurance, can only go so far with the numbers of women who will find him attractive. 

So, do women like bald men?

The question remains then, what percentage of women prefer bald men (or at least have no preference either way) if all else is equal?  As always, other than intrigue I hold truly little validity to what women say or any internet poll where they can hide behind their lies, however this one link did stand out as a highlighted search.  I offer you the below snapshot to the findings:

“As women get older, they find men with clean-shaven heads more attractive. 44% of women 35 to 44 find bald men attractive compared to only 19% of women 18 – 24. As a majority of men tend to really start losing their hair a little later in life, this is very encouraging.”

The answers from the three female age groups (18 to 24, 25 to 34, and 35 to 44) in the study most likely reflect what you would find in the real world, with perhaps some intricate fibs on their parts. 

18 to 24 women

Even though I go down on record as stating at least half of women in this age range still prefer to be with a man who is less physically attractive, I find that most women in this age range still want their man to look good.  If it is the general consensus (and truth) that a man looks better with hair than without, then the vast majority of women in the younger years will not find bald men attractive.  In simple language, a young woman then is still inclined to go for a less physically attractive man, yet she will seek a less physically attractive man with hair on top.  Nearly half of women, therefore, aged 18 to 24 find bald men unattractive.

35 to 44 women

I’ve jumped to elder age range for a reason.  The study shows that, give or take a percentage or two, women finding a bald man attractive or unattractive in the female age range of 35 to 44 is a direct inverse to the women aged 18 to 24.  Whereas nearly half of young women find bald men unattractive, close on half of women aged 35 to 44 do find bald men attractive.  Only one in five older women find a bald man unattractive, so they say…

25 to 34 women

As always, I find this age range of women (and even more so if it is 24 to 32) the most complex.  The more complex a man finds a woman, the more likely it is because she lies the most when sitting in this age bracket.

According to the study, only 25% of women aged 25 to 34 find bald men attractive, whilst 41% find them unattractive.  Interesting.  I find that women in this age range, over and above the younger and elder female age ranges as illustrated, tend to seek out uglier men (uglier in respect to themselves) more than any other timeframe.  If I’m right, based on my steely eyed observations, yet only one in four women find a bald man attractive, you can only conclude that most the vast majority of women aged 25 to 34 do want a less physically attractive man, but they desire him to be uglier in attaining a full head of hair. 

Conclusions

This would be my conclusion to it all, amalgamating the findings with the reality and lies.

·       Nearly all young women (18 to 24 in this case), given the choice, prefer men with hair - irrespective to whether they want him to be less physically attractive in an overall sense or not.

·       Women aged 25 to 34 do prefer a man with hair than without, however they hold the greatest need to be with a man who is less physically attractive.  Consequently, some women in this age range will still contemplate a man without hair on top, and a smaller segment will even actively look for a man without hair due to his lower appeal to other women.

·       More women aged 35 to 44 will be open to dating bald men, but the percentage (44%) of women declaring they find bald men attractive is, in the main, a fib.  What they are really saying is, due to their (women post 34) reduced options in the sexual market, is they would bring down their physical standards in men in order to have that male companion.

A final thought

Irrespective of what women say on the subject of men with hair on top or not, and as stated above this often has to be taken with a pinch of salt in terms of the truth and reality, probably the bigger issue here is what men themselves would like.  In essence, I doubt there is more than 1% of men out there who prefers his bald head in comparison to when he had a full head of hair.  He will most likely prefer his shaved bald look to receding look (and so he should), but that’s not the question here.

If so many men were happy with their bald head, then there wouldn’t be this whole hair growth obsession you now see with both celebrity men and everyday men.  All I can say is, and Wayne Rooney is a classic example, that I’m yet to see a hair growth/transplant process that has made a man look really good.  Granted, it may marginally make him look better than the bald image, but does it really make up for the expense, time, sacrifice, and hassle to go through with it?

Q-tip 2:

If you have a physical deficiency as a man, this can be more than compensated by non-physical desirables which women are attracted to.  A man blaming his physical deficiency as the reason he can’t find a woman is the same dynamic as a woman claiming she cannot find a man because her expectations are too high.

 

Acknowledgements

Prim & Prep

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