Bald is beautiful. Why finally cutting it all off feels so good
By Lily Hautau, CNN
(CNN) — Daniel Halas startled himself the first time he caught his reflection after shaving his head.
Halas was walking to the bathroom late at night in his home in Bavaria, Germany, when the mirror reflected an unfamiliar image: smooth scalp, no thinning patches to angle around, no careful styling. For a moment, he didn’t recognize himself.
Then he felt something he hadn’t felt in years.
Relief.
Watching it happen
For much of his late 20s, Halas had watched his hair gradually thin out. He had grown up noticing hair loss among family members and friends, so he always knew it was a possibility. Still, when it began happening to him — at a time when he was exercising frequently and paying close attention to his appearance — it was frustrating.
“If you have normal hair growth, you have a lot of choice which hairstyle you wear,” he said. “With thinning hair there are hardly any options and very few that look good.”
The narrowing of those options became a daily reminder that something was changing, and that he had little control over it.
In Porto, Portugal, Alejandro Morales Gonzalez remembers exactly when his anxiety about hair began. He was 21, a devoted guitarist with hair that fell several inches past his shoulders. As someone who once envisioned a future as a rock star, long hair felt like part of the uniform.
“Having long hair is almost a requirement,” said Gonzalez, sharing that he had a shampoo and conditioning ritual to care for it and imagined keeping it for life.
When he noticed thinning at the crown and sides, he panicked. “Living without hair was simply not an option,” he said. He began monitoring every strand, taking supplements and worrying over details that had once felt effortless.
In Virginia Beach, Virginia, Kendrick Lee’s experience took a different form. What he initially thought was severe dandruff turned out to be scalp psoriasis, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes cells to reproduce too quickly.
“It was always there, more like a scab,” he said.
It wasn’t painful, but it was persistent and visible, and it made him feel self-conscious. So Lee began covering his head with hats and do-rags.
Gonzalez relied on hats as his thinning became more noticeable. Especially while building his career as a photographer in an appearance-focused industry, the image he believed he was supposed to project began to feel out of reach.
Although their causes differed, all three men describe the same underlying tension: the steady loss of control.
Why you’re losing your hair
By age 65, about 53% of men will experience baldness due to varying causes, according to the National Council on Aging.
As we age, the odds of developing chronic conditions increase, and hair follicles naturally slow down over time and may eventually stop producing hair. Other causes could be related to genetics, stress and even the medications you are taking.
By age 35, two-thirds of American men will experience some degree of noticeable hair loss and by age 50, approximately 85% of men will have significantly thinning hair, according to the American Hair Loss Association.
“The most common types of hair loss I see are pattern hair loss and telogen effluvium,” said Dr. Carolyn Goh, a clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA Health.
Pattern hair loss, also known as androgenetic alopecia, often runs in families and is influenced by age and hormones. Telogen effluvium is typically triggered by stress — illness, surgery, medications, major life events — and can cause noticeable shedding a few months after the stressor.
Other types of hair loss include alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease in which hair can often regrow because the follicles are not destroyed, and scarring alopecia, where the follicle’s root is permanently damaged.
“A lot can be understood by just hearing the story of the hair loss,” said Goh, noting that dermatologists may examine the scalp closely, order lab tests or perform a biopsy to determine the cause.
While that may find the cause of hair loss, it’s the feelings around it that can also be quite impactful. “It can be quite shocking and traumatic to see hair coming out and see one’s physical appearance change,” Goh said. “A lot of times, it is that loss of control that bothers people the most.”
The psychological effects for men vary widely, according to Dr. Roberto Olivardia, a clinical psychologist. Some men may experience anger, frustration, sadness or anxiety as their appearance shifts, Olivardia, coauthor of “The Adonis Complex: How to Identify, Treat and Prevent Body Obsession in Men and Boys,” said via email.
Trying different methods to repair the hair loss
Each of the three men tried in their own way to manage the change without resorting to shaving it all off and going bald.
Gonzalez cut his hair shorter, which brought temporary peace. Four years ago, he underwent a follicular unit extraction hair transplant in Portugal and began using minoxidil, a medication that increases new hair growth in cases of hereditary hair loss, according to Cleveland Clinic. Initially, the results were dramatic.
“I felt on top of the world,” he said. But over time, despite the procedure and medication, the thinning returned.
Halas considered medication but decided against finasteride — a drug used to treat symptoms of male-pattern hair loss, according to the Mayo Clinic — because of potential side effects.
Other treatments felt like a long-term commitment.
“So lifelong application, or you just postpone a problem,” he said. As a geriatric nurse, he was also reluctant to pursue medication for what he viewed as a cosmetic issue.
Lee saw a dermatologist and received a clear diagnosis. And while the psoriasis was not painful, it was “super inconvenient,” he said. The hats stayed on.
Eventually, all three reached a similar conclusion: They were tired of negotiating with the hair loss.
Choosing to shave it off
These three men, like other men facing the same conditions, could see many other men going about their days as bald men.
Halas got tired of seeing his hair in that condition, he said.
In Bavaria, there is a saying: “Nothing half, nothing whole,” which means that when something is so incomplete, it doesn’t actually work. He decided he did not want to exist somewhere in between.
Before leaving for vacation in August 2024, Halas shaved his head. His wife and two daughters were startled by the dramatic change, and he startled himself, too, in those first few days. But the clean finality felt right. There was no more gradual transition to manage and no more strategic styling.
“My self-confidence has grown a lot from it,” he said. “Not only because it looks good, but because I have decided and implemented it myself.”
Gonzalez’s turning point came on New Year’s Day this year. After watching online tutorials, he used clippers and a razor at home, too nervous to go to a barbershop. He wore a beanie that evening; no one seemed to notice. A few days later, on his birthday, he revealed his shaved head to friends.
“My confidence is over the moon,” he said. The constant anxiety — about wind blowing off his hat or how his hair looked under certain lighting — was gone. “I’m happy, in tune and in love with myself and how I present myself to the world.”
Lee’s decision was impulsive. When he couldn’t get an appointment with his barber in February, he shaved his head at home for his birthday. If he didn’t like it, he said he would go back to covering up.
Instead, he found a version of himself he preferred. “With my hair at its longest and fullest I’ve never had as much confidence as I do with it all gone,” he said.
There is occasional teasing from friends and co-workers, but he no longer feels the need to hide.
“In a way I feel free,” said Lee, adding that this has been one of the best decisions he has made in his life.
Taking back control
Goh is careful to remind patients that shaving their head will not make their hair grow back better— a common myth — and that depending on the underlying condition, regrowth may not happen the way someone hopes. But she acknowledges that the act can restore a sense of agency. “It can really give you that feeling of control back,” she said.
Olivardia agrees. “It feels relieving because one doesn’t have to be reminded daily that they lack control of a process they are unhappy with,” he said. Acceptance, he added, can play a key role in protecting mental health when the body is doing something beyond one’s command.
Today, Halas maintains his shaved head with the same calculation that once went into styling it. The routine is simple and intentional. What matters more is the decision behind it.
“No matter what you decide afterwards,” he said, “you have taken a step.”
For Gonzalez, the lesson extends beyond hair. “Your hair is an extension of who you are,” he said. “But in no way does it define you.”
For three men in three different places, shaving their heads did not erase years of anxiety but changed the narrative. Instead of worrying about hair loss and hair thinning, they decided to shave it all off.
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