There are some studies that come out and shock the world with new and original research that tells us something so unbelievable that we have to take a seat lest we fall over. Then there are studies like a new bit of research from John Hopkins School of Medicine, led by researcher Dr. Lisa Ishii, that’s found that people tend to think balding men who have received hair transplants are more attractive than those that haven’t. They are also rated as more approachable, more successful, and younger. Who would have thought?
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It really comes as no surprise that in a culture as obsessed with youth and beauty as ours is, a lot of people might come down on the more hair side. Here at Joseph Fleischer, we’ve always thought that bald can be absolutely beautiful, and that no one should feel pressured to hide what they look like. Unfortunately, it seems that society disagrees with us, at least somewhat.
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Of course, as with many of these strange medical studies, you have to take them with a grain of salt. For one thing, the sample size on this research is very small as far as these things go. There were only 122 respondents in the group – 58 men and 64 women. The methodology was also quite limited. The results were obtained by showing the participants 13 pairs of photographs. In seven of them, the men had undergone a hair transplant operation. Six of them showed men who didn’t.
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All in all, the final results aren’t nearly as dramatic as you may believe. The participants rated how old each picture looked, and the general consensus is that the men who had undergone hair transplant treatments only looked about four years younger. Four years might seem like a lot to someone who’s in his thirties and beginning to struggle with hair-loss, but it hardly seems life-changing once you hit the big four-oh. It’s also impossible to quantify from these results exactly what “more successful” and “more approachable” meant. Somehow, we doubt that the average person goes from looking average before to “jet-setting playboy” after a hair transplant. Nor do we think they’re mobbed by people trying to approach them on their way out of the clinic.
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Most importantly, though, is that we still feel like it doesn’t matter. We think it’s high-time that we moved past caring what society thinks about men and women with hair loss, and start thinking about the only opinion that matters – yours. If you feel that a hair transplant, or a natural human-hair wig, will make you more comfortable and confident, we support you 100%. And if you feel like Sinead O’Connor was right when she taught the world that you can be drop-dead gorgeous without hair, then we still support you 100%. That’s always been a point of pride for us at Joseph Fleischer, and will continue to be for as long as we’re here. You are beautiful, no matter what anyone else thinks!
