Balding Men Opting For Shorter Haircuts

Rather than traveling the rug route, men are increasingly turning to shorn locks. Notice the new hair look on such actors as Bruce Willis, Patrick Stewart (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”), Andre Braugher (“Homicide: Life on the Street”) and tennis star Andre Agassi.

This heady trend seems to be quietly working its way from Los Angeles eastward.

Eric Pagdin notices such things for a living. Pagdin, 29, is an artistic director with Jose Eber, an upscale hair salon in Dallas and Palm Springs, Calif.

“I guess you could call short hair for men a trend,” Mr. Pagdin says. “I’m from Los Angeles, and I’ve been noticing it more and more over the last five years. I mean, not every man can afford a $35,000 hair implant, an expensive toupee, or, for that matter, a really expensive haircut.”

Pagdin says fewer and fewer men are doing the “hair doughnut” (in which hair is parted to the side and swept over a hairless pate). Instead, they’ve discovered how a short cut accentuates facial features instead of drawing attention to a receding - or vanishing - hairline.

“If you walk into a room and see a man with hair swept over the top of the head, in addition to noticing he looks ridiculous, you also know he’s sensitive about going bald,” says Pagdin.

“Of course, different men prefer different looks. I think more black men do the bald look. They shave their heads even if they have a full head of hair. Caucasians have choices in hairstyling - you know, for the longest time hair was a kind of status or power symbol.”

Right. Remember Samson?

Now, more men with less hair are opting for a more today look. Chip Wood, owner of Looker Hair Group in Dallas, says his male customers are becoming more realistic about using what hair they have.

Particularly popular are the “Caesar” and military buzz-cuts. With the Caesar look, the hair is brushed forward to camouflage a receding hairline.

The more daring guys, black and white, are going for the bald look.

And then there are the men who chop their locks just because they want a change. Tom De Nolf, a 35-year-old independent filmmaker, is one of them. He went from hair that hung halfway down his back to a cut just shy of an inch.

“Actually, it’s grown out some,” he says. “The long-hair thing was a kind of (an) independent power statement for a while, but now men are saying, ‘Hey, I don’t need hair as a prop.’ It’s a kind of lifestyle change, too, you know? I zip in and out of the shower instead of washing, conditioning and taking forever to dry it.”

Lifestyle and health aspects also may be behind the trend.

“A lot more men are losing hair due to stress,” Pagdin says, “and we’re seeing that more now in women. Between stress and the use of chemicals and medicines, it all comes through in the hair sooner or later because the body does really weird things.”