Saturday 25 December 2010

Santa Claus

To make up for my lack of activity over the holiday period, here are some photos of balding Santas.


Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas or Saint Nicholas, is usually depicted with a thick white beard and full head of hair.


I always thought this was a bit unrealistic for a man of his age.


For reasons I can't quite fathom, this site is sometimes accused of being a bit sad, or even pathetic! Some people need to get some Christmas spirit.


I would like to thank everyone who has sent me supportive messages over the last year or so and wish all readers a merry Christmas and happy new year.


Norwood Rating : 1-5

Tuesday 30 November 2010

William Shatner

William Shatner and his toupee have become the stuff of pop-culture legend.


Anything I write about him here will have been already been covered in more depth at the excellent Shatner's Toupee blog.


A quick summary before you head over there. Shatner has been wearing a hairpiece since his mid to late 20s - he is now 79 years old.


In spite of the obvious, he has always denied wearing, adding to the mystique.


It is highly likely he uses a toupee designed by Edward Katz, who I believe also supplied Burt Reynolds. Katz specialises in wigs that are made from a synthetic material, rather than natural human hair.


More information can be found at http://shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com/

Norwood Rating : 6-7

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Doug Bollinger

Doug 'the rug' Bollinger is a 29 year old Australian cricketer. In his early 20s he was already well along the norwood scale, and just before he got his wig in 2008 he was at least a norwood 6.


There is a camera technology used in televised cricket matches called the 'hot spot'. It is a sort of infra red thing that shows whether the ball has hit a bat or shinpad. Sadly for Bollinger, it also clearly shows the bald area hidden under toupees as seen in this video below.


Here is another video of fellow cricketer Suresh Raina trying to pull off Dougs wig. What a wanker.


Like many other cricketers he went to Advanced Hair Studio for his new hairpiece. I imagine they are paying him commission or at least giving him free treatment. Either way, they must be dismayed when photos like this appear, which are hardly the best endorsement for their product.


Norwood Rating : 6

Friday 29 October 2010

Stacy 'Fergie' Ferguson

As you can see, for some reason I have been asked to feature more balding women on the site. 'Fergie' is a singer with the Black Eyed Peas, and is often credited with the upturn of their commercial success while at the same time destroying any credibility they had as a serious hip hop act.


Anyway she does appear to show minor some signs of balding in the female Ludwig pattern in these pictures.


The gossip column type places I have read have attributed this to stress, hair extensions, bulimia, and even her old crystal meth addiction.


The pictures are far from conclusive though, and like the infamous old David Beckham picture, it could be due to a couple of other things. Her hair appears to be unwashed and dirty, which will make already finely textured hair seem even thinner. Also her hair is dyed and is probably growing out at the roots, which will accentuate the slightest hint of any visible scalp.

Ludwig Rating : 1-2

Naomi Campbell

Reader Derrick has suggested I feature 40 year old supermodel Miss Campbell. For she is a victim of baldness too, albeit a different type to that which I normally write about.


She has been pictured many times with a skew-whiff wig, exposing her natural hair underneath.



It looks like she has a form of traction alopecia which can happen when the hair is put under a constant pulling strain. She has been a model for over 20 years and during this time has worn all sorts of weaves, extensions and wigs, which will have caused some damage to her real hair.



I watched a Chris Rock documentary called 'Good Hair' recently, which is basically about black women's hair. It examines weaves, extensions and straightening products and the sociological reasons for their existence. For a middle aged white man, it was quite an eye opener and fairly shocking and sad in places but I would highly recommend it.



Ludwig Rating :
unknown

Thursday 30 September 2010

Borislav and Nikolay Mikhailov

While watching the Tottenham vs FC Twente Champions League game last night, Twente's balding young goalkeeper Nikolay Mikhailov caught my eye.

 
I recognised the surname and it turns out his father is former Bulgarian national goalkeeper Borislav 'Bobby' Mikhailov, who famously sported a blatant wig.


I think he may have been connected to the hairpiece company in some way, maybe as owner. He's still wearing to this day.


After a strong showing at the USA 1994 World Cup, he signed for Reading, in the second tier of English football, after mistakenly thinking they played at Wembley stadium.


Anyway his son, despite letting in 4 goals, looked a fairly promising goalie and even saved a penalty from Rafael Van Der Vaart.

Norwood Ratings : 6 (father) 3 (son)

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Stephen Ireland

Thanks to readers Horsh and Mr.Williams for the suggestion, and I think the first image originated at whoateallthepies.tv.
This young man is a 24 year old footballer who recently transferred from Manchester City to Aston Villa. On his now inactive Bebo page, he posed in a thong while referring to himself as 'Daddy Dick'.


He started to experience hair loss at quite a young age and decided to do something about it. Unfortunately for him, it all went wrong in spectacular fashion. This is what he looked like just before he started treatment.


Sometime around early 2007 he started wearing a hairpiece. A few people made the odd uninformed comment about 'hair plugs' but overall it went unnoticed. It wasn't until September 2007 that things took a sinister turn.


Ireland withdrew from the Republic of Ireland international squad, citing the death of his Grandmother. Later that week, journalists discovered that she was in fact alive and well and surprised to read about her own death in the newspapers.
Ireland then changed his story and claimed it was his other, paternal Grandmother that had died. Again, this was untrue - she also was still alive. When found out, he lied again - this time it was the partner of his Grandfather who had supposedly died.


Ireland has since claimed the real reason for his departure from the squad was his girlfriend suffering a miscarriage. If true, this is of course tragic. But Ireland shouldn't be surprised if no one believes him.

Various sources have maintained that the real reason Ireland left the squad was down to his team-mates reaction to his hairpiece. A group of them, led by Stephen Hunt, pinned him to the floor and tried to rip off his wig, revealing his hairline. The banter had turned into bullying, and the story says a lot about the mentality of professional footballers. Ireland has never played for the national team since, and by summer 2008 he had ditched the wig and gone shaven headed bald.


In the aftermath of this incident, rival Manchester United fans gave Ireland his own chant, to the tune of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" :

"His grans not dead ,he just forgot.
  One week hes bald, the next hes not..
  He always lies, oh yes its true,
  Hes just a typical, f*cking blue.

  We all know Stephen Ireland wears a wig, Ireland wears a wig, Ireland wears a wig,


  He wears a wig, he wears a wig. He wears a wig, he wears a wig" 


Norwood Rating : 4 

Friday 24 September 2010

Coolio

Rapper and actor Coolio was recently seen in the 'Ultimate Big Brother' house in the UK, which he quit after a row with another contestant. I will always remember him best for battling cgi beasts in the Sci-Fi channel film Pterodactyl.



His trademark braids have been styled in a variety of different ways over the years. At times they would appear upright like flailing tentacles. At others he would tease them through holes in a condom-like hat, forming a kind of propeller.



He has been balding a while but always remained true to his hairstyle. The braids remain, but there is now no hair left in the middle of his head.



This is probably only partially down to baldness - for some reason he has recently got a tattoo on the top of his head. This in itself has been seen by some people as an attempt to distract from his hair loss. I have been trying to work out what is depicted in the tattoo but can't find a clear picture of it.



A bit like Terry Nutkins and his skullet, I can't help but admire a man who sticks his fingers up at male pattern baldness in this way, and incorporates it into part of his image.

Norwood Rating : 3v

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees is the homicidal maniac from the Friday The 13th films. He is thought to have killed at least 146 people.



I was listening to an old edition of Deadpit radio the other day and the subject of Voorhees' baldness came up. They briefly discussed a theory that as a hermit living rough in the woods, Jason lost his hair through lack of nutrition. I decided to explore his baldness in more detail.



In the original Friday The 13th film, Jason is a child and completely bald. Makeup artist Tom Savini wanted him to resemble a "hydrocephalic, mongoloid pinhead", with a dome-shaped head.



When he returned as a young adult in Part 2, Voorhees had somehow managed to grow some long, straggly ginger hair.



Part 3 is when Jason's iconic hockey mask makes it's first appearance. Behind the mask, Jason is once again bald, and remains that way for the next 6 films.
His hair makes a brief comeback in Jason Goes To Hell - The Final Friday, but by now he is practically a zombie and it has withered away to a few pathetic strands.



For the 2009 remake, Jason's look was based on parts 2 and 4. From what I can tell, he does appear to have a little hair but again it is very sparse (I haven't seen the remake yet).



I think the guys from Deadpit are right and Voorhees most likely has alopecia totalis or universalis rather than androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness). These forms of baldness are not classified on the Norwood scale which means unfortunately Jason does not have a Norwood Rating.

Norwood Rating : n/a

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias, son of Julio and a hugely successful singer in his own right, is rarely seen without some sort of hat.



This has now been the case for a number of years and I started to wonder what was going on.



It soon became clear.



According to some of his fans, he constantly wears a cap "to make him look more mysterious", "to look sporty", because "his grandmother wore them" or because "he gets really emotional while singing songs n sometimes he cries on stage so he tries to hide his tears".



When he does appear without his cap, he sports an unusual side-parting semi-combover type hairstyle.



This could just be the way his hair grows, but after seeing these old pictures of him I am convinced that he has severely receded temples, almost non existent temple points and that he is a wig wearer.



Before any of his fans start bombarding me with abuse, let me first say that going bald is not a sign of weakness and nothing to be ashamed of. And secondly, I think his wig looks stylish and pretty good. Here is how he looks now.



Norwood Rating : always hard to tell with a hair piece, but I'm guessing at least a 4.

Justin Hawkins

The former lead singer and guitarist of The Darkness, now with Hot Leg, is somewhat unusual in the world of balding rockers.



He has spoken openly about his battle with baldness and has even written a song about it. "This one is definitely based on personal experience - my dad went bald, my granddad went bald - I'm f**ked."



The song, simply entitled 'Bald', featured on The Darkness' second album and a live version can be seen below. It contains the line "well tonight thank God it's him instead of me" in a cheeky nod to the balding Bono.



Hawkins appears to have done his research on solutions to hair loss and looks to have at least maintained his hair since 2003. I suspect he is probably on propecia, and the Sun newspaper speculated on some sort of weaving procedure.



Shots like this do make you wonder exactly what he has done, and it looks like he breaks out the wigs and extensions for those extra special occasions.

Norwood Rating : 2

Saturday 31 July 2010

Phil Collins

Phil Collins is a former child actor who later became a successful MOR musician.



Back in the 80s Collins cultivated something of an 'everyman' image. Many men approaching middle age could relate to his songs about divorce, his love of drums, and of course his rapidly receding hairline.



As he progressed further along the norwood scale, his success as both a solo artist and as drummer/vocalist with Genesis increased, reaching a peak at around a norwood 5.



When he had no more hair to lose, his commercial success gradually petered out. He eventually withdrew to his chateau in Switzerland, an extremely wealthy but mentally broken man.



He has since become obsessed with the battle of the Alamo, and owns over 1000 pieces of related memorabilia. His tragic descent into madness now seems complete.



Norwood Rating : 6