Axl Rose

I apologise for the recent lack of updates to the site. In the last few months, my position as one of the top 17 blogs about celebrity baldness gave me delusions of messianic grandeur, and I became a recluse with mental problems. Coincidentally, my latest post is about W.Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses.


A shampoo commercial would probably describe Axl Rose's old hair as strawberry blonde, super fine and flyaway, although a cynic would probably call it thin and ginger.


After the release of The Spaghetti Incident? in 1993 he withdrew from the public and became something of a hermit.


This mugshot is from 1998 when he was arrested for threatening an airport security guard. His hair looks alright to me here, maybe a little thin but nothing unusual for a man that age.

The early 2000s saw a few sporadic returns to the limelight, and a world tour was planned for the year 2001. This was cancelled, with some rumours suggesting this was due to a botched hair transplant Rose had undergone.


Whatever the true reason, when he reappeared the next year he seemed to have modelled his entire look on the fictional Predator monster, perhaps signalling the peak of his mental decline.


His bloated, shiny appearance was indicative of plastic surgery. Fan forums have speculated that the bizarre cornrows he sported were an attempt to cover his baldness, or the botched hair transplant.



To the relief of his many fans he is looking more normal these days, although for the past few years he has been a constant hat and bandana wearer, even on stage, which is suspicious.


Recently though, he has finally been pictured without a hat and at first glance appears to have a completely normal head of hair - albeit one with a completely different texture to that which he used to have.


I have just realised that he turned fifty a few days ago, so let's consider this a birthday tribute to the man and his unusual, probably transplanted, hair.


Norwood Rating : 2

Gary Glitter

Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) wore a wig for years as part of his stage act.


As far back as the early 70s, the backcombed bush with a widows peak and quiff was an integral part of his image. This makes it difficult to determine exactly when his baldness started.


As far as I remember, it was only when exposed as a paedophile during several court appearances that 'monster' Glitter revealed his true hairline.


Since his shaming and subsequent exile to the far east he has experimented with various looks, including this 'Fu-Manchu' bald 'n' beard combo.


He is now back in England and regularly disguises himself when out in public. This ginger wig is one example.


A couple of years ago he took inspiration from Rolf Harris.


More recently, he has been spotted wearing a hair piece that makes him resemble an old lady.


I will leave you with this odd video of Glitter going mental in his jail cell, taken from a Channel 4 'mockumentary' about his fictional execution.



Norwood Rating : 6

Enrique Iglesias update

I have received a fair amount of abuse for writing a speculative piece about Enrique, mostly from female fans who refuse to believe he wears a toupee.


An anonymous person sent me this picture the other day which speaks for itself.


In light of this shocking new evidence, I am going to have to revise his norwood rating to at least a 5.

Norwood rating : 5

Albert Hammond Junior

After an absence of nearly 5 years, The Strokes recently released their fourth album 'Angles'.


I was glancing at the magazine rack in the supermarket and noticed that they were on the cover of a music magazine, with a seemingly new, bald, member. Intrigued, I took a closer look and with horror realized that this person was none other than guitarist Albert Hammond Junior, who previously boasted an almost afro like mass of dark curly hair.


I am not the only one in shock at this, as there is a facebook group mourning the loss of his hair.


Looking back though, the signs of slight balding have always been there, but were often disguised by the unruly style he wore.


In 2009 he made a guest appearance on 'Gossip Girl' in which he sported a proud skinhead, so I am a bit behind the times with this one.


He is suffering extreme hairline recession but there's no sign of a bald patch as of yet.


His father has been a hugely successful singer songwriter since the 60s. A quick look and it appears he still has an amazing head of hair at the age of 66, assuming it is real of course.


It must be highly distressing when both your bandmates as well as your own father all have more hair than you, and I wouldn't be surprised if it played a part in Albert's spiralling descent into drug use and subsequent stint in rehab.

Norwood Rating : 3a

Caleb Followill

This bloke is the lead singer of the increasingly MOR Kings of Leon. By sheer coincidence today is his 29th birthday. What better way is there to celebrate than by having a post dedicated to you on a balding website?

I don't know what it is about whiny voiced singers with indie bands and baldness problems but he is the latest in a long distinguished line of them.


He used to have a great albeit slightly sinister hairstyle, which made him look like a remedial sex offender from the 1970s. In my ideal world, every man would have hair similar to this.


He recently told an interviewer "I'm already going bald and you're making me go balder!"


Although it's not too bad at the moment sooner or later his hair is going to look like a desperate combover.


A few of their songs have mentioned baldness. 'Milk' from their second album contains the lyrics "She saw my combover, her hourglass body". On "The Bucket", from the same album he sings "18, Balding, Star". This song was written about his brother Jared experiencing fame at an early age. Jared is less balding than Caleb so I'm not sure what point he was trying to make.


They may have other songs that mention baldness but I don't really want to have to listen to any more of their music to find out, sorry.


Norwood Rating : 2.5

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

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

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

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