Josef Fritzl

Not exactly a celebrity, this is the infamous Austrian weirdo who kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years.



A paedophilic incestuous rapist, it seems 74 year old Mr. Fritzl was affected by male pattern baldness.



Jibes from his sister in law prompted 'das inzest monster' to get a hair transplant a few years back.
“Josef would be spiteful about my weight, but I would say, ‘better to be chubby than bald’. He is so vain that he went to Vienna for a hair transplant.”



The results are a strong but 'pluggy' hairline, with a massive bald patch at the back, much like American Vice President Joe Biden.

Norwood Rating : 4

David Cameron

With the British general election looming, my attention has turned to 43 year old leader of the Conservative party David Cameron. For a long time I have been unsure as to whether he has a large forehead due to baldness or whether he simply has a disproportionately small face. I have come to the conclusion that it is a bit of both.



The ever despicable Daily Mail ran a story on his apparent bald patch a couple of years ago.



The Trichological Clinic Limited recently donated £10,000 to the Conservative party. Some have speculated that Cameron is receiving treatment from said clinic, which would come as no surprise given the increasingly image driven election campaign.



The Conservative posters have come in for some criticism for being overly airbrushed.



An often quoted fact is that no bald Prime Minister has been elected since the television age began, and I think it's a similar story in the USA. Cameron has a long way to go before he's completely bald, and he has more hair than Tony Blair did when he came to power in 1997.



For more information have a look at his official website at http://mydavidcameron.com/

Norwood Rating : 2

Charlie Sheen

Back in April, a pyjama clad Charlie Sheen took a trip to the dentist, and with a tip of the hat showed off his newly buzzed hair to a waiting TMZ photographer.



Often a drastic haircut such as this can signal a desire for a fresh start, or in some cases may be a cry for help. There was speculation that it was done to avoid a drugs test. Of course there is always the possibility that he simply wanted to have shorter hair.



His hair has always looked a bit unnatural but I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with it.



In the mugshot taken when he was arrested for assaulting his wife it looks very odd.



A user called slats7 on the Hairsite forum found this interesting picture from 7 years ago that shows him with a slicked back style.



As the various photos show, he has some temple recession, but a strong frontal 'island' or forelock. This high resolution image (smaller version below) shows no signs of lace around the hairline but a suspicious amount of density coming from the top.



I believe therefore that he may wear some sort of partial hairpiece that sits behind his forelock and has the 'bangs' cover his temples.

Norwood Rating : 2-3

Gary Numan

Bizarre godfather of synthpop Gary Numan started losing his hair quite young and talks about it candidly in his autobiography, Praying to the Aliens.



He had 2 hair transplants in the early 80s which he describes in fairly graphic detail. The hats he wore as part of his image around this time helped mask this. The surgeries didn't go particularly well and he claims to have had another procedure in 1993.



But there is no way that he got his current density from hair transplants, and what you're seeing now is surely a hair 'system'. This still from 1993 shows his old hairstyle, which is an unusual looking mixture of 'plugs', dye and judicious styling.



I suspect the transplant from 1993 was in truth a trip to one of those hair replacement centres that deal in wigs. This image from a year later shows the results of this and he has stuck with it ever since.



I have wondered why he appears to be so open about transplants but not the hair piece. Part of the reason may be that transplants are an expensive sounding, futuristic solution while there is still some stigma around wearing a toupee.



Numan seems quite happy with his hair these days, but if I were him I'd look at somewhere like http://www.toplace.com/ or http://www.hairdirect.com/ for any future hair pieces. Their wigs are quite undetectable and the forums are full of useful advice for hair 'wearers' (and no I am not affiliated with either site in any way!)

Norwood Rating : unknown

Chelsea Football Club

After posting about captain John Terry, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole, and taking into account the individuals below, it seems there is something foul in the air over at Stamford Bridge, with a large proportion of their players suffering from hair loss.



Peter Cech usually hides his receding hairline under that bizarre helmet.



Ricardo Carvalho, who is rumoured to have had a hair transplant.



Here he is more recently.



Michael Essien, receding.



Jose Bosingwa, receding but ironically sports a unibrow.



Alex, receding.



Nicolas Anelka, hides his baldness by shaving his head.

So that is 9 out of 20 or so first team members that are noticeably balding in some way, which seems quite a high percentage. In time I will compare this with other football teams, and I'm sure you will agree that the results will be fascinating.

So for now anyway, I hereby name Chelsea Football Club the most balding team in the English Premier League.

Norwood Rating - 2-3

Michael Stipe

In the early days of R.E.M. Michael Stipe had long, quite wavy hair. Being quite a shy bloke, he would sometimes hide behind it while singing.



It must have been quite distressing for him then when around the age of 30, he started to go bald. During this time, the early 90s, he took to wearing a variety of hats to cover it up, but this didn't really fool anybody.



He eventually shaved it all off in 1994, and it has given him a distinct, instantly recognisable look.



Unfortunately his new look added fuel to the scurrilous rumours that Stipe had AIDS.
Of course, just because someone has a completely bald head, it doesn't mean they have AIDS, or cancer etc.



As an ambassador for the completely bald head, Stipe has done a sterling job in helping the look become more acceptable. Back in the early 90s not many people sported the shaved dome and hairstyles for balding men were limited and often involved combovers.

Norwood Rating : 6

Billy Corgan

I remember when Corgan first burst onto the scene as a fresh faced, long haired youngster. I like the odd Smashing Pumpkins song here and there, but generally find his nasally whine quite grating so was never a fan.



As they gained some commercial success Corgan's hair started thinning out a fair bit, and he ended up having it quite short. This wasn't really noticeable to the untrained eye though.



At the height of his bands success, Corgan shaved his head in a brave move as if to pre-empt his approaching baldness. "I just got so sick of worrying about appearance that by shaving my hair completely, de-emphasizes the way I look."



Back in 1995 it was fairly unusual for a person of his profile to go completely bald. The only other white frontmen I can think of that did it were Scott Ian of Anthrax and Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Michael Stipe also shaved his head a year or so previously.



Norwood Rating : 5a