Men’s baldness stigma: A mixed methods international survey

Men’s baldness can be structurally stigmatized. For example, commercialized psychology research medicalizes it as a distressing ‘disease’. A mixed-methods survey on baldness stigma among 357 balding men (49% from Central- and South- America, Africa, Asia) was conducted. Qualitative and quantitative responses were content analysed into two approximate sets: those (1) impacted by baldness stigma versus (2) those resisting baldness stigma. 1) The former included about half who had internalized baldness stigma agreeing it was disadvantageous (44%) and reporting distress (39-45% e.g., “[I] dread the future”). Participants reporting baldness was stigmatized socially (46%), and structurally via advertising (50%) and via culture (69%; e.g., “[it’s a] humiliating image”) and were attempting to combat their baldness largely via ‘treatments’ (57%). 2) The latter participant response set resisted baldness stigma, reporting minimal distress and structural stigma whilst accepting baldness (33-61%). Psychosocial and evidence-based support is needed to help some men resist baldness stigmatization.