Looks
Is “no bald men” a costly dealbreaker?
About a quarter of men are balding by their early 30s and half by their late 40s. For men under 37 the rule costs less than a height rule. Ten years on, it costs as much or more.
"No bald men" is one of the few looks rules you can check from a single photo. It's also a rule that gets more expensive every year, because hair loss is mostly about age.
The meter counts a man as bald or balding when he has visible male-pattern hair loss of Norwood type III or worse: a clearly receding hairline or a thinning crown, not just a slightly higher forehead.
How many men are losing their hair
Share of all men who are bald or balding, by age.
| Age | Australia | US | Canada | NZ | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–24 | 11% | 11% | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–29 | 19% | 18% | 19% | 18% | 21% |
| 30–34 | 27% | 26% | 27% | 26% | 30% |
| 35–39 | 35% | 33% | 35% | 33% | 38% |
| 40–44 | 43% | 41% | 43% | 40% | 46% |
| 45–49 | 50% | 47% | 49% | 47% | 53% |
| 50–55 | 56% | 52% | 55% | 53% | 58% |
In a US community study, trained observers graded the scalps of men aged 18 to 49. They found type III loss or worse in 16% of men under 30 and 53% of men in their 40s. The meter uses that study and similar ones from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, weighted by each country's ethnic mix. The UK comes out highest and New Zealand and the US lowest, mostly because of their different ethnic mixes: in the studies, white men lose their hair earliest and East Asian men latest. The studies are listed on the methodology page.
What the rule costs your list
We started from the meter's Realistic list: single or divorced, straight, no criminal record, lean to average build, at least 5'9" (175 cm), and at least 80,000 a year in local currency. Then we asked how much of it survives "full hair only", and compared that with the height rule. We did it twice: for men aged 27 to 37, and for the same list ten years older.
| Country | Full hair keeps, 27–37 | 5'9"+ keeps, 27–37 | Full hair keeps, 37–47 | 5'9"+ keeps, 37–47 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 72% | 56% | 55% | 52% |
| United States | 74% | 55% | 59% | 53% |
| Canada | 72% | 63% | 57% | 61% |
| New Zealand | 74% | 60% | 59% | 56% |
| United Kingdom | 70% | 64% | 54% | 59% |
For men aged 27 to 37, asking for full hair keeps 70% to 74% of the list. The height rule is harsher: it keeps only 55% to 64%. Ten years later, the hair rule keeps 54% to 59%, about the same as height (52% to 61%). In Canada and the UK it now costs more than height does.
In numbers: a Realistic list for Australian men aged 37 to 47 leaves about 30,200 men. Ask for full hair as well and it's about 16,700.
Bald isn't the same as balding
In a set of 2012 experiments, men with shaved heads were rated as more dominant than the same men with hair. They were also judged about an inch taller and stronger, though less attractive and a few years older. The researcher suggested that men who are losing their hair may come across better if they shave it off.
The meter counts hair loss, not haircuts. Plenty of the men in the "bald or balding" group shave their heads, and the experiments suggest many people read that look as confident rather than as a loss.
Stacking the looks rules
Hair is rarely the only looks rule. Here is the Realistic list again, with full hair, then 6 feet (183 cm) instead of 5'9", then a face card of 8 or more, each added on top of the one before.
| Country | Realistic list | + full hair | + 6 feet | + face card 8+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 52,500 | 37,900 | 11,100 | 528 |
| United States | 461,000 | 341,000 | 117,000 | 5,580 |
| Canada | 72,800 | 52,700 | 19,700 | 942 |
| New Zealand | 7,660 | 5,680 | 1,810 | 86 |
| United Kingdom | 22,300 | 15,500 | 5,490 | 262 |
Together they leave about one man in a hundred from the original list: about 528 in all of Australia and 262 in the UK.
The face card is the meter's own scale, not a measurement. It assumes ratings follow a bell curve where the average man of his age is a 5, so 8 or more is about the top 5% by definition. People also disagree a lot about faces: one woman's 6 is another's 8. See the 6-6-6 rule for what body rules do to the same kind of list.
Hair loss shares for South Asian, Latino and other men are estimates blended from the closest measured groups, because no age-by-age survey exists for them. Height and hair are applied within each ethnic group, so a country's mix of groups changes both.
Run your own list on the meter
Estimates come from the same model as the meter: official population, census, health-survey and tax data for each country, combined age by age. Filters are treated as independent within each age, so treat the results as estimates, not a head count. The full method and every source, country by country, are on the methodology page. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.