Should I Go Bald? One Man’s Experience With Losing His Hair and Letting It Go for Good

Mike Anderson was just 23 when he first noticed his receding hairline. He knew male pattern baldness ran in his family. “I wasn’t surprised, but I was surprised,” he recalls with a laugh, mentioning photos of his maternal grandfather, who was already bald when he got married. Still, the early onset of his own hair loss caught him off guard.

If you’re noticing the early signs of baldness, maybe you can relate — you know male pattern baldness is a distinct possibility, but part of you still thinks it won’t happen to you.

Although he wasn’t happy about losing his hair in his 20s, he didn’t do anything about it. Part of his decision was due to the time—it was the mid-’80s, and there weren’t many treatments available for male pattern baldness (Rogaine® gained approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in August 1988). Another factor was the amount of money treatment options cost when they first became available.

“I was a college student,” he explains. “I didn't have any money, so if it cost more than a little bit, I wasn't going do it.” According to a 1988 New York Times article, Rogaine retailed for about $100 per month when it first came out (about the equivalent of $265 in 2024).

That would have been cost-prohibitive for many people. Although the monthly cost of Rogaine has fallen drastically (you can now get generic minoxidil for $15 a month), people may still want to skip it for financial or other reasons.

Instead, Mike chose to keep his hair short to make thinning less noticeable, though it would still be years before he fully embraced a bald head. Bald celebrities bolstered his confidence. “To be honest with you, various sports stars, like Michael Jordan, helped me get comfortable with losing my hair,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, he’s bald, and everybody loves him, so this can’t be too bad.’”

About 10 years later, in his early 30s, Mike finally decided to shave his head. By then, he’d come to terms with his hair loss and felt less bothered by it. “I was married to my beautiful wife,” he says, “so my confidence was already really high!”

He’s never looked back, but a shaved head requires commitment. Mike shaves his every day. — yes, every day. Once, about 15 years ago, he got curious about what his hair would look like if he let it grow back. It turns out it struck a nerve.

“My kids laughed at me, and my neighbors laughed at me — my coworkers even! They pulled me aside saying, ‘Dude, seriously, you need to just cut it.’ People were really not having it. It looked like I was wearing a hat,” he says. “My kids still bring it up. That's when I made sure to shave every day.”

What would he say to other men considering embracing their baldness and shaving their heads?

“You've just got to get past it. You’ve got to let it go. I don't think I would've ever done anything for it, like getting a hair replacement or taking something,” he says. “I wouldn’t have gone that route. Instead, I embraced it and focused on other things to feel good, like working out.”

While Mike has fully embraced his baldness over the past 30 years later, it wasn’t always easy. “When I first started losing my hair, it wasn't cool,” he says. “I was young, and I was dating. It bothered me, that's for sure.”

If you’re not ready to embrace hair loss, you have more options available than ever before. The most effective treatments to help slow or reverse hair loss are the medications finasteride and minoxidil. And remember: The “right” decision is the decision you make for yourself.