Losing your hair can be a traumatic experience. A 2013 study from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin — one of the largest and most prestigious teaching hospitals in Europe — found that hair loss can have a devastating impact on an individual, and could even cause body dysmorphic disorder.
Now, Men’s interest site Man Cave Daily is likening the experience of losing one’s hair to the Kübler-Ross model, which is more commonly known as the Five Stages of Grief. According to the site, the five stages of hair loss are denial, resentment, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Initially, men deny that they’re losing their hair, thinking it’ll just pass and that they’re not actually losing their hair permanently. Eventually, once men realize that their hair isn’t coming back, they begin to resent others who still have their hair, wondering why others get to keep their hair.
In the third stage, the site says, men begin to get desperate and turn to extreme hair loss treatments that are oftentimes less-than-effective, and are likely sham solutions.
When these solutions fail, men fall into the fourth stage — depression. This is the point at which men have to face the reality of living a hairless life.
Lastly, the site says that “one day you wake up, buy a pair of clippers, and realize that, hey, baldness isn’t so bad!” Eventually, balding men just move on, the site says.
Although hair loss can be devastating to an individual, it doesn’t have to be so bad. According to the “Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance” study, “Men whose hair was digitally removed were perceived as more dominant, taller, and stronger than their authentic selves.”
After all the tears and trauma, baldness may actually be a gift, possibly improving an individual’s appearance.
In the end, you don’t have to lose your mind because you’ve lost your hair.