‘Hair is just hair’: Bald Meetup fosters a sense of empowerment

NEW YORK – Many of them spent years fighting it. But on June 27, they came bald and proud of it.

Around 100 bald people, mostly men, but some women, met in Washington Square Park in Manhattan for a unique gathering to take a stand: being bald is nothing to be ashamed of.

As rain came down, bald men who usually wear hats said they had left them at home.

There was no need to hide themselves here.

“My name is Phil and I’m bald,” Phil Myers, a comedian, said to a crowd that had broken out into cathartic chants of “Bald is beautiful!” and “Bald! Bald! Bald!”

Justin Bradford, a freelance video producer and organiser of the Bald Meetup, sold “I Love New York” T-shirts, the heart replaced by a bald head.

“I’m not going to say bald people are looked down upon, but sometimes people think you’re kind of unfortunate,” said Bradford, 31. “I don’t think that’s the case at all, especially when we’re all together.”

Bradford ran a similar meetup in Seattle in June, inspired by an internet-fuelled outpouring of celebrity lookalike contests and other viral gatherings for not-quite affinity groups, including tall people and anyone named Ryan.

The events have drawn people off their phones and into places where they could find, at least for an afternoon, a new community.

Attendees cheered “One of us!” as Nina Wall, 25, got her head shaved.

“I found this so empowering,” she said on June 27. “Hair is just hair. Appreciate every stage you’re in.”

Social media has created jokes about baldness, with accounts monitoring the receding hairlines of famous people.

But the internet has also brought bald people together, including on a popular Reddit page with over one million users that supports those shaving their head for the first time, which Bradford called a real “change in your identity”.

Male-pattern baldness affects up to half of men by age 50, and studies have shown the condition can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety and depression.

Allies showed up on June 27 in bald caps.

“I support bald people,” said Grace Eastwood, 29, who had bought the caps on Amazon for her, a sister and a friend. “For the men in my life, if they go bald, I don’t want them to feel bad.” NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.