Specific Haircuts

Styling

Wearing Hats

Topical Concealers

Hair Systems

Hair Transplants

Scalp Micro Pigmentation (SMP)

Changing Hair Colour

You’ve started to notice your hair thinning out and after searching for the causes and trying the treatments available; you’ve settled on either shaving your hair and embracing it or continuing to fight it. I think it’s very important to understand that whichever route you decide to take is acceptable. Some are ready to take the plunge and rock the bald look a lot sooner than others. If you decide you are not quite ready to accept your balding then that is ok too.

If you’re still debating on whether or not you are losing your hair, then check out our Am I Balding, for signs of hair loss in men. We wrote that detailed article outlying the key signs to look out for in order to help you notice, because the earlier you notice the greater chance you hold in saving your hair.

So after the initial panic of discovering your hair loss, you’ve decided that you need to try and hide your insecurities away. This list provides recommendations of techniques that I have personally used myself alongside other techniques that I have witnessed other men use to try to hide their own hair loss.

Finally, the extent of your hair loss plays a key role in how you hide your baldness. If you are not left with much on top then some of these recommendations are not possible as they require you to have at least some sort of hair left rather than a completely bald scalp. So keep that in mind.

Specific Haircuts

There are specific hair cuts that can greatly improve the look of thinning hair. It all comes down to what sort of hair loss you are experiencing and to what extend.

In general the key principles to follow are ensuring you keep the back and sides short. This is so that there is less disparity between the top and sides. The sides and back are not genetically engineered to hair loss so they will always tend to be thick and full. The same length all round will make it look like the top is far more thin. Therefore it’s vital to keep the sides and back much shorter than the top.

A shorter haircut will also make your hair loss appear less severe. Although cutting hair short will not make the hair grow thicker despite that old wives tale, it will however make it APPEAR a lot thicker. I see so many men fall into the trap of rocking long hair or even a ponytail when they are thinning and it does them no favours. It only makes your hair loss look more noticeable.

Below is a list of haircut suggestions to mask your thinning hair.

For all types of hair loss:

A buzz cut is the best haircut for men with thinning or receding hair. It’s quick, easy and manageable. Due to the hair being extremely short, patches of hair loss are concealed and are not glaringly visible.

For an even greater effect, fading the sides and back down while keeping the top slightly longer will keep the contrast between your hair and scalp minimal giving off the best illusion of a full head of hair.

For receding hairline:

A side parting can be placed precisely on the recessed area. With a side parting you are already expecting to see scalp showing on that area anyhow so the lack of density matters less. Also try pulling back your hair at a slight angle rather than straight back. Pushing your hair back to a diagonal angle will be greater success due to the hairs overlapping each other to give better coverage. Especially beneficial for those with a receding hair alongside the temples area.

A Shaggy look is also ideal for those who have receded into a widows peak. Brushing the hair forward across the forehead to hide the receding hairline. Although this may be difficult to accomplish, it has worked for several men.

Hair loss around the crown:

Slick back haircut is not ideal for most men who are balding as hair loss does not tend to only impact the crown, but if your crown has significant balding compared to your front of your hairline then this could be the perfect cut for you to mask the issue. Short sides and pushing the hair back completely or to the side to cover the balding crown.

I myself went for the buzz cut with skin faded sides and it did wonders for my balding look. Alongside a combination of the other factors mentioned below I was able to mask my hair loss and make my hair appear much thicker than it really was.

The drawbacks were that it needed constant maintenance to ensure that the top appeared thicker than the sides, which would grow out a lot faster and thicker. This can get costly and be difficult to find the right sort of hairdresser or barber that recognises how to cut and shape your hair to conceal your baldness.

Styling

There are several different ways to style your hair in order to hide the baldness, and I’m not talking about the standard combover where you sweep the hair from your sides over the top of your head. I’m referring to hair styling when you are partly thinning on top but are still able to give off the illusion of a thicker scalp.

This revolves around manipulating your hair to cover bald and thinning areas, using hair sprays to make sure your hair stays in a specific style that hides the balding areas. Styling products are equally as important in this instance. Using the right products such as a lighter dryer product like hair mousse will increase the volume of your hair.

Start off by wetting the hair and then blow dry it on low setting. Blow drying with expand the cuticle of the hair but make sure you use a low setting as burning your already thin hair will inflict more damage. While blow drying, use your fingers to work up and down the hair to give it more volume. Ideally use a brush rather than a comb to spread the hair out to achieve the look of thicker hair.

It’s critical to avoid products such as hair gels and wax. These can make hair appear flatter and thinner than before. Hairs will clunk up together, making your scalp appear far more visible underneath.

I tried this method myself, moving and shifting around my hair with the right products to make up for the thinning areas. For a while it had worked, until the hair continued receding to the point where it was just not possible any longer.

Wearing Hats

A very common method to hide your hair loss is by wearing a hat, cap or even a headband. This is clearly the most obvious method and by far the easiest. Again, various myths are associated with hair loss and wearing a hat. These have been proven several times as nothing more than myths.

I started using this method at first for short trips to the shop but later realised that I become very attached to it. I couldn’t leave the house without it. It was a quick and easy method to hide your baldness and you could still look stylish as if you were just on your normal day to day routine. With the added benefit of protecting your scalp from environmental factors such as strong sunlight it’s often the go to method for men to hide their hair loss, but does clearly come with a handful of drawbacks.

Many social situations will not allow for you to wear a hat. Problems such as heading to work, formal settings such as weddings, conferences, going for dinner or even heading out with friends will have a strict no hat policy. These sort of situations will give you anxiety if you’re asked to remove your hat after being so attached to wearing it in public and being made to remove it.

Topical Concealers

Another technique that can be used to hide baldness are topical concealers such as hair powder and hair fibres. High fibres are made from natural coloured keratin protein. They aim to blend undetected with your existing hair, making it appear full and thick.

Hair fibres can be a quick and inexpensive method to making hair appear thicker. Hair fibres will require you to have some sort of hair remaining. For the almost completely bald gents- hair fibres will NOT work as they require some form of hair for the fibres to latch on to. The more hair you have remaining the better, more natural look you will achieve. Hair fibres can come in a range of different colours from blonde to black to match your current hair colour.

Hair fibres are applied with your hair completely dry and gently by tapping the bottle in a 45 degree angle just 2 or 3 inches away from your scalp. Making sure to use as little as possible for coverage. Gently blend the fibres into the hair with a brush or the top of the hair fibre bottle until they have covered the thinning area. Using too much fibres will offer an unnatural and bunched up look. Hair fibres are to be used during the day and need to be washed off before heading to bed, otherwise they will get smudged off on your pillow.

Windy and rainy weather will be a problem for hair fibres, as will sweating profusely and swimming will wash them out completely. Other brands offer hair powder that claims to be water and sweat proof but I have yet to test those claims myself. I used hair fibres and they concealed my hair loss extremely well, once I learnt how to apply them correctly it gave me a natural look. Must note the key rule with hair fibres, you must have enough hair on your scalp for them to offer any form of natural camouflage.

Hair Systems

When I mention hair systems, I’m sure some of you will be thinking of the classic toupee or wig. The classic hair system that looked terrible, flimsy and fooled nobody. Well, those days are of the past. Nowadays, hair systems have seen an incredible overhaul. The modern day hair systems are built with far greater quality, with a breathable top and durable perimeters. Consisting of natural human hair and even customisable for the perfect fit.

At first measurements are taken to decide on the most natural look, then shaving down the entire front of your scalp bald and leaving the back and sides of your hair short. Long lasting adhesive glue or tape is then placed on the scale and the hair system is fixed on. As the hair system template comes with long length hair, any cut or style can be achieved and blended in with your natural hair on the sides and back.

You will need to wash it once a week and reapply it every 3-6 weeks depending on the quality of the hair system. It requires maintenance and ensuring you are taking care of the system and following the right steps. Can be a time consuming process especially at first because you need to educate yourself as it can comes with a steep learning curve.

Hair Transplant

Hair transplants are a long term solution to hiding your baldness. Hair transplants involve the process of taking hair from a donor area (back and sides of the scalp) that are not genetically engineered to go through the process of hair loss. That is why you see many men who have almost gone completely bald but still have the majority of their hair on the sides and back. The transplant will extract hair from the donor area and carefully place them onto the front part of the scalp that has experienced hair loss. Throughout the duration of 6-18 months the transplanted hair follicles will shed and later regrow giving incredible results for some men.

There are different types of hair transplants such as FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) and FUT (Follicular unit transplantation) each dependent on the specific candidate, hair texture and hair loss.

Hair transplants are an expensive solution even if one was to travel to countries such as Turkey where the cost is reduced in comparison to the UK and the US. For young men who decide to have a hair transplant, they might be required to have another one later down the line because although the donor hairs that have been placed in the front will continue to flourish, the existing hair that was in the front that is suspectable to DHT will have carried on falling and will need to be replaced.

Due to hair transplants being a surgical procedure this will not make it ideal for everyone. The right candidate needs to have appropriate donor area. Too little or weak donor hair will not lead to successful surgery. It is also not completely foul proof and as with any surgery comes with a risk that it might not be successful. Whether you decide to take FUE or FUT surgery it will leave a scar running across the back of your scalp or little circular holes from where the donor hair was extracted.

Scalp Micro Pigmentation (SMP)

Scalp Micro Pigmentation is the non-surgical use of a microneedle to deliver pigments to the scalp that attempt to replicate the appearance of hair follicles. SMP will look to match the density and colour of your scalp to your existing hair. There are two targets when using SMP. One is to add density to your thinning hair to give off the appearance that you have more hair than actually do. The other is to give an image of a shaven down haircut. Taking a man who has lost all of his hair and providing him with an appearance of a full head with all the necessary temples hair and hairline, that has just been shaven down.

With SMP the colour of the pigment will fade down with time due to exposure of environmental factors such as sunlight. In the occasion that it does fade down, then a touch up session is booked in order to bring the original colour back. It can take between 3-5 years for any fading of the pigment to occur. This varies with each person, depending on the area treated, skins traits. You will be able to view the finished result almost instantly, within one month once you have completed the sessions and any irritation from the scalp has gone down.

Alongside Scalp Micro Pigmentation, there is also the similar Trico Pigmentation. This follows the same process but only generally lasts for 12-18 months before it fades away. This may be an appropriate option to hide your hair loss as it allows you to test the look and judge if you approve of it before moving on to SMP later as it’s the more permanent option.

SMP can provide natural looking results if the pigment colour is on the lighter tone in contrast with the scalp. The darker the pigment colour in relation to the skin colour; then less of a natural look is achieved. SMP is not as expensive as Hair Transpants but can still be costly if you need to attend touch ups and more sessions as the years go by.

Changing Hair Colour

Another method to try to hide your baldness is by changing your hair colour. By changing your hair colour you are able to achieve less contrast between your hair and scalp.

The way this works is if you have a lighter skin complexion to use a colour shade that is lighter, while if you are of a darker skin complexion to go for a colour shade that is darker. This an be achieved in the form on bleaching, dyeing or colouring your hair. The benefits include a natural look and can work very well for the right candidate.

It can be difficult at times to get the right contrast between dark hair and light skin beneath, in that situation it may be easily visible which areas are thinner than others.

Conclusion

There are several methods to hide your baldness, all with various degrees of success depending on each person. Some will argue that none of these work and it’s best to just shave your hair. This might be the case but for some, these techniques have worked well to hide their thinning hair. I personally had good success by using a combination of these techniques. If you are not willing to rock the bald look just yet, then it might very well be worth a try.

Have you tried any of these techniques to hide your balding? Let us know down below in the comments which ones you can relate to.