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When delving into celebrity hair loss stories, nothing highlights the impact losing your hair can have on your mental health, more so than the case of Andre Aggasi.

Here was a man who was at the top of his game respectively. It looked as if he had everything. Incredible athletic ability, the heart-throb looks, the model girlfriend and a reported $150 million dollar contract from just sponsorships alone. Yet, hair loss had played on his mind greater than any of his opponents ever did.

His hair loss story provides a fascinating insight into how hair loss can affect anyone, even when it seems you have the entire world at your feet.

Who is Andre Agassi?

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Andre Kirk Aggasi is an American retired former professional tennis player. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1970. Aggasi would go on to win 8 major Grand Slams including the Masters, as well as winning gold at the 1996 Atalanta Olympic games.

During his 20 year long illustrations career he achieved the number #1 ranking in 1995 and got inducted into the tennis hall of fame in 2011. Aggasi has without doubt been one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

A Star is Born

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When young Aggasi broke out onto the tennis stage; it was abundantly clear that for all his talent on the court, he was as much a success off it. Blessed with an rebellious yet endearing personality and an extravagant sense of style, the well spoken 17 year old Aggasi soon became the face of the sport.

Sporting his iconic mullet hairstyle and flashy gear, Aggasi was climbing up the tennis ranks that soon sponsors started realising that he was an extremely marketable star in the making, none more-so than sports manufacturing giants Nike had taken notice.

Aggasi reportedly signed a multi million dollar contract with them. He appeared in commercials and endorsements so much so that by the age of 18, he had made so much money that he was set for life. Aggasi and his look had grabbed the sporting worlds attention and as he put it in his own words in the Canon commercial ‘Image is everything’.

Hair Loss at 19

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It was roughly around the time he was 19 that he started to lose his hair. Most likely due to MPB as well as the constant pressure from his strict father who had pushed for him to become the best from a young age. To the point of binning a trophy when young Andre had finished a runner up.

He turned his attention to wearing hair systems in order to hide his baldness. Wearing a long bushy mane hair system with a head band, it had somehow managed to fool the mass audience until it all came to a head at the 1990 French Open tournament. Agassi was in his first grand slam final, facing the Ecuadorean Andrea Gomez.

He would reveal later on in his autobiography titled ‘Open’ in 2010, the disastrous turn of events that had unfolded the night before the final due to his hair system.

“The evening before the match, I stood under the shower and felt my wig suddenly fall apart. Probably I used the wrong hair rinse. I panicked and called my brother Philly into the room.”

‘”It’s a total disaster!” I said to him. He looked at it and said he could clamp it with hair clips. ‘It took 20 clips. “Do you think it will hold?” I asked. “Just don’t move so much,” he said.

“Of course I could have played without my hairpiece, but what would all the journalists have written if they knew that all the time I was really wearing a wig?”

“During the warming-up training before I play I prayed. Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off.” Luckily it had not fallen off, but it had cost him the victory as he ended up losing the final.

Losing your hair can be a devastating event in itself, but when you are thrown in the limelight with a major final to play and the whole tennis world’s eyes firmly on you and your hair, must have been a very traumatic event.

Dealing with Hair Loss

Following the whole hair system debacle, Aggasi attempted to conceal his thinning hair by wearing a hat. This is a very common method men use to hide their baldness. As a tennis player he could properly get away with arguing its functional as well as being a fashion statement.

Aggasi continued his dominance in tennis winning championships. Even though he was concealing his hair loss, it was still very clear that he was anxious and uncomfortable with the whole hair situation.

This was on show for everyone to see on a live television interview. The rude Austrian host had questioned Aggasi on his prolong wearing of hats so much so that he had filled the room with tension.

Further, pressing Aggasi to even remove his hat. The situation had clearly upset and caused anxiety for Aggasi, that he almost lost his cool but had restrained himself remaining calm and professional.

It was around the year 1997 with his hair loss alongside other contributing factors leading Agassi to have a mental breakdown. He had on-going issues and had lost his love of the game. As a result his tennis had come crashing down as he plummeted down the rankings.

Embracing Baldness

Losing his hair in the middle of his career so publicly had clearly taken its toll on him.

He described the agony of losing his hair akin to losing his identity, “Every morning I would get up and find another piece of my identity on the pillow, in the wash basin, down the plughole.”

It’s obvious just how much hair loss can affect men mentally and Agassi was no exception to this.

Finally at the mere age of just 25 he had decided to shave his hair. Initially he started off with a shaven down buzz cut, to eventually a fully shaven look later.

The process had taken years for him to come to terms with. The mere thought of it “was like suggesting I should have all my teeth out” he outlined.

This signified just how important he considered his hair to be, that the thought of shaving it was never an option he even considered at first. It was his ex-wife Brooke Shields that had pushed him towards embracing baldness.

Agassi had never felt freer when ditching his hair systems and rocking the bald look. It took several years of anxiety, panic and stressful events for him to fully embrace his baldness.



He explained just how much despair the whole experience had caused him,

“My wig was like a chain and the ridiculously long strands in three colours like an iron ball which hung on it.”

His hair loss had made him feel trapped from truly accepting who he was. It had consumed all of his attention and deterred away focus on the other aspects of his life.

In an interview with Business Insider in 2016, he offered advice to other men in the same predicament. “The most precious thing we have in life is time, so any time you spend worrying about something, get rid of it,” he said. “Why spend a moment worried about something? Life is too short for that.”

Conclusion

Agassi went on to have an incredible career and leave his mark on the sport. He reinvented himself off and on the court. Had later married his second wife, a former tennis player herself- Steffi Graf. Became a father twice and reigned over the tennis world until his retirement in 2006.

His hair loss story is one that demonstrates just how harrowing of an experience losing your hair can be for any man regardless of their situation, wealth or any other factors.

It also offers an inspiration to many men going through the same process, that it’s ok to take years to accept and embrace your baldness. Whichever path you take it’s important to remember that your hair does not define you. As you can still go on to have a successful and happy life.