Do Shaved Heads Make Men Look More Dominant? What a Study Found

Originally published 2016-07-23.

Do men with shaved heads look more powerful? According to a set of three experiments by Albert E. Mannes of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, the answer is yes, at least in the eyes of strangers. People in his studies rated men with shaved heads as more dominant, and in one experiment they also guessed those men were nearly an inch taller and about 13% stronger. But the same research found something the viral headlines left out: shaved heads were not rated as more attractive, and they made men look older.

Where the research came from

Mannes had a personal reason for asking the question. After years of thinning hair, he shaved his head in his late thirties and noticed that strangers seemed to treat him differently, keeping more distance and showing more deference. He decided to test whether that impression held up under controlled conditions.

The result was a paper called "Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance", published in 2012 in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. It describes three studies, each designed to rule out a different explanation for the effect. Together they involved more than 900 participants.

The three experiments, step by step

Study 1: real photos of real men

Fifty-nine university students looked at chest-up photos of 25 men, all business school students dressed in dark suits and ties. Ten had shaved heads and fifteen had hair. The students rated each man on dominance and on how agreeable he seemed. The shaved men scored higher on dominance, while ratings of agreeableness, attractiveness and age did not differ in any meaningful way.

Study 2: the same men, with and without hair

A fair objection to the first study is that the men who shave their heads might simply be more assertive people. To deal with that, Mannes took photos of four men and created a second version of each picture with the hair digitally removed. Around 344 adults from a national online panel each saw one version and rated the men on several traits.

The hairless versions were judged more dominant, more confident and more masculine. Participants also estimated them to be about 0.8 inches taller and around 13% stronger, with an average strength estimate of about 198 pounds against 176 for the same men with hair. At the same time, the hairless versions were rated less attractive and looked almost four years older. Leadership ratings did not change.

Study 3: words only

The final study asked whether a person even needs to see the head. More than 550 adults read a short written description of a 35-year-old man called John. The only difference between versions was his hair: shaved, thinning or thick. Shaved John was rated highest on dominance, masculinity, leadership potential and strength. Thick-haired John was rated most attractive. Thinning-haired John came out lowest on almost every positive trait.

Why a shaved head might signal dominance

Mannes suggested several possible explanations, and his statistics pointed mainly to the first one.

• Masculine stereotypes. Shaved heads are common among soldiers, police officers, athletes and action-film heroes. In the second and third studies, perceived masculinity explained a large share of the dominance effect.
• Breaking a norm. Thick hair is widely valued, so choosing to remove it can look unconventional, and powerful people are often seen as less bound by convention.
• Confidence. Giving up something society prizes may look self-assured. Confidence helped explain the effect in Study 2, but not in Study 3.

The thinning-hair result is just as interesting. It suggests people may read visible hair loss as a struggle against something, while a fully shaved head reads as a decision.

What the study did not show

This research is often shared under headlines claiming bald men are more attractive, but that is not what it found. In both Study 2 and Study 3, men with hair were rated as more attractive than the shaved versions. The study measured how strangers perceive men at a glance, not how desirable they are as partners.

Mannes was also clear about the limits of his work:

• All three studies were run in the United States, so the effect may differ in other cultures.
• The size of the effect shrank from study to study, from large in the first to small in the third.
• No study tested real behaviour. Nobody measured whether shaved men actually win more negotiations, get promoted faster or are treated differently in live conversations.
• Ratings of perceived dominance say nothing about whether the impression is accurate.

Perceived dominance can also cut both ways. A face judged more dominant may seem more authoritative in a boardroom, but also less approachable in a first meeting or a customer-facing job.

Baldness, testosterone and common myths

A popular belief holds that bald men have more testosterone. The science is more nuanced. Male pattern baldness is driven mainly by genetics and by how sensitive scalp hair follicles are to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone made from testosterone. Some studies have found higher hormone levels in balding men and others have found lower ones, and testosterone level on its own is not a good predictor of who goes bald.

Hair loss is also extremely common. About half of men show some pattern hair loss by the age of 50, and a smaller but significant share of women are affected too. That means the "shaved head effect" applies to a very large number of people deciding how to handle a normal change.

Another myth is that baldness reflects poor health or stress alone. Stress can speed up hair loss in people who are already genetically prone, but pattern baldness is mostly inherited. Anyone worried about sudden or patchy hair loss should talk to a doctor, since that pattern can have other causes.

Should you shave your head?

Mannes himself encouraged men with thinning hair to stop fighting it and try the shaved look, and his data offer some support for the idea that a clean shave reads better than a visible struggle with thinning hair. Still, the decision is personal. It depends on head shape, skin, climate, workplace, and above all on how a person feels in the mirror.

If you are thinking about it, a few practical points help. Try a very short clipper cut first to see how you feel before going fully smooth. Protect your scalp with sunscreen or a hat, since bare skin burns easily. And remember that confidence, which the study suggests is part of the effect, comes from owning the choice rather than from the haircut itself.

The broader lesson is about snap judgements. People decide in seconds how strong, tall or capable someone seems, using cues as superficial as a hairstyle. Knowing that can help all of us question first impressions, whatever is on top of the head.

Sources: Mannes, A. E. (2012), Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance, Social Psychological and Personality Science; NBC News: Guys with shaved heads seem tougher, study says; Wikipedia: Pattern hair loss; first shared via I Heart Intelligence.