Hair loss, thinning, balding and receding, are all words that will make the hair on the back of most men’s necks stick up. However, we come with good news as new findings have proven that lacking hair on top is nothing to be sad about!
As a platform all about grooming, we wanted to discover what your hair says about you and see if a person’s intelligence, ability to solve problems and career has a correlation with a person’s looks.
Working with 4,000 men across America and the UK, 2,000 of whom have healthy hairlines and 2,000 who are currently bald or have receding hairlines between the ages of 21 and 75, we did just that. We tested each man’s IQ through a formulated standardised test looking at general knowledge, problem-solving abilities and operating under stressful situations.
Before our study we asked each participant to give their opinion on hair loss and (94%) of men in the USA said they have concerns about their hair regarding thinning and receding hairlines, compared to 89% in the UK. Of those, almost half of American men (46%) and over half of British men (53%) said they wanted public health organisations to get behind the research to find a cure for baldness.
However, following our findings we’re confident that some of these men would now change their mind as shockingly our study has shown quite a few correlations between bald men and intelligence, as 67% of bald men in America and 72% of men in the UK have higher IQs than men with hair!
For everything from IQ to annual salary, balding men in both the USA and UK appeared to outperform their haired counterparts. Just under one in ten men in the States (6%) with hair scored above the national average of 98* in the IQ test. 11% of men in the UK scored above the UK’s average IQ of 100**. Our findings also revealed that men with hair scored lower on their ability to operate under stressful situations, with the bald men in both countries outperforming them 90% of the time.
In addition to IQ, we also asked each participant details on their career and current salary. Once again we were shocked as we discovered that men who’ve suffered from hair loss were found to have higher paying jobs on average, with annual salaries that average over $80,000/£50,000, compared to men with pristine hairlines, who on average, bring home $54,000/£38,000 a year.
Age is a major factor in male hair loss and it came as no surprise that as the age of the participants increased so did baldness. According to the American Hair Loss Association (AHLA), about 85% of men are balding by 50 years of age. The AHLA reports that with 25% of men who have genetic-related hair loss, it starts before they’re 21 years old.**
In the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) says that 6.5 million men suffer from male pattern baldness.***
Baldness still carries a stigma around it despite some of the world’s smartest, wealthiest and strongest men being bald, like Jeff Bezos, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. But when you stop to think about the earnings and IQ of each of these men, it doesn’t take but seconds to realise that there is a possible correlation? Maybe being bald is a good thing after all!
*https://www.healthline.com/health/average-iq
**https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-men-go-bald
***https://cemc.nhs.uk/practice-services/mens-health/#
Danavir Sarria
Danavir is the founder of Rooftop Squad. As a men's grooming & style fanatic, he started Rooftop Squad as a way to share personal care advice that was both backed by research and personal experience. This combination theory and real-world trial & error is the secret behind Rooftop Squad and can be seen in every word of every article. Danavir's goal is to help 1,000,000 men go from beginners who don't know a thing about men's grooming to becoming guys that know exactly how to look sharp in any situation.
