How to recreate male pattern baldness for a costume?

January 11, 2011 9:00 PM

Any tips on how to recreate male battern baldness/thinning hair for a costume party?

I'm going to a costume party as the gentleman in this video. Since his look is sort of non-descript, I think it's important to get the hair right. My hair is just "normal." It's slightly longer than his, and darker. I'm wondering if there are any tips towards recreating the look of his thinning hair, or an appropriate wig you know of, or a method of altering a wig.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! The party is not for a few weeks, so I've got time.

posted by JoeGoblin to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

you could get a highlight cap, leave the front hair under it, pull the rest through the holes - then maybe some temporary spray in hair dye (easier to find at halloween, but maybe in the beauty section at walmart)...then if you colored, painted the cap to be the same color, it'd look like crazy, thinning hair.
posted by nadawi at 9:14 PM on January 11, 2011

why not get a haircut that matches male pattern baldness and then shave it off the next day?
posted by parmanparman at 9:21 PM on January 11, 2011

What about a stocking cut to fit on your head like a cap, and leaving bits of hair poking out around/through the sides? (I don't know if that's even possible, but it's what I'd be experimenting with.)
posted by lollusc at 9:46 PM on January 11, 2011

My friend used to do this. For years.
posted by alex_skazat at 12:13 AM on January 12, 2011

Were it my head (it's not!), and any party I cared about enough to appear in costume (it's not!) where male pattern baldness was part of the "look" (no, no, please, it's not!!!), I'd probably approach a local Hair Club franchise, or even a local Bosley liscensee, and see what they would recommend, for your costume look. After all, these folk see common male pattern baldness all the time, and are best equipped to visualize your probably very well covered head clinically, and, I hope, suggest reasonable means of temporarily denuding you, in appropriate fashion, for the duration of the festivities.

And then, immediately thereafter, restoring you to full coverage, so to speak. Because good theatre is one thing, and embarrassing questions that depend upon your ability to grow back hair, are just, you know, not.
posted by paulsc at 12:41 AM on January 12, 2011

Hehe, my friend did this for my 30th (party theme: mutton dressed as lamb). Like parmanparman suggests, he shaved it into his already short hair. It was AWESOME. However this opinion was not widely shared when he went into work on Monday still wearing it, and his observation that lots of other people at work have that hairstyle did not convince the boss to let him keep it :D

So, if you're willing to shave the rest of your head for a while (my friend does regularly) you could give that a go.
posted by procrastinator_general at 1:01 AM on January 12, 2011