A subreddit dedicated to the bald community may be the most wholesome corner of the internet 

r/Bald is a popular subreddit where those who are losing their hair or have recently taken the plunge and shaved their heads can find support, encouragement, and a general ego-boost from the community’s 1.4 million weekly visitors. 

Created in 2011, the subreddit has 23,000 weekly contributions. Often, they follow the format of men uploading photos of their receding hairlines. “Is it time?” reads one recent post. The answer, in almost every instance, is yes. 

The before-and-after transformations are overwhelmingly met with enthusiasm and welcoming responses. “Might as well go all the way” one recent post read. “10 years younger my dude!” replied one Redditor. Another commented: “Came here to say the same! You reverse aged.”

Another poster shared their bald transformation, titled ”I have arrived”. They added: “Finally joined the bald squad. Got told I looked like I had a comb over and knew it was time.”

One response read: “Man it’s so crazy how much better every dude who posts here looks bald”. Another agreed, “Seriously! It’s glow up after glow up on this subbreddit!.”

Pattern baldness affects roughly 80% of men and nearly half of women over the course of their lives. Still, it’s hard to believe this is the same internet inhabited by snark pages and trolls whose sole intent is to tear others apart based on their appearances and insecurities. 

“The r/bald subreddit is an example of wholesome masculine body-positivity. every post is a guy showing his clearly-past-the-point-of-no-return thinning hair & asking “is it time?” and the top reply is always this image,” one X user wrote in a recent post that has been viewed more than 11 million times. “Everyone get more bald now!!!” another demanded. 

It is not only men active on the subreddit. Women also openly share their bald journey, whether that be through choice or as a result of undergoing chemotherapy treatment or autoimmune diseases such as alopecia, which affects up to 30 million women in the U.S. alone. 

Others are simply lurking for the wholesome content. “I’m not anywhere near balding but I still love this sub so much,” one Reddit user commented. “One of the most positive places on the internet,” another wrote.

At a time where hair transplants are becoming more and more common, r/Bald’s philosophy is instead to “embrace bald and strive to make the world a more bald-friendly place”.

“We’re often sold the idea that bald is bad. That’s bullshit,” reads the sub’s description. “It is natural. And it is nothing to be ashamed of—here we’ll support each other and learn to take pride in our baldness.”

source https://www.fastcompany.com/91472560/bald-subreddit-internet-masculinity