Bald Presidents and Prime Ministers
Continuing the ideas from the recent TIME Magazine article about United States Presidents and their wonderful heads of hair (Americans Haven’t Voted a Bald President Into Office in 51 Years), some of my colleagues in the hair restoration field have allowed me to repost their remarks.
My friend Dr. Richard Shiell writes, “It appears from the polls that our Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, who is a type 6 balding pattern, will be knocked off by a well-haired younger contender Kevin Rudd at the elections next month. Interestingly Howard was the ONLY bald Prime Minister to be re-elected in 100 years here. We did have another bald Prime Minister around 1971, Billy McMahon, but he was appointed from Cabinet ranks when Harold Holt drowned in the surf at Portsea. The only time he had to face the electors as Prime Minister, he lost!!”
Dr. Bessam Farjo points out that in English politics, the last Prime Minister elected with significant balding was Sir Winston Churchill. When former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair came into office 10 years ago, he had a full head of hair, but as his popularity dipped, so did his hair and he receded and thinned significantly.
Is it some grand conspiracy? I won’t pretend to know if this is social engineering or simple coincidence. Nonetheless, I do think everyone can agree that it is certainly interesting. One might ask if these men were to run for political office today, would their balding be a liability with extensive video media exposure?
In all fairness John Howard, of Australia, was voted in at a time when the electorate had very much turned against the party (Labor) who was in power at the time. John Howard was also very much balding when he was voted in, and just goes to show hair does not define the man. He has subsequently been voted back into office 3 times, all, obviously, without a full head of hair.