Is this why Sportsmen are so afraid of going bald?

Given that over two thirds of men are balding by their mid-30s you might expect them to accept it with a resigned shrug and put it down to the natural process of aging. Indeed, some men do but there are just as many who really struggle with hair loss and seek a range of treatments.

Team mates can be cruel

For sportsmen, going bald can be doubly traumatic. First off there’s the normal feelings of reduced confidence and a lowering of self-esteem but then this is compounded by the fact it’s all happening in the public gaze.

The Daily Mail and other tabloids love nothing better than speculating if footballers like Wayne Rooney have or haven’t had hair transplants. It’s even worse if they’re the first chap in a team to start losing hair. Team mates rarely hold back when it comes to handing out a good ribbing for what they see as an amusing condition.

Dropped from the team due to hair loss

One Indian cricketer even blames a serious dip in form on the onset of a bald spot. Mohit Sharma, a medium paced, right arm bowler was devastating in the 2015 world cup but now can’t even get a game. The selectors dropped him from the National Side after a poor performance against South Africa.

In Mohit’s words, “I realised I was losing hair, and it really affected my confidence big time, which in turn affected my bowling”.

Bizarre as Mohit’s explanation may seem at first sight there maybe is something in it. After all, most great sportsmen feed on confidence to achieve superlative performance and if external factors are draining it then who knows what the results could be.

The good news for Mohit is that there is a range of hair loss treatments out there that have been proven to restore self-confidence from scalp micropigmentation to a full transplant. If he pays a visit to his local hair loss clinic he might be back in the team quicker than he thinks.