Baldness is Powerful in the Business World - LeBron take notes

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Bald is Powerful

Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443862604578032541863652264.html

Up for a promotion? If you're a man, you might want to get out the clippers.

Men with shaved heads are perceived to be more masculine, dominant and, in some cases, to have greater leadership potential than those with longer locks or with thinning hair, according to a recent study out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Wharton management lecturer Albert Mannes conducted three experiments to test peoples' perceptions of men with shaved heads. In one of the experiments, he showed 344 subjects photos of the same men in two versions: one showing the man with hair and the other showing him with his hair digitally removed, so his head appears shaved.

In all three tests, the subjects reported finding the men with shaved heads as more dominant than their hirsute counterparts. In one test, men with shorn heads were even perceived as an inch taller and about 13% stronger than those with fuller manes. The paper, "Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance," was published online, and will be included in a coming issue of journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

According to Wharton's Dr. Mannes—who says he was inspired to conduct the research after noticing that people treated him more deferentially when he shaved off his own thinning hair—head shavers may seem powerful because the look is associated with hypermasculine images, such as the military, professional athletes and Hollywood action heroes like Bruce Willis. (Male-pattern baldness, by contrast, conjures images of "Seinfeld" character George Costanza.)

New York image consultant Julie Rath advises her clients to get closely cropped when they start thinning up top. "There's something really strong, powerful and confident about laying it all bare," she says, describing the thinning or combed-over look as "kind of shlumpy."

Michael Landau, 41, took the plunge once he began losing hair in his late teens. Balding at a young age made him shy and uncomfortable, but shaving off the remaining strands nudged him out of his shell. It even helped lead to a job with Mr. Godin years ago, when the two men bonded over their baldness.

Mr. Landau, now CEO of Drybar, a chain of blow-dry salons, says the bald look "makes me more confident and more strong, which probably makes people respect me more." Plus, in the hair business, he says, "people remember the bald guy."