Bald: How I Slowly Learned to Not Hate Having No Hair

by Stuart Heritage

'The funniest imaginable version of a grief memoir and brilliantly unpacks male vanity and insecurity' GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY

'Stuart is made for baldness' LARRY DAVID

'A genuine tonic and very funny read' NATHAN FILER

'Excellent and should be read by vaguely vain men of all hair types' SIMON USBORNE

This is a guide to life in the club that nobody wants to join.

Nobody chooses to be bald. Nobody wants to look into the mirror and be confronted with an absence. Nobody gains any comfort from having a slightly better idea of what their skull looks like.

Stuart Heritage has been bald for two years. But before he accepted the inevitable, he spent a number of years ineptly trying to conceal this fact with an array of expensive treatments and terrible haircuts. Can a man go bald with dignity? Maybe. But can a man go bald with more dignity than Stuart Heritage? Oh good god yes, and this book is his attempt to make that happen for you.

Part-manual-part-tantrum, this is a self-deprecating, funny and genuinely helpful guide to being what really happens, why it matters and how to feel much less crap about it.

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2024

Reviews

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny

[Peter McLaughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Last summer, for the first time, I found myself with sunburn on my crown, a depressing indicator of the extent of my male-pattern baldness. This came recommended at the time so I picked it up; and put it back down again in a couple of days. Absolutely insufferable. I understand that the author’s persona was put on for comedic effect—or was it? Either way, I couldn’t finish it, no matter that it was fewer than 200 pages.

[Marc Alan Kagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

No Way Jose

Stuart could write 100 books on the same subject but it would never convince me to accept the loss of one follicle. I have been angry and pissed about my hair since my 20’s and have been as angry and pissed about it every single day and hour since then and I just turned 79. I want all that time back or there is no “God”! How about THAT Larry David! Anyway…. Nice try. Not really a review just another rant, I know.

[Tapani Lehtonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and not indulging in self loathe

[Ari Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haiku review: Yul B, Patrick S / Showed us how suave bald can be. / Did memo get lost?

[John J Milton · Rating 1 out of 5]

It could have been an email. And yes, it was an email and the author's agent told him to write a book. Bad idea.

[Victoria Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ferocious, funny and self deprecating, we are given an inside look into the male journey of hair loss.

[Adam Guest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about masculinity, a book that addresses many fears over an alleged diminution of individual maleness without resorting to divisive dickishness.