By age 35, two-thirds of American men will experience some degree of appreciable hair loss, and by age 50, approximately 85 percent of men have significantly thinning hair. But bald men still face some discrimination. John T. Capps was denied a job because of his lack of hair, and he shared his story on HuffPost Live.
Capps' hair began thinning at a young age, and he was bald by the time he was applying for jobs as a college graduate. "I was really excited about an opportunity of sharing financial papers and calling on banks and businesses," he explained to host Nancy Redd. "[They] sent me to Atlanta for the final interview and had an extraordinary visit, spent three or four days meeting nice people."
"And then on the last day, when they brought us in to give us our review and whether we made it or not -- then they were just casual enough at that time to say, 'you know, the image of our company does not have room for a bald head. We are dealing with young people, you are going to be associated with young people, and baldness is kind of associated with more mature people. We need our company to represented by somebody that has hair.'"
Motivated by his experience, Capps decided to embrace his baldness. "On the way home, I thought about it, and said 'you know, it's more important what's in the head than what's on top of it.'"
"[I] contacted my daddy and my aunt and a couple of uncles who were bald and said, 'hey let's start the Bald-Headed Men of America. Let's be proud of every hair we don't have, and let's make headway in life. By golly, they supported me and we did it."