What Early or Mild Hair Loss Looks Like, With 10 Celebrity Examples

Last Updated on July 19, 2023 by Robert Price

Celebrities are just like the rest of us!

They get older, go bald, start taking Viagra, and eventually die.

Sure, many celebs are follicly blessed.

And a lot of them get hair transplants.

But some just let their locks shed naturally too, and I’m going to celebrate a 10 celebrities who have experienced hair loss in this post.

My aim isn’t to “out” any celebrity but to show what early hair loss looks like in an informative, compelling way. I included approximate timelines, so you can do some additional Google Image searches, if desired. With that disclaimer aside, let’s talk about what early or mild hair loss looks like, using 10 celebrities as case studies.

1. Ed Sheeran – 2013ish-Present

Sheeran in 2013. Photo by
Eva Rinaldi. Source.

Sheeran uses a popular receding hairline style technique (i.e. his bangs!) to mask what is likely an early-onset case of male pattern baldness. It started around 2013, I believe. If you look at recent of him, you’ll see more thinning than this. His hair loss isn’t moving at a particularly fast pace, but the thinning is fairly obvious.

As hairs miniaturize and the balding process progresses, those hairs become smaller, shorter, and lighter. His locks along the front part of his hairline are noticeably “wispy” and a lighter shade of ginger.

UPDATE – On Sheeran’s latest tour and promotional rounds, his hair looked stronger and healthier. Is he on Propecia or some other hair loss remedy? I don’t want to speculate, but it’s certainly possible!

2. Tom Hanks 1992ish-1996

Photo Credit: Fandango, Youtube. Sleepless in Seattle, 1993. You can see slight thinning along the left corner.

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures. Forrest Gump, 1994. Hanks couldn’t hide his receding hairline for this role! It had probably gone back a bit since his Sleepless in Seattle nights. The long hair minimized the receding reality for some time, I would imagine. An M (or wavy V) shape, shown above, is a classic sign of mild or early male pattern baldness.

3. Prince harry 2011ish to 2014

Public domain.

Harry reportedly used to like to tease William about his hair loss, then poor Harry got hit with the Royal Family baldness curse, too! Karma? Perhaps! His hair quality started to diminish right around the time of William’s wedding, if I’m not mistaken, around 2011. That’s probably when the process began for Harry. His bald spot became visible in 2013 or 14.

4. Prince William – 2004-2006

Photo Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images.

This was the earliest evidence I could find showcasing William’s male pattern baldness. I can see quite a few shorter hairs along the hairline; those hairs are miniaturizing and likely just beginning the balding process.

Compared to his younger photos, the overall quality of his hair seems lower here — a common and overlooked sign of hair loss. The English elements are playing a role, granted. His hair just looks kind of “ratty,” another hair loss symptom. The above picture was taken in 2004, and that’s approximately when William’s journey to baldness began.

Photo by PA. This picture is from William’s college graduation in 2005. The thinning had progressed substantially by this point, and was visible throughout most of his scalp. See how his hair looks sort of rough or “chewed”? That’s a sign of aggressive, early-onset hair loss.

5. Steve Carell – Mid to Late 1990s.

Photo Credit: Screenshot, Comedy Central.

Steve Carell famously had thin hair in season 1 of The Office. He solved his genetic problem by season 2, I believe — most likely with a hair transplant. Here’s a good shot of him, probably in the late 90s. You can see his left hairline corner is collapsing inward here, a telltale sign of early hair loss. The part looks sloppy and “old-man” like. Having trouble styling your hair, by the way, is another common sign of hair loss.

6. Dak Prescott (NFL Quarterback) – 2015-Present

Photo Credit: NBC. 2015-Present

Again, thinning at the corners. You can see it here, just slightly. More scalp is visible along the edges of his hairline, and his hair is lighter there. I go into further detail about Prescott and your other favorite, balding NFL quarterbacks in my post, The Top 10 Balding NFL Quarterbacks (and Tom Brady’s Awesome Hair Transplant).

Blake Bortles is one of the top 10 balding NFL quarterbacks. This is another example of what a “chewed out” hairline can look like.

7. Judd Law 1995ish-2000

Photo Credit: Miramax/Paramount. Screenshots, The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999. His hairs appear weaker and shorter around the corners and there’s some recession.

Judd Law’s hairline started receding in his early 20s. He’s 26-27 in the photos above. You can see he’s still got a v-shaped hairline, kind of, which is the shape of a mature hairline. But Judd’s V-shaped hairline is taking a sharp turn, up and over to the left. By the early 2000s, his hairline was undeniably M-shaped. Then, by the middle part of the decade, Judd had an “island” of hair up front (surrounded by a bald ocean). Now he’s pretty much just bald. But no worries, he meets all the five look-good-bald parameters!

8. Mike Trout – 2015ish-Present

Photo Credit: MLB.com

This one is debatable. But it looks like his hairline corners are just starting to collapse on him, creating a kind of U-Shaped hairline. He’s the best player in baseball, so who cares!

9. Dr. Phil, 1963ish! At Only 12-13 Years Old!Photo Credit: Dr Phil’s Website.

Dr. Phil and the rapper DMX famously commiserated about their receding hairlines. And your favorite TV doctor started going bald very young. The above picture is Dr. Phil’s Jr. High school photo, and he’s already balding there! On the Norwood scale, I would say he’s an early Norwood class III patient in that photo.

You can see the beginning stages of an “island” of hair, forming at the center of his forehead. It’s extremely rare for men to start going bald this young, but technically, hair loss can occur anytime after the onset of puberty. Hair loss in the late teens and early 20s, comparatively, is very common, as I state in my hair loss 101 post.

10. James Spader, Early 2000s

James on Charlie Rose in 2002. Youtube Screenshot.

I documented Jame’s long and strange hair loss journey in this post. He seemed to have full head of hair well into his middle ages, then appeared to lose it all dramatically in the early 2010s. But in reality, his hair loss started earlier and was likely concealed for many years by professional stylists in Hollywood. They can work miracles! Here you see quite a bit of miniaturization along the hairline and the early stages of MPB.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post helped you get an idea what early hair loss can look like. Most men go bald to some extent, at some point in their lives, so you’re certainly not alone if you’re in the beginning stages of the balding process. If you’re not sure if your hairline is balding or maturing, check out my post, 10 Celebrities with Mature Hairlines – A Fun and Educational Overview. And finally, as always, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question below. I like talking hair loss, sincerely!

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Robert Price

Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.

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