To many Justin Bieber fans, who screamed his name at concerts during the height of his powers, the singer will always be that dimpled kid with an impressive helmet of side-swept brown hair.
However, it’s been 15 years since his smash-hit single ‘Baby’ was released, and Bieber is no longer a teeny-bop king. Now 31, he’s married to model and Rhode Beauty founder, Hailey Baldwin, and is the father of a nine-month-old son, Jack Blues.
As he’s grown up, Bieber’s appearance, naturally, has changed–and new photos of the singer suggest that his once thick head of hair has thinned. And the internet has *feelings* about it.
The conversation on X (hardly the kindest corner of social media) quickly turned cruel, with some tweets amassing tens of thousands of likes for mocking the apparent change in Bieber’s hairline and even suggesting baldness was symptomatic of bad character (and here was me thinking we’d moved past Victorian-era notions of looks dictating morality…).
This is regardless of the fact that two-thirds of all men will experience some kind of hair loss by the time they’re 35, and 85 percent of men will have noticeably thinner hair by their 50th birthday.
When we think of harmful and unrealistic beauty standards, our brains tend to immediately leap towards the expectations increasingly being piled on women to look Instagram-ready and youthful at all times. This cannot be denied. But that’s not to say men don’t have damaging tropes they feel forced to uphold, either, which can be equally as dangerous.
And it's not just balding: a study attributed to Bumble (although doubt has been cast over this) found that 60 percent of women on dating apps are seeking a man over six feet tall, with only 15 percent open to dating men shorter than 5’8”. Meanwhile, an increasing number of men believe the only acceptable body shape is one that is super-toned and muscular, which has seen a supposed ‘steroid boom’ in the UK.
These expectations that men feel are being placed on them (to be tall, muscular, and with a full head of hair) could be a facet of what is fueling conversations in an increasingly darker corner of the internet known as the manosphere. A place populated by men plagued with expectations they don’t or can’t fulfil, which could see them lured into a headspace where these insecurities are weaponised for nefarious means. See: Andrew Tate’s version of masculinity being promoted as the ‘only’ acceptable one to his millions of followers.
Of course, it's not anyone's sole responsibility (and it's certainly not down to women) to make men feel better about themselves, but we do need to be mindful that if we want a more level playing field when it comes to beauty standards and aging, isn’t a more accepting attitude more beneficial all round? Tweets mocking Bieber do little to help the cause.
It would be naïve to pretend that women are not disproportionately criticised for daring to age or scrutinised for the way they look. But fascination with beauty routines and criticism of receding hairlines are both merely symptomatic of a culture that hits all genders hard, and which is increasingly looks-obsessed.
Attacking men for their hairline is merely reaching for low-hanging fruit; it’s a low-blow likely to hit where it hurts. A Dove study found 44 percent of men are concerned about their hair. It’s little wonder that the rapidly growing hair-transplant industry is set to be worth $16.62 billion by 2032.
We’re right to call out trolls that get up on their soapbox and share their (unwarranted and unwanted) opinions on women aging. And while it might sound pious, we also need to examine our own criticisms of men who are not immune to the ageing process.
It’s easy to decry how we as women have been victims of age-shaming since the dawn of time, but that doesn't mean men are immune to the damaging nature of beauty standards. After all, there is plenty to criticise all manner of men about–from their often poor showing of allyship, to the ongoing plight of violence against women–but their receding hairlines or height need not be one.
Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper’s Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
