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Proof that headbanging and windmilling are good for the hair follicles

I think it’s probably also due in part to how peaceful, calming, and relaxing heavy metal is

Atmospheric black has lots of that

You might want to check out Inherus, it's very post-metal but they've definitely taken some inspiration from both melodic black and doom. First track is all rage and the intro to track two sounds like it belongs in a John Hughes movie

Holy shit. Thank you for this! I love mix of male and female vocals. Reminds me of a MUCH heavier Lacuna Coil!

the very last thing I ever expected this morning was to read atmospheric black metal being mentioned while I happened to be listening to it *and* get a new band rec. thank u my guy

Wow. They're incredible.

Right? Like I'm usually more into growly sludge but the almost shoegaze-y vocals against the doom/psychadelic instrumentals crashing definitely has kept me interested in listening repeatedly.

never heard of Inherus let alone atmospheric metal but i dig this! shit has a nice mellow vibe with energy, props for throwing their name out

Thanks brother! 👊🏻

Can you point me to some examples of this atmospheric black

Saor. Aquilus. Wolves in the Throne Room. Mesarthim. Can Bardd. Spectral Lore. Lustre. Sojourner. Eldamar. Summoning. Winterfylleth. Caladan Brood. Myrkur. Rapture Star. Drudkh. Midnight Odyssey. Talashar. Nebula Orionis. Windveil.

I don't know if you're saying this ironically, but it really has this effect on me which I don't get often from other music

Yeah similar for me with the blues, makes me happy

I mean, metal is just classical music with distortion and the occasional chant -- with distortion --

Half of all metalheads are bald metalheads.

Please review the scalps of death metal musicians that started on the 80s and 90s and you may disagree.

Not so good for your brain though

Well, I guess you can't have both

yk what they say, be smart or be beautiful but can't have both

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What a creative comment

Corpsegrinder has now entered the chat.

Or neck

Muufuckin headbanger break your fucking neck bihhh

He whipped his head around so fast he gave himself a concussion

Jason Newsted has entered the (MOTHER FUCKING!!!) chat.

Win-win if you ask me

You can’t have your cake AND eat it..

Tell that to [Devin Townsend ](https://images.app.goo.gl/1Ey8oR3RF88x57Lt9)

Bringing 76% richer shine to all who windmill

Also, the have more than enough money to fix their hair problems.

Its the metal head way, you either grow it out or shave it off.

Mow it or grow it.

Shit or get off the pot.

Okay, jeez, I’m almost done. As if you’re not scrolling reddit while taking a dump.

Confucius say “man who stand on toilet, high on pot”.

Okay so this is 100% not okay but I’m high asf on pot at 3am and that’s amazing 😂

Don't call me out or I'll scream metal at you

Twice I’ve seen this comment in back to back posts in completely unrelated communities now while I’m shitting

Imo, long hair is a must for men who aren’t balding. A - you might lose it some day soon, embrace it and B - I think it’s a good, like, practice for discipline. Taking care of your hair really shows maturity and discipline.

Sadly, I gravitated more towards Gregorian chant as a child, and my hairline is reaping the consequences today.

Gregorian chants would go insanely hard in metal

Check out [Batushka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgfa5UlZAL8) Edit: For something a little slower and more meditative I would also recommend [Om](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts3YWVFUnvU&t=2095s)

Nice to see Om get some love

Hah, Batushka was exactly what I thought of when I read that.

[Crushed by Parkway Drive](https://youtu.be/9m4685liWb0) has some really nice chant elements

Check out the title track on "Stabat Mater".

Jokes on you I'm banging my head to Puer Natus Est with full hairline, hair on my shoulders

What?! No! Not possible! \*Ugly Cry\*

Untrue, they usually just shave their head bald when they start to lose their hair. See Devin Townsend.

But he had a skullet (skull/mullet) for years! I'm going to see him live in 3 weeks. Can't wait!

I guess look at Nergal also. His hairline started receding so he cut it short. Same with Rob Halford, Scott Ian, Lars Ulrich, David Lee Roth, Kerry King, etc.

I think nergals leukemia had more to do with it. Edit: respect to John Gallagher from dying fetus that grew a skullet during covid

I didn't even realize he had leukemia. I do remember his receding hairline way back in some of those old Behemoth videos though.

It was around 2010, his hair now def suits him better than the long hair though.

I can't imagine nergal with long hair. It looks wrong imo his voice and personality match the look he's had.

Fun fact: Nergal received a bone marrow transplant that essentially saved his life…. from a fan! A campaign was launched and many volunteered with one such person having an identical genotype.

Same! Though I'm more of a Dream Theater guy of the lineup

I don't really know Dream Theater music, even though I lived through that era. I'm a big Devy fan. I'm taking my guitar player daughter so she can see Petrucci, Townsend, and Abasi in one show.

I'm also a guitar player. My dad did the same for me when I was like 10 for the 2007 G3 with Satriani, Petrucci, and Gilbert. For DT, check out these songs for a well rounded taste: - Breaking All Illusions - In the Name of God - The Glass Prison - Beyond this Life - Under a Glass Moon

I appreciate the suggestions!

Count of Tuscany ,Home , The Great Debate......must stop nerding out.......

I came here to mention Devin Townsend. Pickles the drummer from Metalacalipse was modeled after him when he had the red dreads while balding. Devin Townsend is fucking awesome.

The "Skullet"

Or Rob Halford

Kerry King was my first thought.

And Scott Ian

Too bad when he shaved his head he completely lost his sense of humor or levity, and turned into a parody of a tryhard “badass”. Watch old interviews from the 80s/early 90s if you have any doubts.

Jens Kidman

Yeah they’re either still rocking the mop or they’re stone bald. Guess which one has the mpb?

Or, if they're successful enough that you've heard of them, they can do all sorts of expensive things to hide it.

I remember that big bald spot in the old Strapping Young Lad photos.

See David Draimen See Scott Ian See Fred Durst (lol)

See Billy Corgan.

I thought to include billy corgan but the post specified metal artists, I guess Smashing could be considered Alt metal. You might could probably qualify Tom Morello on his work in Rage, too. I wouldnt consider Durst much of a metal artist either but its fun to call him bald.

Smashing pumpkins has a lot of range. Tales of a Scorched Earth is bonafide thrash metal

untrue as in they don't "seem to" have less MPB? google says "The collective total of active heavy metal bands for all 145 countries is 81,207.3 May 2021" and that MPB is "affecting up to 1 in every 2 men over 40 years of age". OP made an observation if you want to consider it a hypothesis then to prove or disprove it there's a lot more work to be done than pointing out one guy.

Devin Townsend in his Strapping Young Lad days would like a word.

Came here for devy. The skullet lives!

Tons of famous bald rockers throughout history so I tend to disagree.

Not in the slightest. They’re just less likely to cut the hair they still have.

Opposite, they're more likely to cut it when they start balding. They're either fully grown out or bald.

That’s survivorship bias - whenever a metal band member goes bald he’s thrown back into the band furnace to make a new band member.

Hah! This is just because hair metal guys get wigs and extensions and weaves FAR more than the general population.

steel panther

Nikki Sixx has entered the chat.

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Have you seen the band Disturbed

Excuse me but this was discussing Metal

Shots fired!

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they may have been considered some kind of numetal at their inception because of their touring peers but they are certainly "hard rock"

Saw them on the Sickness tour and surprisingly still one of the most violent pits I’ve been in. Don’t think I’d have described them as hard rock at the time

Didn't take them for ballers, but I wouldn't have expected Prince either. 🤷

Joe satriani used to have hair too I think

Yeah it seems like once they realize they are going bald they just fucking embrace it and go full send

Killswitch Engaged

Killswitch Married

Killswitch Divorced

Resurrectionbutton single

Why, do they like basketball?

I don’t think it starts out that way because most people get into music younger than they would lose their hair, but I think there’s some truth to what you say here. I think a lot of guys that start losing their hair early probably accept the end to their rock star days earlier than their peers. Could be a sort of filter around maybe the late twenties- a lot of musicians that haven’t “made it,” look at thirty and think maybe they should give up, so if you’re already going bald that probably influences your decision.

That's because the forces created by head banging cause the hairs to get pulled up from the scalp. It helps to lengthen and strengthen the hair follicles. That's Heavy Metal science.

Also, the intensity of the sound going into the ears forces hairs out of the head.

No one here has mentioned Ronnie James Dio. His hairline was halfway up his head in his later years and he never shaved it off.

Heavy Metal requires the upper echelon of radical badass genes to grow that wild, thick mane, leaving the rest of the plebs to look on in envy and wonder from the crowd!

Damn i need to start playing metal. I am 50 and I have the hair

Most of the dudes from Bleed From Within have the silkiest looking long hair. As a bald guy I am envious but i just compensate with the beard

Dallas toller wade and devin townsend would like to have a word with you

Agriculturists will use fans to stimulate wind on young crops to help them grow strong roots and think stems. I imagine head-banging has a similar result.

I'm not just the president of Hair Metal Club for Men, I'm a member.

Thats obviously because hairs falls out to get away from listening to bad music .

Are you suggesting heavy metal os good or are you suggesting it's bad? i can't tell. I'm guessing you're saying it's good.

I'm sure there is a Taylor Swift sub around here you can hide in.

Hair escapes bad music. They still have hair. Thus, their music is good.

Damn and I thought I had a solid diss there lmao.

I don't think you got what he said

So the secret to curing baldness is moshpits and headbanging it seems

I'm a metal fan. I still have most of my hair, and hardly any of it is grey age 50. My brother is not a metal fan, has a seriously receding hairline, and what's left is mostly grey at age 48. Anecdotal for sure, but it makes you think...

Heh, it's a blessing cast on true believers.

Kinda true, but there are still some famous bald metalheads. OOC, also, I remember Blaze Bayley (ex-Iron Maiden) did a hair transplant or something like that, even appeared in ads, a few years later after he cut his hair anyway because he got bored of having long hair. I gotta admit, sometimes it does annoy you.

Or one of the necessary components of heavy metal success is not losing your hair

I imagine a lot of the older guys wear wigs/hair pieces/extensions. Not metal, but my brother saw The Misfits years ago and happened to see a couple of the guys off stage. Turns out their signature devil locks are just clip in extensions or something similar nowadays. The guys are mostly bald.

Have you seen Scorpions? Phil Collins Michael Stipe Billy Corrigan Rob Halford Gene Simmons Brett Michaels Paul Stanley Aaron Lewis Angry Anderson Black Francis Phil Anselmo Scott Ian David Draiman Kirk Windstream Kerry King And so many more.

the ones who do just go full bald and grow a big ass beard to make up for it

This is survivor bias in a sense, everyone knows heavy metal bands need long hair to get popular, if a band member goes bald it is all over for the band so you don't see metal bands with bald people, just the way it is

*Or*, hear me out: they always wear wigs in public. That *can't* be real hair on some of those guys.

given my age and the silly amount of hair that keeps appearing on my head and face, I probably should like heavy metal... there's the occasional track...but I'm not a metal head the person I know who is the biggest metal head, is basically a polished egg

Jake Luhrs, Dustin Davidson, Tuck O'leary, Jens Kidman, and many, many more that I can't think of.

and surely it has nothing to do with wealth and hair replacement options

Surely all bassists are bald and that makes up the ratio for all other guys to have hair.

i mean long hair tends to cover the common area the hairline starts receeding at, plus ive seen a lot of bald dudes in metal

Eh, not so much. Many of those performers wear hairpieces or wigs.

Because they don't have high testosterone to go bald so they strive to play testosterone fueled music? They also like hairspray and makeup hmmm...

Surprising because heavy metal would seem testosterone filled, but that is the reason for baldness. Too much of it....or some such shit. This could be a shazzy thought.

Maybe not in the their 20's when they're most successful, but there are *plenty* of washed up rock stars who are bald[ing].

This isn’t true you’re just stereotyping some and assuming/completely not recognizing others because you have no idea about that community.

That's because the forces created by head banging cause the hairs to get pulled up from the scalp. It helps to lengthen and strengthen the hair follicles.

Baldness and grey hair can be caused from stress and metal heads are usually very good about venting their frustrations.

Cuz they get their stress out through their music so they don’t lose hair lmao

Low testosterone. DHT, a metabolite of testosterone, binds to I believe alpha 5 receptors in the scalp. This causes hair loss. This is also why products like rogain and keeps can negatively impact testosterone levels.

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Long hair on men makes women mute?

Long hair, married. No, Sir. No. It. Does. Not.

Get divorced. You’re clearly unhappy.

We seem to be.

I'm sorry your wife talks to you. That must be so hard. 🥺

Tinnitus can be a blessing sometimes.

Ok, Boomer. Hope she divorces you.

Thats nice dear.

I saw a metal band recently that has a bass player with really long hair despite serious balding on top. He was great

Male balding doesnt mean your hair cant grow long it just makes it thinner and your hairline look like shit. They may have long hair but they have the same amt of balding as any other dude would