With thousands of channels and streaming services to choose from, viewers can find virtually anything they want to tune into at any time. But something that’s becoming harder and harder to find on TV, says Richard Osman, is bald men.
The presenter of shows such as BBC’s Pointless, Two Tribes and Richard Osman’s House of Games, has seen more than his fair share of TV studios over the years. And, he explains on his The Rest is Entertainment podcast, they are very unforgiving environments for balding men.
“The one thing on TV you will notice very, very quickly, is if you are going bald,” Richard said, “you have incredibly bright lights shining at you and cameras looking at you from every single angle. So any man who has ever worried about losing his hair, you put him in a TV studio for 5 minutes, he’s really going to worry about losing his hair!”
But, Richard adds, there is an instant solution used my more and more male celebrities of a certain age: “They have an amazing thing on TV, all makeup artists have it, this thing called Nanogen.
“It’s almost like salt and pepper and you put it in your hair and it’s got like 50 different colours so they match it exactly to your hair …it’s a powder essentially and then and then you hairspray it on it it just fills in any possible gap that you might have.”
Richard adds: “However thick your hair is, if they put you on TV, you will look like you’ve got gaps, so Nanogen is the thing – any contestant that comes on a quiz show, it literally changes their lives. They go ‘Oh my God, this stuff is incredible.’ You tap it in, spray it on, and you absolutely wouldn’t notice.”
Although the product works for thinning hair, Richard adds that once celebrities begin to turn the corner from “thinning” to actually “balding,” these days, they’re almost certain to go for some sort of permanent hair replacement.
Richard’s co-presenter Marina Hyde named several big names who have clearly had hair transplants. “In the pandemic, loads of A-list stars had their hair done.
“Jimmy Carr will say he’s had it done James Nesbitt will say he’s had it done.”
Marina considers for a minute whether SpaceX boss Elon Musk has publicly admitted that he’s had a hair transplant before saying “OK, Musk has had it done – he’s a free speech person so never going to sue me about it!”
A combination of transplants, medicines such as Minoxidil and Richard’s “magic” powder means that bald men are almost invisible on TV these days, she says: “it’s happening all the time and it is completely widespread to the point that you don’t see anybody who has hair loss or is balding or is completely bald.”