We are in a world where physical appearance is constantly judged by others. The clothes we wear, our weight, volume and physical shape and even the presence or absence of hair are elements considered of great importance in interpersonal relationships and even at work, leading to the creation of complexes if the ideal of beauty is not met or even in some cases to the suffering of different mental ailments such as anorexia and bulimia. There are also some phobias linked to aspects of our physicality.

One of them is phalacrophobia , which we will talk about throughout this article, and which is related to an intense fear of baldness.

Phalacrophobia: What is this disorder?

We understand as phalacrophobia the existence of an exaggerated and excessive fear of baldness , which generates a very high level of anxiety when exposed to stimuli referred to or related to this condition.

This is a specific type of phobia that refers to elements related to physical appearance. This implies the existence of a totally irrational and uncontrollable fear of a particular stimulus, so that the symptoms are severe enough to constitute an anxiety disorder.

The fact of exposing oneself or even imagining exposing oneself to such a stimulus generates in the patient such anxiety that it can trigger physiological symptoms such as tachycardia, hyper intonation, dizziness tremors and even anxiety crises. This causes the subject to actively avoid exposure to the stimulus in question, or if he must be exposed to it, to experience a high level of tension and discomfort.

In phalacrophobia, the fear in question may be both the fact that the subject himself goes bald and the possibility of meeting bald subjects . Thus, the subject may be in tension before the social interaction with people with baldness, avoiding it. The presence of comments regarding hair loss or even publicity about it can also generate great anxiety and be actively avoided.

This fear is often associated with men, but it is also suffered by many women . It should be taken into account in this sense that in men hair loss is socially expected, not being so common in women. This expectation may have an effect on the probability of suffering from phalacrophobia.

This phobia can have severe repercussions on the patient’s life and can even become an obsession for the subject. It is not strange that the fear of going bald leads to frequent checking routines, such as the observation of the amount of hair lost when combing one’s hair .

In extreme cases we have observed the existence of perceptive alterations (similar to what happens in anorexia), considering the subject to be losing his hair or to have stitches in his scalp if he is still perfectly healthy.

Causes of this phobia

The origin of this and other phobias is an element about which there are many hypotheses, considering that its genesis is due to the combination of multiple factors.

In this case, one of the possible explanations for this phobia is conditioning . Some of the people who suffer from phalacrophobia have had some kind of traumatic experience throughout their childhood that was once associated with baldness. For example, having been abused or mistreated by someone with alopecia, or having observed the death of an elderly person or close loved one with this characteristic.

In these cases it is possible that the subject who will suffer the phobia associates the fact of being abused or facing death with baldness, generating exposure to this fact a high level of anxiety.

Another possibility lies in the fact that we highlighted in the introduction: the physical aspect. Although in recent times some people consider that baldness can represent manhood, strength and personality, the truth is that baldness has been culturally associated with physical decline and has been removed from the canon of beauty prevailing in society. This could generate a learned fear of not being considered attractive and being socially rejected.

Linked to the two previous peppers, we must comment that traditionally hair loss has been considered as something typical of aging, assuming the loss of youth and the capabilities of this time and entering a stage of loss and approaching death.

Treatment

The treatment of this phobia will vary depending on the anxiety generating stimuli in question .

Exposure to phobic stimuli and systematic desensitization are some of the most effective techniques in the treatment of phobias, being based on the subject’s approach to phobic stimuli. Firstly, a hierarchy between patient and professional will be developed in order to determine some of the main anxiety generating situations, to organize them according to the anxiety they generate.

After that, the patient shall be exposed to the feared situations, starting with situations that generate average levels of anxiety to be exposed to them until in at least two consecutive tests the level of anxiety decreases until it becomes imperceptible. After that, the next item in the hierarchy may be moved.

Another treatment to take into account is cognitive restructuring , which is very necessary in order to modify the dysfunctional beliefs that may be behind the emergence or maintenance of the phobia. Techniques such as decatastrophization can also be used to reduce the importance of the possibility of going bald.

One last element that we can take into account is the possibility of using relaxation techniques in order to reduce the level of anxiety.