February 16, 2021 5.03 pm This story is over 36 months old

Lincoln man overwhelmed by support after viral hair loss video

Suffering from hair loss since he was 19

A Lincoln man who has experienced hair loss problems went viral on TikTok after his head shave video was viewed by over 400,000 people and prompted a lot of positive comments.

Jack Archibald, 23, has been suffering from hair loss since he was 19-years-old, but told The Lincolnite he believes it could be hereditary and not a medical condition.

He decided to shave all his hair off on Sunday, February 14 before posting it on TikTok to raise awareness to others.

Jack was expecting a few views, but after an hour his video already had lots of reaction and ever since he said he has constantly had “really nice comments coming through”.

The TikTok video currently has 62,000 likes and over 6,000 comments and Jack has been overwhelmed by the support, as well as people reaching out to him on Instagram to ask for advice and share their experiences with him.

Left to right – Jack Archibald aged 15, around a year later, aged 18 when his hair was long but slowly losing its thickness, and aged 19 when he started to feel more insecure about the issue.

He said: “It has been amazing and has completely blown my mind how supportive everyone is.

“I work in a retail environment and around the public a lot, who can be negative and it is refreshing to see how supportive people can be and how people have related to the video. It has made me realise more people are going through it.

“I’d like to say thank you to everyone because it is something I’ve been worried about for years and it’s made the whole process of doing something about it better. I feel so much better because of how people have responded and all the nice comments.”

Jack said the hair loss didn’t bother him at first when he was younger as it was gradual, but as it came on more he tried having a shorter hair cut and using special hair growth products, but it didn’t really help.

He started to feel more insecure about the issue and tried to wear caps and hats to combat the problem.

After support from his friends and family, Jack decided to shave his hair off, but he said it took him a long time to accept that it is what he was going to do.

Jack’s hair continued to get thinner and he wore caps and hats to make him feel better. He later dyed his hair and it went “badly and was really yellow” but people weren’t talking about his balding as much then.

He said: “I looked into what I could do like shave it, get a transplant or a hair piece, and decided now is a good time to brave the shave.

“Other than going to work, I am not going out so I don’t have to deal with too much from others or the not feeling good about it.

“For some people the head shave is the only option and I didn’t know anyone my age who has had to go through it.

“I am normally quite a confident person and can shake off a joke about it, but there may be others out there that take it more personally, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about it and make people aware.”