A look at what bald A-listers looked like with longer locks
29th September 2023

As Ross Kemp reveals what he looks like with a full head of hair, a glimpse at what other bald A-listers looked like with longer locks – from Stanley Tucci to Tyson Fury and Dwayne Johnson

Ross Kemp is famously known for his bald look but revealed unseen pictures of himself with a head of hair on Thursday.

The EastEnders star, 59, shared what he looked like with much longer locks during an appearance on Good Morning Britain, sharing throwback snaps with viewers.

The pictures were from his younger years and showed him playing rugby with short hair, and also sporting a 1980s style bouffant shortly after leaving drama school.

He looked totally different from his iconic bald appearance, which became legendary during his soap opera career.

As Ross reveals what he looked like with a full head of hair, MailOnline takes a look at other famously bald A-listers when they had longer locks, from Stanley Tucci to Tyson Fury and Dwayne Johnson.

Big reveal: Ross Kemp is famously known for his bald look but revealed unseen pictures of himself with a head of hair on Thursday 

Unrecognisable: The EastEnders star, 59, shared what he looked like with much longer locks during an appearance on Good Morning Britain , sharing throwback snaps with viewers 

Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci has famously sported a completely bald look ever since he rose to fame in the 1990s.

The American actor, 62, has previously told how he decided to completely shave his head in his 30s after he began gradually losing his locks.

Photographs from his younger years show him sporting a brunette hairstyle, while he was also cleanly-shaven at the time.

He has since shaved his head and grown a stubbled beard, sporting a strikingly different look, while he has also now become known for his signature square glasses.

Speaking about his decision to shave his head, Stanley told Time Out in 2010: ‘Well, it takes a while, because you don’t lose your hair all at once.

‘You kind of wish you would; it would be so much easier. I had classic male-pattern baldness, which is not necessarily very attractive. 

‘So you do get to the point where you just say, forget it. I think that happened in my 30s.’


Looking back: Stanley Tucci has famously sported a completely bald look ever since he rose to fame in the 1990s, but did have short hair before his hair loss in his 30s (left in 1996) 

Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury began his career with long locks of hair but his curls have since disappeared, and he is now known for his completely bald head.

He has since grown out his facial hair and is often seen sporting a thick beard, but photographs from his younger years show him sporting a strikingly different look.

Throwback snaps from his early romance with his wife Paris and from his days in the ring show him looking cleanly shaven with short curly hair.

Tyson, 35, has previously spoken out about his hair loss and told how it is ‘beautiful’, insisting he embraced his bald look.

He said he now no longer has to shave his hair before a fight due to being bald and admitted he ‘politely declined’ a hair transplant offer from a London clinic.

Speaking to JOE in 2020, Tyson said: ‘The Rock’s bald and he’s the most famous actor in the world.

‘It doesn’t bother him. The Gypsy King’s bald and it doesn’t bother me.

‘I used to have a lion’s mane of hair but lost it all. Did it affect me? Nah. Did I let it get me down? Nope. Use it as a positive – you don’t have to get it cut all the time.

‘It’s a sign of getting older, innit? Some people lose their hair, some people don’t.

‘Embrace being bald. Don’t be in denial. Shave it off if it looks a mess. 

‘Get rid of it. Grow a beard, get some facial hair going. That’s what I did, I’ve got the upside down haircut!’ 


Style: Tyson Fury began his career with locks of hair (left in 2012) but his curls have since disappeared, and he is now known for his completely bald head (right this month)

Dwayne Johnson 

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has become very well-known for his fully bald head ever since his rise to fame.

But photographs from his younger years have shown him looking strikingly different with a full head of head.

One famous 90s throwback snap shows Dwayne, now 51, wearing his curly locks in a short back and sides style and opting for a cleanly shaven look.

Dwayne has since become known for his iconic bald look and he spoke about his decision to shave his head in a series of tweets back in 2017, confirming it wasn’t due to hair loss.

His explanation came about after a twitter account for Showtime TV series A Season With shared a GIF of Johnson with curly brown hair.

‘Why I luv GIFs. I’m not bald because I went bald. I’m bald because my hair is a cross between an afro and hair from a Lama’s ball sac #TheU,’ Johnson wrote.

The actor made the choice to go hairless around 2010 when he was last spotted rocking a dark buzz cut. 


Throwback: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been very well-known for his fully bald head, but he looked different with a full head of hair (left in 2005 and right in 2012) 

Gregg Wallace

Gregg Wallace is well-known for his fully shaven head and has sported the trademark look throughout his Masterchef judging days.

But in 2020, Gregg, 58, stunned fans as he looked unrecognisable with a full head of hair in a throwback snap.

It showed the TV star wearing a white t-shirt and a gold chain as he smiles for the camera, with a full head of curly hair.

The former grocer previously described himself as a ‘hippy’ with long hair when he was younger. 

Gregg has told how he has been bald since the age of 18 after losing his hair, telling how it initially ‘troubled him’ but he now thinks he was lucky to lose it in early age.

He told The Mirror in 2021: ‘You know, I’ve been bald since I was 18. I started losing my hair at 17 and I’ve been completely bald since 20 years old. It really troubled me back then. 

‘In fact, my oldest mate said, ‘Gregg I have to confess. When that happened I used to think, oh I’ll stop hanging about with him when he’s bald.’ And it really troubled me at that age.’ 

‘I was going to get a hair transplant but my wife said I would look silly with a kidney on my head. I actually think I’m luck,’ he went on.

‘Because blokes who lose their hair at a later age, in their thirties and forties, get hung up about it. Because they had hair and then lose it. But I’ve never had that problem.’


Very different! Gregg Wallace is well-known for his fully shaven head (right this month), but looks completely unrecognisable with hair in his younger years (left)

Steve McFadden

Steve McFadden is best known for playing Phil Mitchell on EastEnders and has been on the BBC soap opera since back in 1990.

The Walford hardman is very recognisable for his bald and clean shaven look, but he looks different in the early 90s with a full head of hair.

One throwback black and white snap shows the soap actor, 64, with short brunette hair and short bearded stubble.

He looks worlds away from his longtime appearance as Phil on EastEnders, a now-iconic role for the star.


Soap star: Steve McFadden, best known as Phil Mitchell, is very recognisable for his bald look (left), but he looks different in the early 90s with a full head of hair (right)

Pep Guardiola

Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola is very well-recognised for his bald look and full silver beard.

However he used to sport a head of short dark hair and appeared strikingly different compared to his now iconic look.

Pep had a full head of hair throughout his younger years playing football before he opted for his shaven look during his managerial career.

Speaking about his hair loss, Pep reportedly joked that he opted for a fully-shaven look so he wasn’t tempted to follow his players and get a mohawk.

He said: ‘I lost my hair so I did not have the temptation to have [Jerome] Boateng’s hairstyle! That’s why I decide, ‘okay, lose the hair, now the problem is done’.’


Comparison: Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola is very well-recognised for his bald look and full silver beard (right in April), but used to sport short dark hair 

Evan Handler

Evan Handler’s bald look is instantly recognisable to Sex And The City fans, but he looked strikingly different with longer hair in his early 20s.

Evan, 62, previously shared a throwback snap of him with curly locks and confessed that his fans are always ‘fascinated’ to see pictures of him with hair.

The actor has told how his hair loss came off the back of tragedy when he was told he would die at the age of 24 when he was diagnosed with two bouts of leukemia.

His diagnosis led to four brutal rounds of conventional chemotherapy, two bone marrow harvests, and a bone marrow transplant. His hair never grew back after the treatment.

In 2021, Evan shared a photograph of himself from 1987 as he discussed his hair loss from the cancer treatments.

He said: ‘People seem fascinated by pictures of me with hair, so here’s one c.1987 or so. Already veteran of numerous Broadway productions, and films #Taps and #TheChosen, this was right after filming “Sweet Lorraine”.

‘My hair had grown back after massive #chemotherapy for #aml (acute myeloid leukemia), but was yet to suffer defeat from the #bonemarrowtransplant that was yet to come in 1989.’

Initially, Evan wore wigs in a bid to cover his hair loss however he revealed that once his life was put at risk he deemed hair loss a small price to pay.

He said: ‘I have not put [a wig] on in a long time and would be eager to work with them more, but I am now known for the way that I look…

‘I hoped my hair would grow back for a long time, but when it became clear that it would not, I shaved off whatever grew there.’


Changes: Evan Handler’s bald look is instantly recognisable to Sex And The City fans (right in 2010), but he looked strikingly different with longer hair in his early 20s (left) 

Hard times: The actor has told how his hair loss came off the back of tragedy when he was told he would die at the age of 24 when he was diagnosed with two bouts of leukemia 

Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart has sported a fully bald head throughout much of his acting career, after losing his hair at the age of 19.

But the legendary actor, 83, looked strikingly different in his younger years as he could be seen sporting a head of curly hair for a film role in a throwback picture.

Patrick has been open about his hair loss over the years, telling how he lost his hair at the age of 19, saying he went completely bald within a year.

During an appearance on Parkinson, Patrick admitted it was ‘horrible’ at the time and he thought ‘everything was over’ as he looked back on the period.

He said he had a comb-over, wore a toupee and wore hats all the time to cover up his hair loss, before his friend George pinned him down and shaved off his head for him.

Patrick said on the chat show: ‘[George] and his wife invited me to lunch one day and we had lunch, it was very nice, and the two of them got up at the end of the lunch and I was grabbed from behind by George, this big powerful man, and I thought he was playing some kind of game, so I was laughing and joking.

‘Then his wife appeared with a pair of scissors, and I knew in an instant what she was going to do. Now it was serious, I was fighting to keep my appearance, and she lifted it up and cut it all off. 

‘And George knelt down in front of me and said “now you be yourself, no more hiding”. And he was right!’

Patrick also told how he nearly had to wear a wig for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, but was able to stay bald for the part. 

He told how they were told: ‘It doesn’t make any sense, you’ve got a bald actor playing this part, surely by the 24th century they would have round a cure for male pattern baldness.

‘And Gene Roddenberry said, “no by the 24th century, nobody will care”.’


Candid: Patrick Stewart has sported a fully bald head throughout much of his acting career, after losing his hair at the age of 19, but looked very different in an early film role (left)

Mark Strong 

Mark Strong is another huge British star who has become very recognisable for his bald head throughout his career.

The actor, 60, looked very different in his younger years when he appeared on The Bill in 1990 sporting a short brunette hairstyle.

The hugely successful film actor previously opened up about how losing his hair affecting his career and insisted it might have been a blessing in disguise.

He told BBC 5 Live in 2015: “I think if you’re an actor and it starts going you think “well that’s it, how do I cope with that?” I was a young man I didn’t think it would yield any parts. 

‘Actually the parts have been way more interesting so it was kind of a blessing in disguise. Now I can wear wigs, I can play parts wearing wigs.’

He insisted that his bald head has given him ‘longevity in terms of a career’ rather than if he had been a leading man with a full head of hair.


Shaven look: Mark Strong is another huge star who has become very recognisable for his bald head (right in 2013), but he had a full head of hair on The Bill in 1990 (left)

Source: Read Full Article