History Main / BaldnessMeansSickness

* In [[Anime/OjamajoDoremi Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho]] a young girl named Nozomi Waku longs to become a witch but suffers from cancer and wears a shamrock green bandanna with teal print over her head due to losing her hair to chemotherapy. [[spoiler: Sadly, she doesn't make it, passing away after becoming an Apprentice Witch for one evening]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/WhyCharlieBrownWhy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a2b47f1a_19e5_40a2_b430_e7512109981f.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:One chemo treatment later, and...]]

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': Quill's mother is introduced (and promptly killed off) on her deathbed. She's bald-headed and lacks eyebrows, and the sequel outright confirms she was dying of cancer... [[spoiler:Given to her by Quill's father.]]

Variations include the sick person wanting to get ahead of their hair loss by shaving their hair off themselves and someone shaving their head in solidarity with a loved one who is suffering from cancer. This can also be {{exploited|trope}} by those willing to take advantage of the assumptions people have about sickly-looking bald people. A very common (but seldom lampshaded) phenomenon is for characters with cancer to be bald only on their scalp, although chemotherapy treatment causes all of the patient's body hair to fall out, including the eyebrows, which these characters are often shown to still possess.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': Quill's mother is introduced (and promptly killed off) on her deathbed. She's bald-headed.

* In ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', a young girl named Nozomi Waku longs to become a witch but suffers from cancer and wears a shamrock green bandanna with teal print over her head due to losing her hair to chemotherapy. [[spoiler: Sadly, she doesn't make it, passing away after becoming an Apprentice Witch for one evening]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Herb Kazazz is a bald man with cancer. Flashbacks reveal him to have had a full beard and a full head of hair.

** In "Road to the North Pole", Brian goes to the mall with Stewie and sees [[SitcomArchNemesis Quagmire]] with what looks like his nephew. Then Brian talks to them and finds out that it's his ''niece'', and she's bald because of chemotherapy. This causes her to cry, which angers Quagmire.

** Parodied in "Bloody Mary" where Randy shaves his head after being told that his alcoholism is a disease. It grows back after he's sprayed with the blood erupting from the statue of the Virgin Mary which supposedly gives him the ability to give up drinking.
** Nelson Brown from "Stanley's Cup" has CharlieBrownBaldness as a sign of his cancer.

* In Anime/OjamajoDoremi Nozomi Waku, a young girl who desired to become a witch but suffered from cancer and wears a shamrock green bandanna with teal print over her head due to losing her hair to chemotherapy. [[spoiler: Sadly, she doesn't make it, passing away after becoming an Apprentice Witch for one evening]]

* ''Literature/MagicShop'': In ''The Skull of Truth'', Gilbert Dawkins returns from being in the hospital, and is completely bald as a result of his treatment. He later confesses to Charlie that he had cancer, and the treatment to make sure it won't come back made all his hair fall out. In the end of the book, one of the signs that he's recovering and has a hopeful future is that his hair is growing back.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Invoked and zig-zagged. When Walt begins losing his hair from chemotherapy, he shaves his head and invokes the typical image of a bald cancer patient. However, in the criminal circles he enters, his baldness comes off as more intimidating. Even once he goes into remission, he keeps his head shaved more out of habit and as a sign his Heisenberg persona is becoming his main personality. Ironically, after his remission ends later in the show he has fully regrown his hair and keeps it that way until he finally dies (and not from the cancer).

Variations include the sick person wanting to get ahead of their hair loss by shaving their hair off themselves and someone shaving their head in solidarity with a loved one who is suffering from cancer. This can also be {{exploited|trope}} by those willing to take advantage of the assumptions people have about sickly-looking bald people. A very common (but seldom lampshaded) phenomenon is for characters with cancer to be bald only on their scalp, although chemotherapy treatment causes all of the patient's body hair to fall out, including the eyebrows.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': A variant happens in "Society of the Blind Eye". [[spoiler: Old Man McGucket]] discovers he was once a brilliant scientist who began frequently using a Memory Gun on himself to erase disturbing memories. The side effects of the gun, along with taking his sanity, caused him to go bald. It's difficult to say, however, whether this was because of the gun or because he pulled his hair out and forgot.

* The gang on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' tries to pass of Mac as a cancer patient by slapping a fake bald cap on his head. In a major win for reality, the person they were hoping to fool rightly points out that chemotherapy would leave Mac with no body hair at all, as he still clearly has his eyebrows and a ''beard''.

Variations include the sick person wanting to get ahead of their hair loss by shaving their hair off themselves and someone shaving their head in solidarity with a loved one who is suffering from cancer. This can also be {{exploited|trope}} by those willing to take advantage of the assumptions people have about sickly-looking bald people.

‘’’It mostly means cancer everyone!’’’

Stop saying please stop vandalizing the pages and answer me!

Can you answer me? Can you get banned?

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Jess from "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS17E1MarriedWithCancer Married With Cancer]]" lost her hair to chemotherapy, but after her cancer went into remission, it slowly began to grow back. As Brian is creeped out by her appearance, describing her as looking like a baby doll found in hurricane rubble, Jess takes it [[InsultBackfire as meaning he's calling her his "baby doll".]]

* In ''Literature/TheMidnightGang'', Sally is struck with [[SoapOperaDisease a serious illness]] that's implied to be cancer and [[UncertainDoom it's unclear whether she'll live]]. She's bald, which is said to be from the treatment.

* ''Film/FlorenceFosterJenkins'': Florence wears a wig, false eyelashes, and cosmetics to hide that she's lost her hair to syphilis and to her mercury- and arsenic-based medications. By the end of the film, [[spoiler:she's on her deathbed.]]

* ''Series/TheAct'': Just like in RealLife (see below), one of the things Dee Dee Blanchard does to keep up the pretense that her daughter has multiple disabilities and medical conditions is to shave Gypsy Rose's head. She also forces her to use a wheelchair in public and to endure unnecessary medical procedures.

* ''WesternAnimation/WhyCharlieBrownWhy'': Janice the LittlestCancerPatient ends up going bald due to chemotherapy and a boy laughs at her for her hair loss until Linus [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech sets him straight]]. At the end of the special, her hair grows back after her leukemia is in remission.