History Main / OminousHairLoss

* In ''Literature/TheBridgeOfClay'', Penny Dunbar is dying of cancer and undergoing chemo. She starts losing her beautiful blonde hair and in a very poignant scene asks her husband and five sons to [[TraumaticHaircut cut it]] very short because she can't stand losing whole strands of it.

* During the Chimera Ant Arc of ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', Knov's hair turns completely white after he has a breakdown from coming into contact with Shaiapouf's [[KillingIntent powerful En]]. [[spoiler: His breakdown is so severe that he is unable to carry on with the assault on the palace, and when he is seen, he has lost almost all his hair and is in a deeply depressive state]]. By the end of the arc, [[spoiler:he has completely lost his hair, and wears a hat to hide his head]].

[[folder:Audio Drama]]
* The AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho162ProtectAndSurvive Protect And Survive]]" features Ace and Hex getting trapped in a parallel world where the Cold War gives way to WorldWarIII and only just managing to escape the bombardment in a makeshift fallout shelter owned by Albert and Peggy Marsden - though not before Hex is [[BlindedByTheLight blinded by the blast]]. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that the shelter wasn't enough to keep out the radiation: after a few days, Ace admits to Hex that she found a lot of hair on her pillow that morning, gloomily remarking that "the skinhead look" doesn't suit her. [[spoiler:Fortunately, time rewinds itself not long afterwards; unfortunately, it turns out the Marsdens are trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop into which Ace and Hex have now been incorporated.]]

* ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'' features Jim and Hilda gradually succumbing to radiation sickness in the aftermath of a global thermonuclear war. By day five, Hilda's hair is coming out in clumps, and because both of them are completely oblivious (or in denial) as to how doomed they are, Jim tries to reassure her by telling her that "women don't go bald." [[spoiler: Shortly after this, both of them stagger back into their inner refuge, don paper bags, and [[DownerEnding quietly expire]].]]

* ''Film/{{Chocolate}}'': In this touching foreign film, an autistic girl named Zen always found solace growing up by petting her mother's hair. The severity of her mother's cancer is made clear to her when she learns her mother is now wearing a wig and her hair has been falling out as a result of the chemotherapy, prompting Zen to do what she can to pay for her mother's treatment... which is kicking people until they give her money.
* ''Film/TheDayAfter'', being set before, during, and after a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, naturally features several characters losing clumps of hair as radiation exposure takes its toll on them. In one especially poignant scene, [[spoiler: Denise Dahlberg]] laments that the makeshift hospital she's staying at has given her a ribbon - only by now, she doesn't have any hair to put it in. Doubly tragically, the ribbon is actually a color-coded sign that the patient is going to die and [[ShootTheDog should not be given any further medical attention]].
* In ''Film/FantasticFour2005'', not long after getting zapped with cosmic rays alongside the future superhero team, [[BigBad Victor Von Doom]] begins losing strands of his hair - the prelude to a transformation into a metallic monster.
* As Seth Brundle's BodyHorror SlowTransformation progresses in ''Film/TheFly1986'', he begins shedding hair - along with [[{{Fingore}} fingernails]], [[TheToothHurts teeth]] and [[GroinAttack genitals]]. By the time Veronica arrives at the lab to say goodbye to him [[spoiler: and reveal that she's pregnant with his child]], Seth's hair has been reduced to a few stray lengths of hair across his misshapen skull.
* In the HBO movie ''Film/{{Gia}}'', the titular model's hair loss due to complications of AIDS [[spoiler: which she succumbs to]] is obvious towards the last hour of the film.
* ''Film/Leviathan1989''. When Bowman starts growing scales and losing her hair, she goes to find Sixpack who shared the vodka with her (not knowing it had been [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink spiked]] by [[TestedOnHumans Soviet scientists]]), moaning, "Sixpack, my hair's coming out..." When she sees [[BodyHorror what Sixpack has turned into]], she [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled slits her wrists]] in the [[BathSuicide shower]].

* In ''Literature/TheBridgeOfClay'' Penny Dunbar is dying of cancer and undergoing chemo. She starts losing her beautiful blonde hair and in a very poignant scene asks her husband and five sons to [[TraumaticHaircut cut it]] very short because she can't stand losing whole strands of it.

* Subverted in ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}''; Russian necromancer Boris Dragonani begins exhibiting a receding hairline around the halfway point of the book, and his boss attributes this to poor health. In the narration, however Boris reveals that his hairline isn't receding at all: ''[[BodyHorror his skull is changing shape]].'' [[spoiler: As it turns out, he's been infested with a wamphyri symbiote and he's transforming into a vampire.]]
* ''Literature/ThePaleHorse'': All of the victims of the "witches" had hair loss as one of their symptoms. Mark Easterbrook deduces that this implies that [[spoiler: they all died from Thallium poisoning.]]
* ''Literature/RedDwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' features a brief aside that first introduces the concept of [[AddledAddict Game Heads]]: basically anyone suckered in by the highly-addictive inescapable VR game "[[LotusEaterMachine Better Than Life]]," the Game Head encountered has been addicted for so long that her once-long hair has been reduced to "a series of greasy whips," presumably as a result of malnutrition.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* After finally being talked into undergoing chemotherapy for his lung cancer, Walter White of ''Series/BreakingBad'' begins losing clumps of hair. Though Jesse offers some helpful advice to avoid hair loss, Walter ultimately shaves his head completely bald, creating his signature BaldOfEvil look and paving the way for his transformation into [[VillainProtagonist Heisenberg]].

* Mr Halpen, head of Ood Operations in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod Planet Of The Ood]]." Throughout the episode he's in, he loses a lot of hair - which is revealed to be due to the Ood graft in his drink and eventually turns him into one of the Ood.

* One early episode of ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' features Kelly suddenly and dramatically losing all her hair in the shower; after being given a clean bill of health by a doctor, she's sent back to community service with her bald dome hidden by a wig and baseball cap. [[spoiler: It turns out she's under the influence of another superpowered young offender, this one with the ridiculously lame power of cursing people with alopecia.]]
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': The culprit of "The Ghost of Queen's Park" begins losing her hair in the final scene she appears in, a side effect of the radium dust she painted herself with in order to appear ghost-like.[[note]]In her defense, [[ScienceMarchesOn the general public was not well-aware of the effects of radiation exposure during the time period that the show takes place in]], so it's not a case of her being TooDumbToLive.[[/note]]
* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Dead Man Walking" began with a man arriving at NCIS headquarters to report his own murder, shedding a clump of hair in his hands as he does so; turns out he's been poisoned with thalium-laced cigars. [[spoiler: Despite being given immediate medical care, he's been exposed too long to recover, and dies shortly after the episode's end.]]
* ''Series/QueenSugar'': Violet's hairdresser becomes concerned when she notices that Violet's hair is falling out and recommends that she go to a doctor. When she does, Violet gets diagnosed with lupus. Justified because hair loss is one of the many symptoms of lupus.
* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'': After realizing they're short on money, Alan signs up for an experimental drug trial for which he'll be handsomely compensated. Later that day, a chunk of his hair falls out, leading him to conclude that he "isn't in the control group".

** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold Threshold]]," Tom Paris mutates and dies following an escapade [[ArtisticLicensePhysics too ridiculous to explain]]; however, [[BackFromTheDead he awakens]] right before the autopsy is due to begin, and immediately finds himself visibly shedding clumps of hair as a sign that his mutation is continuing. [[spoiler: He ends up turning into a giant salamander, inflicting the same process on Janeway, mating with her, and producing a litter of children before the transformation can be reversed. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, really]].]]
** In the ''Voyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E7ScientificMethod Scientific Method]]," a group of invisible aliens begin performing a number of weird experiments on the crew, resulting in catastrophic injuries, illnesses, and mutations. In Chatokay's case, they subject him to RapidAging - and of course, the first hint that something's wrong is a scene where his hair starts falling out in clumps.

* In ''TabletopGame/TheEndOfTheWorld: Revolt of the Machines'', the post-apocalyptic scenario "The Modular Menace" features humans being reduced to the slaves of the rebellious [[AIIsACrapshoot Modulon household robots]]; one possible event here involves a new power source being installed at one of the Modulon factories... only for workers all over the complex to start losing their hair. The Modulons, who rarely bother with keeping their workforce comfortable for any reason, [[BlatantLies insist that the power source is harmless]].
* The [[TheMorlocks Nosferatu clan]] of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' are almost invariably bald on top of being [[TheGrotesque hideously disfigured]], the result of a week-long {{metamorphosis}} during which newly-Embraced Nosferatu vampires are warped beyond recognition: during days two to four, while the cartilage of their nose and ears begins to distort, their hair begins to fall out in patches - usually revealing more disfigurations of the skull in the process.

* In the classic kabuki play ''Theatre/YotsuyaKaidan'', one memorable scene has Oiwa sit down at a mirror to brush her hair only for clumps to come out because she is secretly being poisoned. This scene plays it for deliberate FanDisservice because hair brushing was seen as erotic in kabuki. Some productions would make use of special effects to make a truly astounding amount of hair come off her head too. Oiwa goes on to become the ''original'' StringyHairedGhostGirl due to the damage the poison did to her hair.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

** Despite the [[ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics deliberate inaccuracies]] featured throughout the games, the series occasionally likes to incorporate some of the real-world results of radiation exposure - including hair loss. In one morbidly amusing case, this led to a man believing that exposure to radiation was transforming him into an immortal ghoul after he found himself losing clumps of hair, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when in reality he was just dying of radiation sickness]].

* Happens to Nancy Gribble in the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" due to stress over her lingering feelings for John Redcorn. She finds out from her mother that this is actually a common trait for the women in her family, as the elder Mrs. Hicks has been wearing a wig for some years. While Nancy tries to save her looks by rekindling her relationship with Redcorn, she ultimately chooses to stay faithful(ish) to Dale and resolves to also wear a wig when the time comes.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" features Marge beginning to lose her hair due to the stress she's under in dealing with her family's shenanigans.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama Revenge Of The Island]]'', Staci instantly becomes bald after she receives the toxic marshmallow (which is radioactive) after she's eliminated. Likewise, Dakota becomes bald after getting exposed to radioactive waste. However, it doesn't last long in her case, since the real consequences of the radiation manifest when she mutates into a monster (her hair grows back, but is green and spiky instead of the long blonde hair she used to have).

* As Seth Brundle's {{body horror}}iffic mutation progresses in ''Film/TheFly1986'', he begins shedding hair - along with [[{{Fingore}} fingernails]], [[TheToothHurts teeth]] and [[GroinAttack genitals]]. By the time Veronica arrives at the lab to say goodbye to him [[spoiler: and reveal that she's pregnant with his child]], Seth's hair has been reduced to a few stray lengths of hair across his misshapen skull.

* The AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho162ProtectAndSurvive Protect And Survive]]" features Ace and Hex getting trapped in a parallel world where the Cold War gives way to WorldWarIII and only just managing to escape the bombardment in a makeshift fallout shelter owned by Albert and Peggy Marsden - though not before Hex is [[BlindedByTheLight blinded by the blast]]. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that the shelter wasn't enough to keep out the radiation: Ace admits to Hex that she found a lot of hair on her pillow that morning, gloomily remarking that "the skinhead look" doesn't suit her. [[spoiler:Fortunately, time rewinds itself not long afterwards; unfortunately, it turns out the Marsdens are trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop into which Ace and Hex have now been incorporated.]]

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' with Chris Haversam, a human from Vault 34 who has joined the all-ghoul Bright Brotherhood religious group. Chris believes himself to be a ghoul because, as Vault 34's reactor technician, he was exposed to a large amount of radiation, he speaks with a gravelly voice (a trait many ghouls share), and eventually his hair began to fall out. The last part was in all actuality, just male pattern baldness setting in. Ironically, Vault 34's reactor malfunctioned after he left and turned most of the other dwellers into ghouls. Chris gets ''pissed'' when he realizes the Bright Brotherhood were using his belief as a way to string him along into helping with their plans.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* One of the many signs of radiation exposure is hair loss, whether accidental or part of therapy.
* Thalium poisoning, on top of being incredibly painful, also results in hair loss.
* Hair loss can be a symptom of several diseases and disorders, including those involving hormones (particularly the thyroid) or autoimmune problems. It is also associated with chemotherapy administered to cancer patients.
[[/folder]]

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': one of the Tough Break contracts offered by [[BeleaguredAssistant Miss Pauling]] kicks off with her being right in the middle of an impromptu research session with [[MadDoctor the Medic]]. Apparently, he's teaching her how to sew a human heart inside of another human heart and pump them full of radiation. Pauling actually finds this quite interesting... up until she notices that all the radiation has caused a clump of her hair to fall out.

** Despite the [[ILoveNuclearPower deliberate inaccuracies]] featured throughout the games, the series occasionally likes to incorporate some of the real-world results of radiation exposure - including hair loss. In one morbidly amusing case, this led to a man believing that exposure to radiation was transforming him into an immortal ghoul after he found himself losing clumps of hair, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when in reality he was just dying of radiation sickness]].

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Audio Drama]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* In the classic kabuki play ''Theatre/YotsuyaKaidan'', one memorable scene has Oiwa sit down at a mirror to brush her hair only for clumps to come out because she is secretly being poisoned. This scene plays it for deliberate FanDisservice because hair brushing was seen as erotic in kabuki. Some productions would make use of special effects to make a truly astounding amount of hair come off her head too.

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' with Chris Haversam, a human from Vault 34 who has joined the all-ghoul Bright Brotherhood religious group. Chris believes himself to be a ghoul because, as Vault 34's reactor technician, he was exposed to a large amount of radiation, he speaks with a gravelly voice (a trait many ghouls share), and eventually his hair began to fall out. The last part was in all actuality, just male pattern baldness setting in. Ironically, Vault 34's reactor malfunctioned after he left and turned most of the other dwellers into ghouls.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Season 4 shows Jimmy losing hair more rapidly than before and seeming concerned about it, with one POV shot showing some loose hairs that have come away on his hand. This appears to be a result of stress following [[spoiler:his brother's suicide]] at the end of season 3.

* Hair loss can be a symptom of several diseases and disorders, including those involving hormones (particularly the thyroid) or autoimmune problems.