Bengaluru: New York’s Washington Square Park saw a gathering of around 100 bald people on 27 June. They were all there for New York’s first official “Bald Meetup” organised by Only Balds.
Comedian Phil Myers opened with the kind of line you’d expect at a support group: “My name is Phil and I’m bald.” The crowd went wild, reported The New York Times, chanting “Bald is beautiful!” and “Bald! Bald! Bald!”
But India got here first. Motta Global, a Thrissur-born club for bald Malayali men, has been holding its own meetups since 2024—from Dubai’s Z’abeel Park to a 100-strong appearance at Kerala’s Pulikali festival.
A barber & a world record attempt
The New York event was the brainchild of Justin Bradford, 31, a freelance video producer who’d run a similar meetup in Seattle weeks earlier. Bradford sold “I Love New York” T-shirts with the heart swapped for a bald head.
“…sometimes people think you’re kind of unfortunate,” said Bradford to the Times. “I don’t think that’s the case at all, especially when we’re all together.”
The official event listing on Partiful promised free buzzcuts courtesy of a sponsor barber, coconut oil for scalps, and “cash prizes” for a lookalike contest—though the Michael Jordan and Pitbull impersonation rounds Bradford had planned reportedly fell flat on turnout, per the Times.
Instagram posts by Bradford ahead of the event had also billed it as a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest gathering of bald people.
Twenty-five-year-old Nina Wall got her head shaved on the spot to cheers of “One of us!”.
“I found this so empowering,” she told the Times.
Only Balds have now announced a Los Angeles meetup on 8 August. Over 200 people have RSVPed.
Also read: Scientists swarmed Maharashtra’s ‘bald village’. 4 months on, new symptoms, zero answers
Atlanta’s bald gala
The original bald convention, though, might be Atlanta’s Baldie Con—running since 2022 and now a full weekend with a fashion show, panels and a black-tie gala. Its founder, flight attendant and hairstylist Felicia Flores, began losing her hair to alopecia in 2001 and hid it under wigs for over a decade.
She went public in 2015, after a breakup. “I was tired of lying. I felt like I was hiding something,” Flores told AP.
Last year’s edition drew over 200 people to the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead, complete with a jazz brunch, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. This year’s event is slated for 24 to 27 September.
Also read: Balding men should know this—there’s an ideal time for a hair transplant
From standup to a movement
Motta Global’s origin story is a stand-up punchline gone global. Comedian Sajeesh Kuttanellur, who’s also bald, spotted three bald men in his audience at a New Year’s Eve show in Thrissur in 2023 and pulled them on stage.
Eight months later, a formal club was born, when 25 founding members gathered at Thekkinkadu Maidan in Thrissur. Motta, meaning egg in Malayalam, is the colloquial term for a bald head. The club’s tagline is “Heading confidence.”
The Hindu reported that they have more than 2,000 members across 40 countries, ranging in age from 24 to 70—CEOs, doctors, lawyers, even priests among them.
Membership has rules: shave at least thrice a week, no stubble, and an Instagram check before you’re let in, UAE chapter coordinator Shilin Chandran told Khaleej Times. Chandran said the group organises charity runs and blood donation drives. Their latest event was a football match organised in Thrissur
From a Thrissur to New York, the punchline is the same: Nothing left to hide.