Zhu Zhibin, an ordinary person who came to Beijing from Henan to seek a living. Because of hair loss, 4 years ago, I spent 28,000 yuan on a hair transplant in a medical beauty salon, worth a total of 3,500 hair follicle units, that is, 3,500 hair follicles were removed from the back of the head and transplanted to the top of the head to create a visual effect of lush hair. But on the second day of the operation, he felt something was wrong. He immediately took a selfie of his scalp and counted the photos several times, but it was only in his early 2000s. He felt fooled. Lost in battle...
The documentary "Baldness Happens" tells the story of Zhu Zhibin. Others see his experience a little funny, a little sad, and even absurd. The judge also hinted that Zhu Zhibin was suspected of "touching porcelain". But this does not prevent the documentary from pointing directly to a core discussion: what does it mean for men to gradually lose their hair?

Documentary "Baldness Happens" poster

"Baldness Happens" has a total of 8 episodes. It adopts a drama-chasing recording technique, and takes host He Runfeng's hair loss and self-help as the main line. He travels to and from relevant people: doctors, hair transplant training institutions, and male friends who are suffering from hair loss...
In the film, He Runfeng turned into an entrepreneur undercover hair transplant agency for a three-day crash course, personally went to the operating table to participate in hair transplant, had long talks with patients, and even helped contact a lawyer to file a lawsuit and mediate family conflicts. Such an immersive visit makes the rhythm of the whole film light and attractive.

Unannounced visit to hair transplant hospital

Although "Baldness Happens" focuses on the issue of male hair loss, it is narrated from a "female perspective". The narration is written in an interesting and lively manner, and the tone is no longer indifferent to the audience, but with a slightly light-hearted ridicule, such as chatting among friends.
for example--
"Have you come this far? You said before that you want to sue to the end, but you didn't say it casually. The place you are staying at now, or the ground on which you are squatting, belongs to the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court. Communication room, the other end of your call is a clerk who handled your lawsuit, you are looking for him to understand what you need to do to turn a defeat into a victory, your lawsuit has already been lost, and you have lost more than once."
"We try to have a chat-like dialogue with the audience, to break through the screen to communicate directly with the audience." Xu Chanjuan, chief producer and post-production director, explained in an interview with The Paper, "We try to tell others to listen. understand, not talk to yourself.”

"Baldness Happens" stills

In recent years, young people have been under great work pressure and the competition environment is fierce, and they like to stay up late. The topic of "baldness" on the Internet is increasing day by day. According to data released by the National Health and Medical Commission, more than 250 million people in my country are suffering from hair loss, with an average of 1 in 6 people losing hair, of which 163 million are male hair loss.
Xu Chanjuan believes that "hair loss" no longer defines a specific group, and there is a tendency to go in the direction of public topics.
The origin of the film comes from the host He Runfeng's own troubles. He has been troubled by hair loss and wants to have a hair transplant. Regarding He Runfeng's hair volume, Xu Chanjuan said, "Actually, I didn't notice how serious he is. Our opinion is that even if you have less hair, it will not affect your impression in our minds, but he himself very troubled.”

Host He Runfeng

In a small chat after that, everyone found that this turned out to be a very good topic, and based on this, other topics could be created. Until one day someone mentioned the word "baldness", everyone felt that the time was up.
But shooting is quite difficult. Xu Chanjuan believes that this is quite different from doing a news event or shooting a character.
"The difficulty is that you have to jump into two oceans. The first is that after you get the topic of this topic, you don't have a core person. You can only look for a needle in a haystack. After doing a relatively large research and massive search, Go and salvage these people and things." Xu Chanjuan said.
The creative team began to roam around on major websites and forums, with only one purpose: to find someone.
One day, Yi Ting, a small partner in the team, saw a judgment of Zhu Zhibin on the legal document website, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Such a person who has been defeated and fought so many times is very in line with our thinking at the time, not only cherishing every hair follicle, but also this kind of perseverance." Xu Chanjuan said.
Yes, Zhu Zhibin once said that he cares about every hair follicle, just like a starved person cares about every mouthful of steamed bread. Anyone who knows it knows that it is because of his incomparable cherishing and true love for hair follicles that he is so heartbroken.

Zhu Zhibin

However, Zhu Zhibin's brave struggle is only an extreme case. Most people with hair loss problems are ashamed to talk about it.
In fact, hair loss is not only a mid-life crisis, but more of a genetic inheritance. Many young men face hair loss at the age of 18 or 19 and cannot find a partner. As soon as online dating emerges, they face a cruel parting. No one else can understand this pain.
For example, 25-year-old Mr. Yuan has lost his hair since he was 19 and can no longer live without his hat.
He said: Every day I look at my hat, I have an idea, I hate this thing so much, I don't want to have anything to do with this hat anymore in my life, I don't want to wear this thing anymore!
He turned his back to the camera and said something that hurt his heart: once at a friend's house, suddenly a gust of wind blew his hat off, he thought someone was coming and immediately put the quilt over his head; another time Several boys were having dinner together, one of them suddenly took off his hat, everyone was shocked, and he just lowered his head. Mr. Yuan broke down and cried both times...
Can the audience truly empathize with these hair loss patients?
Xu Chanjuan replied: "I have been talking to our teammates before, if you don't understand, just think about the pimples all over the face of a girl during adolescence, the most beautiful youth, when you are in love with someone, you Going bald, or if you have acne all over your face, can really make people feel very inferior."
After all, there are some inner emotions that people can’t always empathize with.

Screenshot of "Baldness Happens"

Another character in the film, Luo Linchuan, suffers from hereditary alopecia, which cannot be curbed. The hair falls out visibly to the naked eye, and the forehead develops from an M-shape to a "Mediterranean". Luo Linchuan, who wears a wig, once mentioned that when it comes to people with disabilities, they will pay attention to protecting one of their psychological feelings, but for people with hair loss, the public will use a way of ridicule. This kind of ridicule is actually a joke to them. deeper damage.
The documentary also filmed a little-known figure in the "hair loss circle": Li Flash. With his Mediterranean hairstyle, he has gained nearly 100,000 followers on the short video platform, in contrast to the refreshing and fluffy youthful image of wearing a wig. And this also prompted him to become a "wig blogger".
Inspirational "wig bloggers" are few and far between, and this is not a group that can attract special attention. Xu Chanjuan believes that the documentary hopes that through the perspective of women, people can pay attention to such a group and have another level of understanding of men.
"We decided at an early stage to find such an angle that is more embarrassing in life, with a bit of black humor," Liu Dongxiao, the producer and general director of the later stage, told reporters, "We hope it is not a A very heavy film, black humor is actually a color, and I hope to achieve a communication that has not been achieved before."

Screenshot of "Baldness Happens"

In the film, facing the hair transplant, He Runfeng was entangled in every possible way. The words of the old guns in the industry made He Runfeng feel cold.
1. Hair follicles are non-renewable. When the resources are taken out, they will definitely be damaged. The real success rate of hair removal is 50% for doctors under one year.
2. The hair transplant hospital has a gross profit of 90%, and the unit price per customer is 30,000 or 40,000. You can calculate it yourself!
3. The planted hair is not permanent. If the medication is not continued, the hair will still fall out.
However, He Runfeng, who has been swaying in his heart, still decided to take this step and go for a hair transplant.
After watching this film, you can at least understand one thing, everyone will have that hidden mountain that is extremely difficult to cross psychologically, even in the eyes of outsiders, it is just a speck of dust.