"The most supportive community on the internet" – Bald forum on Reddit

December 15 2025

A Reddit forum where bald men offer advice and encouragement to men joining their ranks is being hailed as what must be "the most supportive community on the internet" and "the antithesis of toxic masculinity”.

The r/bald subreddit had two million visitors in the week to December 15 2025, some of them probably drawn by recent viral posts on X and TikTok, like the one above, that have been spreading word about just how wholesome it is.

We use Shooglebox to help PR and marketing teams tune in to different communities on platforms like Reddit, TikTok on YouTube – and you can see an example of that in this read-only box showing what the r/bald community on Reddit post, share and talk about.

As you'll see in the box, posts in the subreddit are mostly either selfies from balding men asking the community if they should shave or keep what they have, and before-and-after photos from those who have decided to take the plunge.

hose looking for advice are almost always met with one of two responses: memes signifying Yes – join us or No – HOLD – just tidy it up.

The subsequent before-and-after photos get astonishingly positive and supportive comments from others in the community: "You look like a million bucks!”; “Brand new man”; "Instant glow up. Dude you shaved off 15 years along with your hair!"

But aside from the fun of the photos:

It's also moving to hear individuals' stories and how the support and positivity has helped them.

This is the response from one Redditor who posted the before-and-after photos below: "Not going to lie, at work and had to take a sec in the bathroom because I started to tear up from everyone’s responses. I can’t thank you guys enough for accepting me into this brotherhood (sisters too!) and validating my decision. I’m grateful and honestly starting to feel better about myself"

Lots of visitors happily admit they go to the subreddit not because they are bald or balding but simply to enjoy seeing the transformations. Many of the visitors are women – and some joke it should be renamed r/thirsttrap and talk about men going from 0/10s to 10/10s by taking the plunge.

"Only on Reddit":

That's one of the comments about all the support in reaction to one of the Reddit posts above, and it's typical of people talking about the appeal of Reddit and the way it lets communities come together and have what one journalist who spotted the r/bald sub a year ago described as "more informed and informative conversation than is found on other social media platforms".

CNN's Oscar Holland, writing in November 2024, said: "These communities, like all subreddits, are largely self-policed by user-moderators who are invested in the topic at hand. The community’s opinion matters, too: 'Upvoted' comments rise to the top of the discussion, while responses that are widely 'downvoted', either for being mean-spirited or inaccurate, sink from view."

In the article he said switching from the toxicity of X to Reddit – one haemorrhaging genuine users, the other increasing year-on-year active users by 47% – "was perhaps the best decision I’ve made this year – not just for the stream of body-positivity that now fills my feed each day, but for my renewed faith in human civility."

Ofcom report on Reddit's growing popularity in the UK

The growing appeal of Reddit was confirmed in Ofcom’s annual Online Nation report in December 2025, which showed Reddit overtaking TikTok as the UK’s fourth most visited social media service.

A Guardian article about the Ofcom report quoted Jen Wong, Reddit’s chief operating officer, saying: “Reddit is really honest and I think that’s one of the things that makes Reddit. Every person who joins Reddit is a moderator, because you get to vote up or down on a post – and a down vote is incredibly powerful. ‘Be civil’ is one of the most common rules in communities.”