Why does howie mandel shave his head

Mandel lays out the fist bumping rules to all the contestants that stick out their hands to meet him on the show. But his OCD goes far beyond that.

Off stage, it's all consuming. His makeup artists must use brand new sponges every day. He won't touch his money unless it's been washed. He avoids hand rails like the plague. I never go near a hand rail," he said.

Even Mandel's trademark bald head is this way by choice. My life stops. Mandel is going public with his struggle with his OCD in a humorous autobiography entitled, "Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me," which hits bookstores today. He reveals the unusual set of rituals and the terrifying role that OCD consumes in his life.

And then I thought, like anybody else, you know, I don't think I locked the door. I just kept going back to the door. And I couldn't stop myself from checking and checking," he recalls. But intellectually, I know I had checked the door. So why am I going back? I can't get past the thought, whether it's thoughts that go into your head. Thoughts, horrible images, or whatever," he said.

Born and raised in Toronto, Mandel grew up in a self-described loving family. As long as he can remember, he had an unhealthy fear of germs. He said kids made fun of him because he couldn't tie his shoes. But I don't want to say I'm afraid to touch it because it's dirty, so I didn't," he recalled.

Because of his fear of germs, Mandel didn't tie his shoes, which made walking difficult. Mandel said he grew up feeling isolated.

But what happened? Some suggested that Howie may have had alopecia, which causes a pattern of hair loss. But alopecia can also cause hair loss elsewhere on the body, like the eyebrows and eyelashes. And at last check, Howie still had his. Fans say that Howie doesn't have alopecia, but that something else is at play when it comes to his lack of hair. But he hasn't come forward about any health conditions that could be causing his hair loss.

It sounds like Howie didn't lose his hair, IE via male pattern baldness. He had some hair as a teen, and throwback pics prove it. But it didn't start falling out or otherwise become unhealthy before he ultimately morphed into the bald-headed Howie of today. If Howie doesn't have alopecia, why, exactly, is he bald? Most sources seem to agree that Howie Mandel has no hair because that's what he chose. While losing all of your hair might seem like a big deal, these 11 celebrities prove that sometimes, it's better to embrace the bald lifestyle.

Billy Joel's advice? John Travolta credited his friend and fellow baldie Pitbull with encouraging him to shave his head. Bruce Willis has been bald for a while, but when he first appeared on our TV screens in "Moonlighting," he was a brunette. Samuel L. Jackson wears a lot of hats in public, so it's easy to miss that he's bald. Billy Joel used to have jet black hair, but now he's embraced his bald look.

In the beginning of his movie career, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson kept his hair cropped short, but now he just shaves it. Howie Mandel likes to keep his head shaved because he says it helps him deal with his mysophobia fear of germs and OCD.

Taye Diggs started shaving his head before he saw that his hairline was starting to recede. Ben Kingsley has been bald for over 20 years. Jason Statham's hair appeared to be thinning before he shaved it off. According to Stanley Tucci, he decided to shave his head in his thirties after slowly losing it. Billy Zane had a pretty impressive head of hair in "Titanic," but he's all about the bald lifestyle these days.

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