Hair Loss, Confidence & Racing with Frankie Muniz

Frankie Muniz [00:00:02]:
When I go to Hair Club, it's like a very relaxing, like, me time. You know what I mean? That hour that I'm in the chair, get my head massage, I get my hair cut, it feels good. So, like, I go once every two weeks to the center, and I probably get a new system once every two months. But, you know, obviously I want it to be as fresh as it can be, so they take really good care of me there, and that would be the only additional time.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:44]:
Welcome to HairPod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I'm your host, Kevin Rolston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Today, we're thrilled to have a guest whose story highlights the importance of confidence both in front of the camera and behind the wheel. Last time he came on the show, he talked about his hair loss journey and the various solutions he tried before going with the hair system, which finally gave him the results he was after. This week, we're going to be digging a little bit deeper into how his hair loss impacted him as an actor and whether having a full head of hair really makes a difference on the racetrack. That's right. We've got another interview with Frankie Muniz.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:40]:
We recorded this episode a while ago, but its message is timeless. No matter what you do, confidence is key. We started the interview by talking about hair loss affected Frankie as an actor, not just in the terms of the kinds of roles that he would get, but also how he thought of himself as well.

Frankie Muniz [00:02:01]:
As a actor, as a, let's call it a leading man. If you think about it, there's not many lead actors in films or TV that are, like, balding, unless they're the awkward, funny, balding friend. You know what I mean? So I know that there were things that I had been up for they were really highly considering me for. And I ended up meeting with the producers, and I remember specifically one saying that they just thought that I looked a lot older than they thought I was going to. And I think it was because my hair was just really, really thin. It's one of those things as well. Like, I knew it was thinning, but when you live your life every day, like, you don't see it, like, go from having full hair to zero. Right? It's a gradual thing, and I think you really notice it now.

Frankie Muniz [00:02:49]:
Like, if I See any picture, Any. Even a film. Like, I was watching something the other day and one of my movies came on from something I filmed in maybe 2011, 2012. And I couldn't believe how bad my hair looked. And I say that because, like, I remember thinking when we filmed it that they did a really good job of filling it in and making it look good. I remember thinking, like, wow, they did so good on that movie. And I watched it and I was like, wow, I'm shocked. So you really notice it.

Frankie Muniz [00:03:20]:
I think now, because I'm used to this. I'm used to seeing a full head of hair. I'm used to having the confidence and all that. But as far as. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that it didn't hurt me. I don't have specific examples, but I know how I feel if I'm filming something now or I'm on camera now. Compared to how I did those years where I was in that. In between, trying to figure out kind of a solution other than wearing a hat, you know?

Kevin Rolston [00:03:46]:
Yeah, right.

Frankie Muniz [00:03:47]:
Didn't work very good.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:49]:
What really surprised me about our last conversation was. And I've seen so many actors in Hollywood, John Travolta has clearly been doing some things when it comes to this, that I figured something like a hair club or hair systems would be prevalent throughout the industry. Because to your point, you don't really see leading men with any kind of hair issues whatsoever. It's like there's just a magical thing when it comes to Hollywood that there's no hair. So I thought it probably was something that was prevalent and everybody referred everybody else and you all knew about hair systems and we were the last to find out. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Frankie Muniz [00:04:22]:
Here's the crazy thing. I went through all those other options or attempts at solutions because I didn't know that a hair system was an option. I really had no idea about it. And then even Hair Club, again, I'd heard of Hair Club, but I didn't really know what maybe Hair Club did. Like, I. I also maybe thought it was. Even though I was balding and thinning and all that, Like, I thought it was for older people. I didn't realize that they worked with people of all ages, kids, women, you know, just everyone they have solutions for.

Frankie Muniz [00:04:56]:
I didn't know that. So it really took me going in. And maybe that's my fault for not kind of looking into Hair Club a little more. Initially. I would kind of. I would talk to whoever I talked to, and they were like, oh, here's a solution. Oh, try this. Or I did this.

Frankie Muniz [00:05:09]:
Or I had a friend who had a hair transplant. He said, go to this doctor. They were so. And I just kind of was like, sure. I didn't really. I was maybe so desperate that I didn't do the research that I needed to do. And yeah, it was interesting.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:26]:
Frankie brings up an interesting notion here. The idea that you can be desperate for a solution but feel overwhelmed in the face of all the options that are out there. When we interviewed him before on episode 26, he talked about all the things he tried to get his hair back. So definitely check out our show notes for a link to that episode if you want to hear more of the specifics. When it came to hair systems, Frankie didn't know much about him before he started with Hair Club.

Frankie Muniz [00:05:59]:
I had seen some of these social media posts of systems being put on, but even that, I remember having so many questions of being like, well, a, where do they do that? How do they do that? How long does it last? Is it uncomfortable? Like, you know, a bunch of things I was like, I don't know, like, I live a very active lifestyle, especially with the racing now, right. I've got a helmet on, I'm sweating, it's 170 degrees in the car. I'm working out, you know, two, three hours a day. Like, I'm very, very hard on my hair. And I wasn't sure that if a system could keep up with me, if that makes sense. And absolutely one of the most eye opening things or, you know, I think I'm the perfect test subject or whatever you want to call it that. Like, it doesn't matter what you do for a living or how, you know, hard you are on your hair. Like I was in the ocean the whole last week on vacation and swimming.

Frankie Muniz [00:06:53]:
And you, like, you can literally do anything and everything with your hair system. And I think that was a question I have a lot of people actually ask me, like in person and they go, like, what can you not do with it? Like, how do you take care of it? And really, it's my hair. Like, I just do the same thing I normally would have done, right? I wash it the same way, I condition it the same way. I, I do whatever I wanted I want to do and I don't let it hold me back at all. And it doesn't hold me back at all.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:20]:
You come out of the ocean, do you towel dry it? How do you dry it when it's been wet and you've been active? What do you do for that?

Frankie Muniz [00:07:26]:
I just dry it normal. I don't know. I don't have any restrictions or think like, oh, I've got to be careful. I've got to do this. I've got to do that. Like, it's. It's my hair. And, you know, I think that's a testament to everyone at Hair Club, right? They have a lot of different options when it comes to adhesives or ways that they apply it or systems.

Frankie Muniz [00:07:47]:
So, you know, there's full lace systems, there's skin systems, there's these hybrid systems. So I have some hybrid systems, which is skin in the front, lace in the back, so it helps breathe a little more with my helmet.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:57]:
Oh, wow.

Frankie Muniz [00:07:58]:
And we've, you know, that's one thing with Hair Club is they'll work with you to try to figure out what solution will work the best for you. And I think we found that now to where, you know, there's a little period of trial and error of, like, what works better with your skin and all that kind of stuff. And once we figure that we've got our system down and. And I have full confidence that I never have to worry about it at all.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:21]:
So you'll be in a race car which is 30 degrees plus hotter than it is even outside. You're sweating, you're hot, you take your helmet off. There's never even a concern when you're in front of people saying, okay, is my hair still on or did it come off in the helmet?

Frankie Muniz [00:08:35]:
Never a concern. Never a concern. You know, initially, I won't lie, like, yeah, I was like, is it going to. What's it going to do? Like, yeah. Do I need to hide when I take my helmet off? No. That was just kind of the. Me getting kind of over that fear as someone who just didn't know, you know what I mean? And. But no, I have no fear that that's going to be an issue at all.

Frankie Muniz [00:08:55]:
And the cool thing, though, as well is with Hair Club, and I don't want to sound like I'm just, like, pushing it, but, like, I travel all around the country. Hair Club has locations throughout the country. You know what I mean? So I. I've gone into places. I'm in racing in Daytona. I went into Orlando and got a new system put on right before the race. So.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:15]:
Wow.

Frankie Muniz [00:09:15]:
Okay. That's been a really great aspect of being a Hair Club member for me is it's not just where I live. You know, I'm on the road all the time, and I've been able to go to a bunch of different locations throughout the country, and everyone's been awesome to help me out.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:30]:
And then they take your hair system and they give you the exact style that you want. They blend it in perfectly. And you can do that anywhere, anytime, wherever you might travel.

Frankie Muniz [00:09:40]:
Yeah. And I've started wanting to play around with it a little too. That's the fun thing too, is I can. You can kind of do whatever you want, right? You can, yeah. You can have it long. You can change the color. You can kind of do more fun, experimental things. And it's not as permanent, if that makes sense.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:01]:
It's amazing to see how things change from Frankie's hair being the source of his insecurities to now that he's at a point where with his hair system, he wants to change up his look and even experiment with it. It takes courage to come back from a place of insecurity. And for Frankie, a hair system was the boost he needed to get there. I wanted to know whether his hair system has the same impact on the track because it takes a lot of determination, confidence and attitude to drive one of those stock cars across the finish line and really go for the.

Frankie Muniz [00:10:39]:
I actually started racing in 2004, 2005. I was still doing Malcolm, but I got to do the pro celebrity race that they put on at the Long Beach Grand Prix for years, and I ended up winning that. And that feeling of crossing the finish line first was like, truly magical. And like, once you've experienced that, like, you want that feeling all the time. Right. So as a competitive person, but even then, I didn't know, like, how do you become a professional race car driver? I didn't realize that most people start racing when they're 5, 6, 7 years old in carts and kind of work their way up. And, you know, by time they're 16, 17, 18. They've already been racing for 10, 12 years and have tons of experience.

Frankie Muniz [00:11:19]:
I started at 18, 19, so I was already old, you know, as far as that age.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:24]:
Yeah. For that profession. Yeah.

Frankie Muniz [00:11:26]:
And. But I kind of got thrown off the deep end. I got approached by a pro team after I won that pro celebrity race, and they offered me a test just for fun. And it ended up that I was really, really fast. And they signed me to a two year development deal. And, like, my next race was like, a month later, I was racing in the Formula BMW championship against current Formula One drivers. Daniel Ricardo, Sebastian Vettel, you know, IndyCar drivers, Joseph Newgarden, you know, so I really kind of Threw myself off the deep end. But I've always kind of felt if you wanted to do something like, sure, you have to have the natural ability, you have to have the talent.

Frankie Muniz [00:12:03]:
But if you want to be the best, you've got to compete against the best. But you have to feel racing is so mental. There's so much mental preparation that goes into it. And like most sports, right, if you're a basketball player and you feel like you can't shoot the ball, you're probably not going to make it. You know what I mean?

Kevin Rolston [00:12:19]:
Yeah, yeah. You get a mental block, right?

Frankie Muniz [00:12:21]:
Yeah. And do it. So I've kind of always done that. When I went in 2009, I got pretty badly hurt and that kind of stopped my racing career for a while as I was healing. So I didn't race anything from 2009 until 2021, 22. And my first pro season back was last season in the Arkham Menard series. But I decided let me go NASCAR racing. Completely different world from what I raced before.

Frankie Muniz [00:12:44]:
I race open wheel cars, like Indy cars. It's like saying Olympic diving and Olympic swimming are the same sport. They're not two different athletes, two different disciplines. Like, sure, it's racing, but just the way you have to do it, just different. You know, going back into it after such a long period off, I also was now like the oldest guy in the series, you know, old man. I was racing with 16, 17, 18 year olds. As a 38 year old, their parents would come up to me and be like, oh, I grew up watching you. We're the same age.

Frankie Muniz [00:13:14]:
Or you're older than me. I'm like, how am I older than the parents of the kids that I'm racing? You know what I mean? So going back to what you were saying about like confidence, I didn't want to like show up and feel like the old man, you know what I mean? I didn't want to feel like the old guy, you know, having hair and the confidence to like take my helmet off or take my hat off and know that it's going to look good. Like it means so much more than you can imagine. Like as I hate, I don't know, like I don't think that people would understand like that the confidence that I have for my hair helps me in and out of the race car. Like it just does. It's a weird, it's hard to explain.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:50]:
Well, you talk about mental blocks and look, it is something that when you're self conscious about your hair, it is just something that it's like a thorn in the back of your brain that it's, it's always there and it's when you can remove that thorn, it just allows you to think freely and clearly and with the confidence of being the best version of yourself.

Frankie Muniz [00:14:08]:
Here's an interesting tidbit that maybe not a lot of people know and I don't know if they'll even want me to say this. So Hair Club recently just did their an infomercial new infomercial and they had my wife and I kind of hosting the infomercial. And I came up with the idea of for three months removing my hair system, letting my hair grow it back in so we can get like a proper before and after, right? Like a problem like this is actually what my hair looks like and this is the after. Because you know, before I was really a part like an ambassador, like someone who publicly spoke about Hairclub. I was a hair club member. So we weren't really getting those photos. We weren't really trying to, you know, tell the story as much as we want to Now. I cannot tell you how painful those three months were because it'll be that bad.

Frankie Muniz [00:15:00]:
It's not that bad. I couldn't believe it. I was in absolute shock and I truly feel like it did affect my confidence so much even from. That's why I say like working out because like I'd be in the gym like working out like training like crazy. I look in the mirror and I just felt like defeated because how thin my hair was. So like getting the system put back on for the infomercial and getting to, you know, have the true before and after. It was almost as if I did it for the first time again. You know what I mean? It was truly eye opening of again of saying like, wow, this changes the way I feel as a human.

Frankie Muniz [00:15:35]:
And I hope if anyone is out there that feels self conscious or feels or finds themselves looking in the mirror, I'm telling you it's worth it, it's worth the time, it's worth the go in for the free consultation. Just go in for that. If you don't like it, you can stop. You go immediately back to where you were, that's fine. But I'm telling you it's going to change your life because it definitely changed mine. And I know people who I've sent there and now they come up to me like, dude, thank you so much. Like I know exactly what you're talking about because just game changer.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:08]:
What is the maintenance like for having a hair system and how does that differ from having real human hair? How much more times it takes, you know, you look at what you're doing, you're a busy professional, you're a dad, you are a husband, you've got a lot of things going on in your life. Does it take a lot of time to have your hair look as good as it does?

Frankie Muniz [00:16:26]:
No. I mean, I would say the only time that's added is the times that I go to hair club, but I almost consider it, like, women go to a spa or, I don't know, they get their nails done. Whatever it is, when I go to hair club, it's like a very relaxing, like, me time. You should be that hour that I'm in the chair, get my head massage, I get my hair cut, it feels good. So, like, I go, but I wouldn't say fairly often. I go once every two weeks to the center, and I probably get a new system once every two months. But, you know, obviously I want it to be as fresh as it can be. So they take really good care of me there.

Frankie Muniz [00:17:06]:
And so I go in once every two weeks. That would be the only additional time. But that small time investment, that hour, okay, with travel, you know, I mean, driving there the two hours every two weeks that it takes me to kind of make sure that my system is, is the way it needs to be, is worth the way I feel every other moment during those days, during those weeks. So I don't think it's a huge time commitment. You know, I know hair club offers different kind of levels of how often people come in. Some people come in twice a week, once a week. You know, like, you can come in once a month. It really kind of depends on what you're looking for and all that.

Frankie Muniz [00:17:41]:
But I would say that I don't need to go in as often as I do. It's not that I go in because I have to. It's the truth is, like, as a hair club spokesperson, like, you know, I. I want to make sure it's the best it can possibly be at all times. Just because, you know, I think people are looking more than if I wasn't.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:58]:
So where are you going? Because you are a dancer, a drummer, a driver, an actor. Where are your next projects going to be? Taking Frankie Muniz.

Frankie Muniz [00:18:10]:
Yeah, I mean, I will say that it. I've lived a very full life. That's the way I like it. I like to feel like I'm not wasting any time, you know, Granted, I found myself for the first time in a while realizing that maybe I'm trying to do too much at once. Right. If you want to be really successful as a race car driver and you're competing against the top race car drivers in the world, well, they're just focused on being the best race car driver in the world. Same with being an actor, same with being an entrepreneur. Whatever it may be.

Frankie Muniz [00:18:39]:
If you want to be successful, you really got to put in the time to make those things work. So right now, my focus is the racing. I'm only racing part time this year. I've got a few more races left for the season, but then I've already got my deal signed for next year. I'll be full time next year again. So it'll be very, very busy as a race car driver. That said, in the off season, I know that there's some acting stuff and some entertainment stuff planned, but, you know, it won't hinder my racing career at all. And that's kind of how I'm trying to make decisions.

Frankie Muniz [00:19:10]:
I mean, even actually this morning, before I got on this call, I got a call from my manager. I got offered a movie. It's filming September through October. The movie is really funny. I would love to do it, but it doesn't. It's going to put a lot of stress and strain on me, my family and the racing and, you know, I don't want to let down everybody else. Right. There's a lot of people involved in my life, in my career.

Frankie Muniz [00:19:33]:
You know, I want to do the best job I can in whatever it is I'm doing and not, you know, just kind of do it halfway.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:44]:
We over here at AirPod just want to say thanks to Frankie for coming on the show and sharing this powerful message that when you feel confident, it becomes so much easier to live your life the way you want to live it. And Frankie has that confidence recently, making the bold move to say, you know what? I'm going all in stock car racing is what I'm going to do now. He's not totally abandoned acting. He may get back to it, but it's a bold choice to walk away from something that has been your entire life. And now Frankie's living a new life in a new place. It's the same kind of confidence we would all love to have to be bold in our decisions, to take chances and not be afraid to try on new things. Don't forget to check out episode 26 with Frankie if you want to hear more about how his hair journey went before he found his hair system and how he figured out it was the right option for him. For more inspirational stories and words of wisdom from people who've been through hair loss, make sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:44]:
Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hairclub on Instagram or search HairPod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you would share it with us them. If you're enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast.hairclub.com.

Kevin Rolston [00:21:09]:
We'Re here to build people up and.

Kevin Rolston [00:21:11]:
To share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.