My rat likes to be barbered.

I have a rat of almost 2 years of age that has had a balding issue for the past couple months. He is a very peculiar boy, just a regular hooded fancy rat with a dumbo-eared cage mate.

After taking him to the vet and the vet suggesting ear mites, we examined further to find he had none. He was prescribed some medicine that kept him from balding further but he never got his fur back. It has gotten worse the past 2 months.
I researched a bit on my own and all I can think is that he is balding from getting groomed excessively by his cage mate but here is the weird thing; his cagemate is a very sweet rat with no aggressive bone in his body.
In fact, watching them it seems the reason he is barbered so much is because he is constantly shoving his head/neck/shoulders in front of his cagemate requesting grooms which, his cagemate always does so when he asks.

I can provide additional information on their living conditions if that would help anyone figure out why he is wanting to be groomed so much to the point of being bald from ears to shoulders but I was just wondering what I could do to maybe help. His skin is perfectly fine, he's just bald in the neck region.

In fact, watching them it seems the reason he is barbered so much is because he is constantly shoving his head/neck/shoulders in front of his cagemate requesting grooms which, his cagemate always does so when he asks.

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I think I know exactly what behavior you mean! My rats will do this, I think it's a part of their socializing. Some of mine will even shove their head/neck/shoulders under my hand and demand scritches, it's the cutest. I've never seen mine lose fur because of it, though.

The only thing I can think of is some sort of lice/mites. They can be very itchy, and I think can cause hair loss? I know you said his skin looks fine, but do you see any little scabs around the neck/shoulders? Check his buddy for tiny neck/shoulder scabs, too. If one of them has lice/mites then the other will as well.

Unless it's some sort of skin infection... like ringworm? I've never experienced ringworm in a rat, but maybe another member can contribute some info.