Baldness to Evolution

Sexy bald guys like Yul Brynner and Telly Savalas get more girls. This is an evolutionary advantage. Producing too much hair is a biological burden; better to produce something else instead.

For most of human history, men made their contribution to evolution and died well before they were old enough to loose their hair (or need Viagra) Our modern life span is mostly a product of technology rather then evolution. So hair loss is an evolutionary neutral trait, neither an advantage nor a disadvantage.

There's no advantage that I can see....other than shaving your own head is cheaper than getting a haircut, and maybe reduces drag swimming....

I recall quite vividly, when heads that looked like this inevitably belonged to aliens in the movie! Yul Brunner was the classy exception, but only because he had a natural air of mystique about him...OMG maybe he was an ET!

I wonder about, what's the purpose of hair in our design?--Like pubic hair, eyebrow, under arm, mustache and beard, as for the nostrils and ear, it's purpose is obvious.

Would there be any underlying purpose about it, other than appeal and beauty?

Would there be any underlying purpose about it, other than appeal and beauty?

Maybe, way back(once we were down from the trees), and we were still hunted in the wild, the bald patch was a signal to the predators as to who could run faster in the group, or which prey was the softer and tastier! I am sure that I am not quite the fillet mignon that I once was......tough old rump is more like it now!

Why the fixation on hair today? Did you forget to shave this morning?

Generally speaking, the usefulness of hair, especially body hair, is to limit access of nasty biting insects to certain protected parts. The head not being the least of these. Not only that, a good head of hair is at least a partial cushion to blows on the head, although not an efficient one.

For Absalom, King David's son, too much hair was a real snag-up, and it caused his early death (while running away from battle). Must have been from the Obama side of the family.

Hahaha, insects you mean, but it does not protect you from demodex and crabs. As the matter of fact they may have burried their colonies on the follicles. How is Obama gets involve here? Must be hair is in away insulator and radiates body heat. But why in the eye brows.

To catch droplets of sweat maybe?

All the humans without eyebrows, got blinded and killed by those with!! Evolution?

Must make it easier to slide into a body bag.

Aha! That's why terrorist always grow beards and hair!

Quite the opposite when i was in college, my colleage was scolded by his dad for his long hair and beard. His dad said " I don't want to see your face like that you look like the dudes who smoke crack. Son, I don't like other people thinking you're an addict". My classmate replied, you know pops that saying is obsolete. The bad guys nowadays don't look like bad guys, some even got a bald head and no facial hair". His father just shook his head and walk away.

I from time to time wonder what it is that some people must have smoked that totally fried their capacity to make even one complete sentence or one complete thought. Sorry if these comments resemble certain people who post on here, certain political leaders (Obama), or typical bureaucrats (have you ever seen a bureaucrat with a full head of hair?).

Truth: smoking pot laced with Jymson weed will reduce your brain capacity to that of a four year old. Smoking pure Jymson weed, no effect whatsoever, other than loss of heartbeat.

It sounds like you are going to kill somebody.

It's always good to have a plan ready even if you have no immediate purpose for it.

hahaha..pretty scary you become-you lose to a bald once?.. all the same when we die, it won't hurt forever though.

How do we call a serial killer of all bald people?

Remember a good friend will help you move, a great friend will help you move a body...

Nah, Kulas always sounds like that, mostly just the dull buzzing in your noggin.

Do you remember the saying about men with long feet also having long tools? Well its the same with hair. A lot of color on the top prolongs the useable life of the tool below. This does not apply to those who obtain their hair color from a bottle.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Hahaha, you got me riding on the front seat right there.

Look at why Turkey Vultures, and other scavengers have no feathers on their heads….

This is halarious, Sounds like a lot of responses from people who highly depend on hair for their lack of self confidence.....

But, I could be wrong.... but I doubt it.

Does anyone see their school bus driver when they were in grade school here?

Once was a pretty boy though...it would be bolder to have a shave all through like Bruce did.

Sounds like " the older I am, the better I used to be charmer I become-that's what she said".

I believe you are wrong. Long as I can't see my patch, it doesn't bother me at all.

For some reason, it is difficult to convince my family of this, and of the fact that the older I get, the less I care. I guess they see me as I was before I was reduced to a super-hero. Only natural I guess..imagine Thor with a bald patch.

my experience is when in second grade, and I looked at the bus driver mirror and see the turban styled hair do, I made up my mind even at that young of age, when the time comes I will never do a comb over.

For some it can be devastating at 25 years old...... the sooner you except it. The better off. Its all how you carry yourself.

Like when Sean Connery talked to me about his problem, I said to Sean.... you just have to be yourself, he took my advice and he did ok for himself.

Frankly I never had a problem with it. I had a buzz cut before it was cool, atleast I think its cool.

But I still have to laugh at the people whose comb over waves at people when its windy.

I think I need to go see my therapist now.

Aerodynamics!

Olympic swimmers.

Then hydrodynamics?

In the Navy you got written up if you shaved your head. It is considered self-abuse.

Chimpanzees also get male patterned baldness.

I didn't know that about the navy,.....

but in the military there was always a thing about uniformness???..., which when females were being integrated more in the service, this kinda through a wrench into uniform about the soldiers.

through a wrench into uniform about the soldiers.

Don't you mean "threw a wench into uniform" about the soldiers ?

or could have been:

threw a wrench into the soldiers uniformity.

I think keeping your hair and its colour is nature's way of covering up an unattractive skull.

It seems most if not all of the men who go bald, have a great bullet shaped head that looks really good without hair, though I am not jealous.....

Yeah, right! I have a full head of very short, still blond hair, but very white beard....I could do a good Father Christmas....68 years old.....bony bumpy head......it would not look good!!!

So I do feel I know what I am talking about!!!

Yes, and some even make a career out of it.

Take the lead Guitarist for ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons for example.

I believe Remington Shavers offered him 1 million dollars if he'd shave his beard off for a commercial..... Billy turned it down.

I think keeping your hair and its colour is nature's way of covering up an unattractive skull.
My head has hair because of my pointed skull. When i bend over it looks like a direction sign.

that's why Father Christmas wears those long pointy hats. Don't know exactly what they are called, but I reckon the correct word should be used in context with words like 'beelzebub' and' blunderbuss'

When my young daughter asked where my hair went, I had to tell her that my hair and my brains had a large fight, and "…you can see who won.." That worked until I told her one day , I was going in for a haircut.. To that she replied.."..which one?.. Humbling to say the least..

There probably hasn't been enough time for Evolution to determine whether it's helpful or hindering to lose ones hair. 200 years ago, man only lived (if lucky) into the 30's!

Interesting though, why do we start to gain hair where we don't want it....ears, Nostrils, Back.. : O

All I have to say, Living in Wisconsin, (Which isn't by far the coldest state), When we have a cold snap, I'll put off getting a hair cut.

Its surprising even with a little hair how much its insulated.

Also in the summer time.... one needs a hat when the sun is intense.

Hair does help....

So much energy is used for thought and intelligence that there is very little left over to grow hair when it gets up there. Notice how hair thinning starts at the top and works it's way down.

I am attempting to write this in Bayonese, please do not take offense, it is intended for "mature audiences".

OK, Lil' Johnny, let me 'splain you dis:

Okey Dokey, when people first clum down outta 'dem trees, dey be skeered by the ting what go howl in de nite. Sum dem folk done disapeart. Sum dem figa'd out dat dey be fasta den t'other folk, and dey done outrun de growly beast. But den, sum dem plum tird out folk be sittin' up monst dem tree, and dey figa'd so hart on dis prolem. Dey hare dun be follin out. So's it dun turn out dees tinkin' folk be smatter den the runnin' folk, and das why sum dem folk be fast, and sum dem folk be half-fast, and de slo-poke he dun been so slo, dat he gotsta be thinkin' all de tiem bout whar the growly beast be hidin', if the growly beast be gonna jump on 'im, and whar to heid wen t'odder folk be runnin' pas, wid de growly beast chasin' on der tail! De thinkin' folks don wore out a hole in dey hair tinkin' and scratchin' on dey head.

You may now restore your televisions to their normal settings. Once again, apologies if this diatribe/homili (hominy) got anyone's teeth on edge, it is all meant to be in good fun, and you certainly have my permission to spin a rarn about sophisticates now. By the way, a simple person you tell them "run!", and they run. A sophisticate, you tell them "run!", and they ask for directions, and a reason why they need to exert themselves, which explains the paucity of true sophisticates in the world.

I'm late to this party, so I don't know if anyone has offered this explanation. If they have, I'm sorry for repeating it.

If I had to guess, I would guess it has to do with Vitamin D production. We humans generate Vitamin D from exposure to the UV in sunlight. Vitamin D is essential for a number of processes including immune system health.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18348443

Now too much exposure to UV of course leads to skin cancer. Obviously in Africa, where human beings originated, there is plenty of sunlight, so the skin is darker and the hair is coarse and dark to protect against UV. But as humans migrated north, the sunlight became less intense and evolution favored lighter skin and thinner and lighter hair to allow for more Vitamin D production and healthier immune systems.

Some areas in the North were often very cloudy as well which exasperated the problem and led to still lighter and thinner hair. Follow this to it's natural conclusion and you eventually get hair so thin that baldness occurs due to normal hormonal changes later in life. The benefit of the healthy immune system outweighed the increased risk of skin cancer, thus evolution created male pattern baldness.

Now to be clear, this is my own conjecture, not scientific fact. Links have been found between Vitamin D and baldness, so the two are related, plus it seems logical to me, but in the end I'm just guessing.

Evolution to ones environment,... Never considered that,...Possible,

My mom once stated " if you are bald in the front you are a thinker, if you are bald in the back you are a lover, if you are bald all over you just think you are a lover".

HIV infection occurs due to sexual contact with the infected person, and due to lack of immunity and lack of vitamins, hair begins to fall out. But there is no need to panic. There is a huge bunch of treatment methods. It happens that nothing helps people, in such cases, the last possible way is to transplant hair follicles. This is a very risky and complicated operation but almost always successful.