The benefits of going bald
Want to appear more intelligent, influential, educated and honest? Lose your hair.
Accordingly, across the globe, we spend $3.5bn (£2.7bn) on baldness cures every year. That’s more than the entirenational budget of Macedonia or, as Bill Gates pointed out last year, significantly more than we spend on the control of malaria (just $200m (£154m) per year).
.. According to a 2009 survey by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, almost 60% of men would rather have a full head of hair than money or friends.
.. Bald men are seen as more intelligent, dominant and high status; their shiny scalps may help them to seduce women or even save lives.
.. We now know that baldness is caused by a potent break-down product of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT). In the womb, the hormone plays an important role in the development of male genitalia.
.. What sets those with bare heads apart is the sensitivity of their hair follicles, which is inherited from their mothers.
.. it happens all over the world, in every single ethnic group. If being bald was so bad, it would have died out. The fact it is so common might suggest it is useful, but how? And if so, why does it only happen to men?
.. The men were consistently rated as more intelligent, influential, knowledgeable, well-educated, high social status, honest and helpful – traits collectively known as social maturity.
.. Going bald may have been a way to separate mature, high-status men from hostile adolescents.
.. balding men are more likely to developaggressive prostate cancer, which is responsible for around 300,000 deaths every year.
.. but there’s a twist.Low levels of vitamin D – which the body can only produce when it’s exposed to sunlight – is another known risk factor for prostate cancer. And as any bald man will tell you, they get a lot more sun exposure than the rest of us. Did baldness evolve to mitigate some of the deadly effects of DHT?