THE BODY BEAUTIFUL



What exactly is the evolutionary reason behind male baldness? It happened to me about 10 years ago and its advantages are not immediately apparent. Keith Stael, Brighton England There isn't an evolutionary advantage or disadvantage in male pattern baldness, it's just one of those things. Nothing that happens after the usual age of reproduction can act much on evolution, and many things are neutral or disadvantageous. I'm afraid nature has little or no interest in the individual after they have reproduced. Although since male pattern baldness is connected with hormone levels, it may be that being prone to it is advatageous in earlier life since higher levels of testosterone may be linked both to reproductive success and to male pattern baldness. You can't have it both ways! Susan Deal, Sheffield, UK In evolutionary terms, when 'man' became the hairless ape it coincided with the discovery of fire which selected the less hairy cavemen as they were less flammable. So, it could be construed that as 'man' became older and generally slower in his reactions that his hair disappeared in order to prevent any hirsute horrors. Therefore balding men have a genetic advantage that may now be redundant. Also, baldness may confer an aerodynamic advantage when swimming, chasing prey or potential mates. C Jackson, Tseung Kwan O Hong Kong A well-polished bald male head was often used by tribes of cavemen to blind predators. As a result every cavemen hunting group of 8 had one bald member, and thus thousands of years later 1 in 8 men experience early on set of baldness. Taz Boonsberg, London UK Males tend to lose their hair because it was never in their Top Ten Attributes. So as their bodies deteriorate due to age, disease and wear and tear, hair is jettisoned in favour of more important attributes, eg sexual potency and physical strength. Females, by contrast, rate their hair highly because it is a way of attracting the attention of a potential mate. Therefore baldness is much rarer in females than in males. It all comes down to how much energy the body is prepared to invest in any particular attribute. You may wish that it would invest more in your hair, but unfortunately the investment decisions were taken millenia ago and programmed into our DNA. All you can do now is grin and bare it. Or wear a wig. Les Reid, Belfast UK Why worry about the evolutionary reason? But the advantages are obvious. You're saving a small fortune that would otherwise be lavished on your hairdresser and don't have to answer inane questions about what you did on your holiday to someone who really isn't interested anyway. Sheila Kirby, Esbjerg Denmark My late father used to say that men who go bald from the front of their heads are great thinkers. Men who go bald from the backs of their heads are 'sexy'. Yet, men who go bald all over think they are sexy. Johnathan Wilkinson, Surabaya, Indonesia It has no advantages. To give an evolutionary advantage, a trait must lead to differential reproduction. This means that a trait has to help you make more or fewer babies to be selected for or against. Baldness happens, but it doesn't keep you from making babies or make you more able to make them. Amanda, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA Its obvious. Going bald saves you a fortune on hair care products which means you have more cash to spend, more liquid cash means more socialising thus leading to greater opportunity to meet the right partner etc, etc. Kevan , Lucca, Italy One theory put foward by researchers Muscarella and Cunningham susgests baldness may have evolved in males through sexual selection as an indicator of aging and social maturity when males become less aggressive and more nurturing. I good thing for fatherhood I would say. Less threat of infanticide and another source of resources for fragile infants. Would these males be more faithful as well? Rachel Steen, Great Falls, USA Humans are very tribal and sometimes warlike creatures. I wonder if hair patterns provided a method of recognizing blood relatives. The teamwork and shared resources improved the odds of survival for genetic lines that were able to recognize and cooperate with kin. Sort of like the uniforms used by sports teams. Don Ringwald, New Lenox, IL USA Loss of hair creates more skin area, which means more vitamin D can be absorbed from sunlight. This would provide a survival benefit for men, which would explain this trait being passed on. Joe Dokes, Chicago, USA Baldness is a gift from nature. Once you begin to lose hair, you realize you are ageing and that nothing about you is forever. You are not here for admiring yourself in the mirror but for changing this world. Therefore you'll become wiser and death won't make you worry. Tim Owen, Suffolk Once all that clubbing them over the head stuff stopped, it became necessary to actually attract females, in order to reproduce. Nature quickly discovered that it was better for the human race (survival, etc.) to stay together in family units. Men go bald to render them less attractive to other women who might otherwise steal them from their families (who would potentially die without them). Evolution is all about survival of the alivest... John Kulin, Purgatory, USA Because chicks dig it. Patrick, California, USA So predators can identify them as the oldest and weakest. Easy prey. Albert, I wonder if it can be linked to the time in evolution when Europeans lived in Central Asia before moving west to Europe. Vitamin D was a scarce necessity. I like to think of my bald head as sun ray receiver. I have noticed that women 30+ are a lot more likely to be attracted to me partially due to my baldness, sometimes very much so ;) Richard, Tacoma USA It is partly a cultural and partly a social /evolutional mechanism. It's interesting to take notice that baldness separates men in two groups clearly. It should have some evolutional advantage in some way, otherwise the genes for male pattern baldness would not be so wide spread (sexual selection). In our western culture being young and healthy has become a second religion. Getting wrinkles, gray hair and balding are associated with aging. A young guy looks significant old when balding natural (without shaving). What I experienced with balding was the deep painful sense that I couldn't be the curly haired 'nice guy' anymore. Most girls I hooked up with liked my curly hair. I lost something that made it more easy for me to be treated as the 'curly haired sweet guy'...After I shaved my head, I experienced that more girls where less friendly to me and sometimes even ignored me. That hurts, because I am the same guy. But I think we all have to live with it, it's something in our culture. You have to work harder to get that one sweet girl until she accepts you for who you are. My theory is that balding is a mechanism to 'force' men to focus, mature and don't waste time on short term 'pleasures'..like one night stands. Maybe balding is a phase in life to 'trigger' certain behavior in humans. Some doors are closed with balding and other are opened...maybe it's a gift of nature ;-) Bart, San Diego USA, CA Have you ever noticed high ranking male gorillas or chimps being groomed by females? The more higher in status the more they are groomed. What happens with excessive grooming? They look as if they are going bald because the hair keeps being pulled out. So the more bald you look the more attractive you are to females who think you must be of a high status to have achieved such baldness, therefore genetic baldness would mimic groomed baldness and would be evolutionary advantageous. So you would have bald apes going around conning females into thinking they were some local stud. Derek moran, Kilcock Ireland My take on being bald is that like many things currently there will be a choice. For many years people walked the earth with bad eyesight - now there are contact lenses. Michael Jackson changed his skin color. There will be a choice at some point for bald men. On the flip side bald men have been proven to have higher levels of testosterone which is an indicator or greater fertility. At the end of the day most people are ugly, bald or not. James, Denver, US Male pattern baldness is no more caused by maleness than breast cancer is caused by being a woman. That said, the hormonal milieu of men does, clearly, predispose to baldness more so than that of women. Evolutionarily, I would say there must be, or must have been, some advantage for balding-predisposing genes to multiply within human populations; otherwise the genes would not have the prevalence they do (beginning from a theoretical frequency of zero, something must have benefited their spread). What I think may be the cause (or a cause) is Ewan McGregor. Well, not Ewan per se, but his hairline. Slight temporal recession (think a Norwood 1.5, for those who are familiar with the Norwood baldness scale) shows maturity and experience (and perhaps, with that power and strength) more so than a really low boys hairline. As long as the hair is thick where it is (and androgens do thicken hair shafts and darken the apparent color), slight temporal recession looks manly and likely attractive to women within a culture where the social status of a husband matters a great deal. Perhaps its like the silverback gorilla thing. Or perhaps we could look at it like the first touch of grey effect (for those whove seen the stupid Just For Men Touch of Grey commercials). But, gone too far (due to unhealth, stress, etc.), this predisposition to a Norwood 1.5 (a sexy mature hairline) could spiral out of control into full baldness, which everyone reasonable knows sucks bad, and is not cool. I really do not think full baldness offers a selective advantage at any time, anywhere. And I do think it is a sign of poor health. Last, I wanted to point out the widows peak. It is a dominant inherited trait, meaning one single copy will produce the effect. But why would someone want a little vampire-looking point in their hairline? Well, this point creates a sutle temporal recession look, but just lower down on the forehead. If my above paragraphs are along the right track, then it may have evolved to take advantage of the look of slight temporal recession in men, and would give some younger men the look of slight temporal recession (and at a younger age), perhaps giving them the mystique of maturity/wisdom/power before they otherwise would, creating a mating advantage. Think a young Chris Hemsworth or DiCaprio: even at a young age and with great boyish skin and complexion, they have the hairline that gives an impression of maturity/masculinity/power. Joseph, Sammamish USA Chimps go bald on their heads - and grey - with age too. In human evolutionary history it could well have been a sign of maturity and hence that one had the brains or brawn to survive until old age in a once far more precarious/dangerous world, which would mean you have good genes! It could once again be seen as an attractive trait by females if we have a nuke fest in the future and life is more like Mad Max 2 and less like Friends! So bald guys, WW3 ain't ALL bad! Adey, Swansea, United Kingdom



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