There was a time when the glimmering, light-reflecting scalps of bald men were merely the subject of pity and parody, borne out of a dare gone awry or straightforward hair loss.

How things have changed, as a new study claims that bald men are leading the way in the laws of attraction.

No longer just a symptom of male pattern baldness, shaving one’s head is now an active style choice that is popping up everywhere, from Mark Strong and Vin Diesel to the Jason Statham and Lord Voldemort - there always was a certain je ne sais quoi about “he who must not be named”.

The proof is in the pudding - or the bald men who are married to Victoria’s Secret models.

Researchers at The University of Pennsylvania asked groups of male and female students to rate photographs of men according to attractiveness, confidence and dominance – and the baldies trumped in all three categories.

The prevailing theory though, was that sporting a shaved scalps was associated with dominance. Participants consistently rated naturally bald men, and even men whose hair had been digitally shaved off, as being more dominant and stronger than those with thick or thinning hair.

“Choosing to dispense with one’s hair is arguably a form of nonverbal behaviour, a form of expression which communicates information about the self otherwise difficult to observe,” the study says, suggesting that bald men might be more elusive than those with typical mops.

The study also concluded that perceiving bald men as more dominant means they “will fare better economically in negotiations.”

It’s not all good news though, as the study also found that shaving a man’s head makes him look four years older on average.

However, for the twenty somethings that still get ID’d going into see a 15-rated film, this might be the razor-sharp news they’ve been waiting for all puberty-long.