As for baldness, one author gives his theory in the book chapter I linked:
The status signal of the high forehead is obscured by our current accent on youth. Head shaving is a common phenomenon among many tribes and often is done only by males. Interestingly enough, it is sometimes performed in a manner which exaggerates the natural balding patterns. For example, the South American Yanomano shave the crown of the head, leaving a wreath of hair. Scars from battle are exhibited in this manner. Another South American tribe, the Tchikrin, pluck all facial hair, even in small children. The men, especially, have their hair plucked back from the forehead to the crown or hair whorl area. It was a common practice during the 1800's for Chinese males to shave the forehead well back to the top of the head and then braid the remaining hair in a queue.
At the present time Western cultures are caught in a pinch between the adulation of youth - which is responsible for our holding low hairlines in esteem - and our continuing respect for status and the high forehead which retains an element of nobility or at least an aristocratic man. The superhero males of the comics almost invariably have a high hairline.
[. . .]
In the distant past, the gloss of a bare scalp became the badge of leadership and dominance, whether it was the greased plucked head of the Yanamano or the oily, scraped scalp of an Ainu, Jew, Chinese, or Saxon. It is mimicked unconsciously by shiny metal helmets in many cultures.
Why then do we have so many hangups about baldness? Probably more people have been duped by "hair-growing" elixirs than by any other ineffectual cosmetic. Any man's magazine on the newsstand contains advertisements for secret formulas and special treatments to bring back lost scalp hair. Hairpieces and wigs are commonly used by men to cover the bald patches and receding hairlines. One of the newer alternatives, made possible by plastic surgery, is the grafting of small pieces of hair from other parts o the scalp onto thinning areas, to recreate permanently one's earlier hairline. Recreating the hairline of a 20-year-old is a retreat to the courtship age. We live in a society which bases most status evaluation on one's potential courting currency; that is the secret behind our reverence for youth.
The evolution of human scalp hair has followed this pattern: first it was an erectile threat crest, then strangely, it began to shift. Balding became the threat ideal, and a full head of soft hair was what we clung to as babies - a symbol of maternal-sexual security and attraction, like a round, warm breast. But recently the evolutionary bent has looped into an even odder twist. The symbols of age and status are in disfavor, even repugnant. Now it is the mature male who mimics the post-puberty vigor of youth that has become our and man's ideal. More than any of the other organic epaulets of the past, the threat value of the very high forehead and its exaggeration the bald scalp, has been debased. And like the Confederate dollar, there is something uncomfortably humorous about its continued existence.The stereotypical wannabe MMA fighter has a shaved head and goatee. When I was in school, shaved heads were relatively common among those who played sports (though this was sometimes due to hazing).
unk:
