recent study showed that observers believe a male’s shaved head indicates greater masculinity, dominance, and leadership potential than longer or thinning hair. Thinning hair was perceived as the least powerful look, and other studies have agreed that male-pattern baldness (where some hair remains) is not considered advantageous. Men who have shaved their heads report it can give them a business advantage whether or not it makes them look older (which is debatable). Sources: J. Misener, “Men With Shaved Heads Appear More Dominant, Study Finds,” The Huffington Post (October 1, 2012),But why is this?
Berger's (1972) "expectation states theory" has much to say about situations like this. According to the theory, we give leadership opportunities (i.e., allow people to lead us) to people who have high status (i.e., are competent). We determine a person's status/competence through status markers, some of which are more accurate (specific status characteristics such as education and past experience) than others (diffuse status characteristics, such as gender and age). Baldness can be a diffuse status marker indicating both masculinity and age, thus making people think that that bald people are more competent to lead.
Dear Haitham
Thanx for a question that for me is witty, mythical, scientific as well as cool and funky ...gone are the days when clean shaven head gave the creeps because such people gave the impression of gangs, or a cult. I am one of the natural born baldy, so it is cool, not only in life, but when breeze blows over the sweating head.
It is one of those situations where there is a grey area. It is better to define baldness in the form either of "scientific myth, or mythical science" as science and myth both turn out to be. All things philosophically thought of become science one day for some and vice versa. I am everything so long I am there and and nothing exists for me when I leave this form. I am bald and better, however I was cool and sexy even when I had full grown hair on top. It does neither matter, nor has any special impact except on those who are "socially constructed" to feel this way or that way. In India, especially followers of Hinduism shave their heads off when their parent/s, or elders die, particularly to mourn.
Moreover, besides grieving by Hindus, I have 1.5 million people consult me as a doctor in my life. My experience tells me that most people who start clean shaving their heads are the ones who have a subconscious score to settle with the society and God ...frustration (be that in any kind of relationship, or financial and other interpersonal hardship) mostly is the key.
I hope this gets more answers to your question come up.
Have a great day/week/month/year and lifetime.
Dear Haitham, I concur with Suresh for a compliment on your question.
Until two decaes ago In Bollywood the people voraciously maintained a regard for the "Shetty" look the erstwhile bald powerful villain of the Indian Film Industry. This agrees with the perspective you sketched for clean shaven persons.
Why Batra Homeopathy etc advertise towards repairing of hair (against thinning of hair) is also understandable. Because of the inferior appeal. The hair sure are a protective cover against environmental suddens, and those who lose hair often resort to head gears.
An advantage which I saw in my childhood, viewing my grand pa - shaving his head, was standardisation. It gives the same look consistently. Additionally they avoid shame-pooh.
The Indian sages/ the life at Gurukuls (education the Vedic way) mandated the heads be shaved. probably for the needed piousness. It thus tended to sustain a brand - of eternal wisdom in the elite society - demonstrating a potential in academic leadership.
Undoubtedly wisdom comes with thinning of hair and with age. Can anybody avoid one?
A word to the wise ...
If you have a funny-shaped head (for example completely flat in the back and pointed at the top) do not shave off your hair. Also if your head is pointed in the back, resembling an American football, do not shave off your hair. However, if you have a beautifully formed head like Telly Savalas or Yul Brenner; by all means, flaunt it!
Gwen
Most of us would not have tried or ventured to know how is our head exactly formed, though a fair idea is available, guised by the hair, and its cut which was at the mercy of a barber. So, I am scared to get it shaved off - (though nothing much challengeis left for the barber), have a face book account and figure out the likes and dislikes ;-(
Hindus have a religious radition of Mundan in childhood when head is shaved off- but it is subjected to a good number of vagaries in future to expect a real surface/ form, as on today.
Well, bald head might depict masochism , however making a broad statement like 'bald is better' is misplaced. Bald is not better in terms of ability or performance; it might be better when the perception of masochism comes into play.
I do agree with Noman Mohammad.Bald may look masculine but it may not necessarily result in better performance
Bald looks bold because it is away from the norm. Gradually losing it's charm.
Regards
Suresh
Guys with shaved heads are also seen as taller, stronger and having greater potential as leaders, researcher ... !
A survey showed that --- shaved men topped the ratings in terms of how powerful, influential and authoritative they looked.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211097/Want-look-manly-Shave-head-study-reveals-bald-men-seen-dominant.html
Through my field experience, I do not agree with you that bald is the best. But the limited number of them, make them on the focus of attention and observation of others.
it is contextual term and it is taken differently in each culture, Here in Pakistan it impacts negatively on both sides : leaders and followers.
Regards
Rafique
Just watch it! Why Bald is Better! Many answers are given, based on research article discussed!
I do not think that bald is better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANF-0bvJYf4
New research from one of the premier business schools in the U.S. suggests men who shave their heads are perceived to be more dominant, more athletic and better leaders.
Research by information management lecturer Albert Mannes at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business suggests that while men with male-pattern baldness tend to view themselves as having poor self-esteem, those who take the pre-emptive step of shaving a thinning head of hair enjoy numerous benefits in terms of how they are perceived by others.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/men-shaved-bald-perceived-to-be-better-leaders-1.1292470
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-men-with-shaved-heads-look-more-dominant/
The biological relevance of long hair is a sign of good health and bearing up the hardness of live.
The psychoanalytical meaning of men with long hair described the possibility of self-manifestation. The cuting of the hair is a kind of castration because hair is a phallic and sexistic sign. Long hair is the over Ego of a person. In history men with short or no hair described subordinates or at best soldiers or unfree peasants but not a leading man. They represent only the second alpha men when leading men are absent.
In the Middle Ages, in the Bible, in the Antiquity and in the western civilisation of the 20th century men with long hair are representing a powerful strength and a special connecting to Good or transcendental power.
The social distribution of long haired men and men without hair are best described in the living of indigenious people in asia, the pacific islands, South America and some
ethnic groups of coloured people. In this cultures long hair is a sign of youth, body power, health and the childbearing precondition, just today.
I like Bruce Willis. But I think that his shaved head is not a sign of dominance, athletic or better leadership. Therefore he often failed in his social management and association with other people as protagonist in his films. And he incarnates only an action figure.
Re: David Dunaetz's fine answer to this question in which he cite's Peter Berger:
On May 27, 2013, Shahla Mahrgani asked the following question on RG regarding Peter Berger: “While everybody admits that Peter Berger is the most celebrated one in sociology of religion, why are there so few literature references in the field applying his idea empirically?”
Here is a portion of my answer that is relevant to this discussion of baldness:
Hi Shala,
During the time I was a student at the Yale Divinity School (1996-1998), I attended a guest lecture by Peter Berger and had difficulty getting him to autograph my copy of THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY. Although, he finally did put his signature on the cover page (JUST his signature), it was done begrudgingly. I later understood that I would have had a friendlier reception getting his autograph (and maybe even a personal salutation) had I presented him with a copy of what was then his most recent book, REDEEMING LAUGHTER: THE COMIC DIMENSION OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1997). This is because at the time, Berger had abandoned Sociology for Comedy – yes, Comedy. And, the talk he gave to a large Yale gathering was very, very funny; I especially remember a line about him being mistaken for Kojak (late Actor Telly Savalas) during a visit to South Africa (he was somehow involved with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) – both Kojak and Berger are bald headed. There is an interview with Berger in which he talks about “the comic sending a signal of transcendence” in the religious sense; the interview was published in THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY in October 1997 shortly after publication of REDEEMING LAUGHTER. You can read a transcript of the interview here: ....
The above is just an excerpt from my answer, the complete answer can be read at the following RG link: https://www.researchgate.net/post/While_everybody_admits_that_Peter_Berger_is_the_most_celebrated_one_in_sociology_of_religion_why_are_there_so_few_literature_references_in_the_field_applying_his_idea_empirically
Gwen
This is as much a true statement as that in the myth of Samson (which in fact is the very REVERSE of the one we are discussing). For every bold superstar I can bring forward ten with lots of hair to disprove the statement. And as a final nail in the myth's coffin: if I were to shave my hair - which by the way I would like a fairly large sum of money before I do! - I would definitely feel smaller. :-)
Re: Michael Patricksson, "I would definitely feel smaller"
Michael, du menar väl att du skulle känna dig kortare (i.e., “I would feel shorter”) – inte skulle du bli en mindre människa bara på grund av din längd! På engelska “to feel smaller” antyder att man känner sig småsint eller obetydlig.
Gwen
When I was a kid, I saw this movie Perlas ng Silangan "Pearl of the Orient". The main antagonist in the movie decided to ran amok (kill anyone with a bolo). Before he did it, he shaved his head first. That is why there was a time in my childhood I feared fully shaved adults.
And then I saw movies about "Shaolins" or monks with shaved heads who knew kung-fu skills. So I began to look at shaved heads as masters of martial arts.
When I was in college, I had a friend who was jilted by his loved girl. Out of frustration and perhaps embarassment he shaved his head. I also had a friend who forgot to shampoo his hair such that his head became the shelter of plenty of lice. To get rid of the lice, he shaved his head.
The I saw his movie "Dying Young" where the male protagonist had a cancer and his head was shaved. I though hair makes life harder to a cancer patient.
And then I saw Michael Jordan and other NBA players and many athletes with shaved heads, so I began to think that shaved heads makes an athlete more efficient, physically.
.
@Eddie
Hair, kept well is no crime,
question here is: when devoid of shine!
these are no longer worth a dime.
So it of task prime,
to call, a specialist barber to re-align,
who may bring it back to rhyme!
Hair, kept well is sure, no crime,
albeit the investments: money or time,
from a personality- so sublime
when hair become la-porcupine,
or support lice, as from a swine,
baldness is inevitable in (no) time,
Ruling out, all future designs of mine.
Lost Hair is, though, no crime,
san the investments: money or time,
in hassels- of straightening or as virgin,
or in maintaining its luster or shine,
To get a dexterous, benign, persona divine,
seek a new clarity, personality, and chime!
ah! a shaved head pulls you on cloud nine.
Copyright 2015, Priyavrat Thareja
Love your poetry Priyavrat ...it looks and sounds you are on your way to baldness whatever that means!!
Regards
Suresh
In India, people avoid baldness as they don't want to look aged/overage person.
@ Subhash,
As a lecturer at University of Roorkee ( Now IIT Roorkee) in 1974, and given to teach M.Tech, while I was less than 23 years of age / and then at Punjab Engineering College (now PEC university of Technology), when 1/3rd of undergrad class I taught were older than me hair and beard (with moustaches) were the only grace ( so as to look older). The human thoughs and styles are invariably paradoxical.
Age promises wisdom, and also due respect for being elder.
Then, why do we hide our age? Will the God's processes too be deceived? Rest everything is temporary.
Baldness or loss of hair is referred to as alopecia. Hair loss affects women and men of all ages and has its “roots” in the maternal gene pool. However, heredity can be interrupted, delayed and even reversed in some cases when deficiencies are corrected, and certain stimuli are applied.
Provide the body with the specific fatty acids, amino acids, trace minerals and hormone smothering phyto-chemicals that allows the body to regenerate longer, thicker, naturally colored hair and hair follicles without drugs or surgical procedures.
http://img.exigo.com/public/1333/websites/29/images/hairloss_battleplan.pdf
Dear Priyavrat Thareja,
You are right! But psychology plays very important role -- it changes area to area and culture to culture!
The bald truth: How we react to women with hair loss!
Even we are talking about case of Alopecia as an auto-immune hair-loss disease cause, reactions are different. Different cultures bring different responses.
I do remember when my wife lost her hair because of chemotherapy, different reactions I have observed. It was mainly unpleasant!
http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/the-bald-truth-how-we-react-to-women-with-hair-loss-337516.html
http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/bald-truth-about-my-hair-loss-161322.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=recirc
Parting with locks of hair for cancer cause - Having heard about ‘Tangled,’ the hair donation drive in support of cancer patients.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/parting-with-locks-of-hair-for-cancer-cause/article6894685.ece
Fine contribution dear @Krishnan. Such actions were done in my country also. Let me bring to your attention the art work of Serbian artist Zoran Todorovic.
In 2009, the artist represented Serbia at the Venice Biennale with his project and installation Warmth, which consisted of 1,200 square meters of felt blankets made from discarded human hair. This hair was taken from a variety of places – hair salons, as well as prisons and even the army. While in the former, hair cutting is a matter of choice, relating to ideas of beauty and hygiene, in the latter two, hair is cut as a form of control, and to create uniformity...The installation has obvious connotations with regard to Nazi concentration camps, but the significance of the piece reaches far beyond that: for example, the piece can be seen as a DNA map for the Serbian people, insofar as all of the hair came from within that nation; the work of art becomes something useful, made from the discarded and unwanted remnants of human life (unlike in the concentration camps, this hair was taken willingly, or, in the case of prisoners, humanely); it can also be bought and sold (£100/1 square meter) and turned into clothing (one fashion designer designed a dress using the felt). For the artist, it is the viewer of the piece who produces the final picture of the artwork – through his reactions and engagements with the piece, the associations made, and the dialogue raised. He simply creates a strange situation for the viewer to contend with, and leaves it out there for interpretations and meanings to be created.
This information I have found in a very good research paper of an Indian researcher Ankush Gupta about human hair "waste"...Several charity organizations have started collecting human hair donations from salons, school students, individuals, and so forth, specifically towards social causes such as hair tresses for cancer patients suffering from hair loss and oil spill remediation...
http://performingtheeast.com/zoran-todorovic/
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jwm/2014/498018/
Nice information @ Ljubomir.
There are some efforts being taken on hair loss control, I just saw a post in my facebook, thought to add here. Learn what is causing hair loss....
http://app.blab.co.in/online-premature-hair-loss-test/?campaign=AUTO-CONSULT&vendor=478&channel=4&creative=1476
I do not think to be bald has any virtue of goodness either to society or to the person either that can be pronounced as a leverage but affirms openness and nothing is hidden or simply boldness in society. Although masculinity is biological and a proper amount is a good thing but extreme of it is harmful and depressing to the person himself at latter days.
What is needed from a person to be a leader is not to be bold but to be wise, mature emotionally and reason and think critically, the one who listens humbly but lead. keeping hairs in order is mere a health issue and social image and those who need to be leaders should indeed keep themselves in order and healthy and have proper social images.
Of course it is the order of the time that few people make (claim) what they want to be, legal, reasonable and acceptable by simply declaring it is through their writing or posting as a theory validated by unknown means while actually it is not.
@Eddie, Poet I have been. This was to bring in some humor in a topic which is probably never a debate.
@Dejenie, from the photograph, the journey to baldness is in gear. Hair at various times show the maturity, (I gave the example of a bigger head and a mustachio profile to claim what actual elderliness can not do ( because wisdom takes a bit longer to be noticed), and first impression does the half work done (or lost). your remark "a leader is not to be bold but to be wise"
baldness indeed is no virtue " bald has [no] virtue of goodness either to society or to the {barber, or beholder of hair} person" It is a process [may be a disease, as medicines or cures are claimed]. So enjoy!
The trait approach to leadership could be used to explain how a physical trait would give more potential to effectively lead organizations. Indeed, The trait approach to leadership focuses on the personal attributes (or traits) of leaders, such as physical and personality characteristics. It stipulates, implicitly, that personal traits produce patterns of behavior that are consistent and effective across all situations.
But, this theory is currently outdated by modern theories more realistic like situational theories.
Yes, Ljubomir Jaci,
Response to baldness is contingent on cultural variations.
Dear Subhash, yes, but EVOLVING cultural variations that might have started as a result of mutation at one stage in the culture triggered by some geek/mental aberrant/ frustrated unsatisfied male ego, etc.
Love the discussion, as if all revolved around the bald head/Galileo's earth.
Cheers all!!
Suresh
The study of Albert Mannes ("Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance", in, Social Psychological & Personality Sciences, 2013) showed through expeirimentation on perception of a sample of 60 participants that men with shaved heads were rated as more dominant than similar men with full heads of hair.
The problem is that Mannes is himself a bald man, and I don't know the proportion of bald men in the experimental sample to be sûr that results are objectives and not biased.
Does someone has precise informations about characteristics of the experimental sample of Mannes' study?
Dear Mahmoud
A sample of 60 persons giving the judgment about bald men in itself is a joke. It takes a lifetime to understand one's own self, how could 60 people decide what half a billion baldies are perceived to be. Moreover, study of perception itself is socially and environmentally constructed in each mind perceiving.
I love the question though, esp. due to 'the lighter side of it.'
Mannes study had nothing scientific about it. He himself had to say, ""The broad takeaway is that perceptions about leadership and related traits like dominance can emerge from peculiar characteristics that aren't really related to leadership at all," Mannes said."
Thus any world is full of perceptions, 7 billion for each item if we look at any fact scientifically. Even the truth has at least 7 billion shapes (if we consider no one but humans have real perception).
God bless baldies (me included)!
Corrective measures
Cases of mild male pattern baldness,the incision may be placed posteriorly to hide it in the remaining hair.
http://www.jrad.co.in/jrad_userfiles/files/11%20Dr%20Srinivas%20Ganti.pdf
Its people's behaviour that counts! How they look will be swamped by what they do!
Or, the reverse happens? The environment?... stars?... genetic factors?... control the tendency to baldness. Getting wanted clean surface is a 10 minutes job with right tools. Most people get it against their wishes. Unless it is for a distinct purpose.
Some time ago, I began to grow my beard on the hypothesis that it would give me more influence internationally on my teaching website at www.theinternationalapostolichouseofprayer.com. Just over four years of involvement and our viewership rose from a few hundred to 75,000 in 90 countries. I cannot be sure without conducting extensive research that it was the beard that was a main factor, but I believed it helped. A few days ago, I shaved my head in anticipation of receiving a lucrative government job. Of more than 800 Facebook friends, I received more than 100 compliments saying that I looked much younger than before, they were glad to see the man they remembered, you are so handsome, etc. The sample is strong if I were to include the data in a research endeavor but the bias of my friends is probably overwhelming. I did not poll the 75,000 viewers for an opinion fearing a charge of vanity. I am torn between considerations of influence and social acceptance (Not really...tongue in cheek). It is a question in which I share interest.
Hi John
Good on your faith and belief.
In my experience people within the ;last 10 years have become more of sycophants than before and have learnt how to play with people's hidden desires (praise).
You want to test people who love you more than before, then ask them you need $10,000 in an emergency situation ...let us know of any good results.
What I am trying to bring home to people like us is that so long you have anything to give others, they would stay around you, others did not even bother to care about Aristotle, Jesus, Galileo, etc. untill long time after they were dead.
I pray, hope and wish your understanding becomes true.
Any way; I have been bearded, and bald for almost all of my life and had 1.5 million consults with people in my work life until powerful people illegally and unethically took me out of the system to realise some truth about the ultimate. However, that is my experience, a single person who is still trying to keep my baldness and beard.
AN example of "tongue out of cheek."
Regards.
For those of us whose concern is that there might not be enough hair up there to go around, in an article published on http://mentalfloss.com there are some multicultural views from history that should offer options for boosting hair output (none that I know of are scientifically proven although some of our medical colleagues might inform us of these matters. There are fourteen suggestions offered, some by the "Ebers Papyrus of Egypt" (1550 BCE), Hippocrates and Aristotle of Greece, and Julius Caesar of Rome. There are also tips from the Druids, American Indian lore, Henry VIII, the wisdom of India and China, and, of course, Scientific American.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/54047/14-historys-craziest-baldness-cures
Dear John and Subhash
We certainly live in a world that is much bigger than any one of us. For us anything not dubbed as science is not scientific. Aren't we the scientist getting to know only our patch and forget about other senses. Subhash's "situational" is not scientific either. However, think about any situation that is known, was recorded on paper or word of mouth is, or has been very much scientific that is why it is called situational. Fungus (mold) falling and growing on bread was situational and scientific much before we knew it was scientific. Is there anything on earth that is not scientific?
Now coming to the 14 of the craziest cures for baldness. Do we really consider baldness (the one we are talking about - not the ones due to local or general disease or treatment process) a disease. If not, then, there is nothing and everything crazy to treat it. We can treat craziness, but not the non-disease with crazy ideas, though good for many Hakims' and quacks' business, or for having a historical record of our evolutionary stupidities. In about a hundred + years people would be talking about fossil fuel usage and discuss how stupid were the 7 billions who were using 7 billion motor vehicles each day, mostly a single occupant/person in their vehicles. You would find that more crazier than the 14 crazy ways to treat baldness, which is not a disease.
Baldness was born due to society's and doctors' ignorance, made famous by rich, famous and powerful, "a disease by the doctors, to the public, for the drug cartels," and hence, to the core undemocratic (or, shall I call it anti-democratic).
I really love the topic, much more than a few days ago when people seemed to be "damn-serious" about the topic.
Congrats Haitham
The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb.
--- Jorge Luis Borges
Just outright loving, Subhash!
The comb must have committed suicide eventually ...woa!
Suresh
Suresh Vatsyayann Added an answer
Just outright loving, Subhash! The comb must have committed suicide eventually ...woa! Suresh