ba(l)d to the bone

[shpalman]

Villainous hair: ba(l)d to the bone – would they be so evil if they had hair?

DEAR EDITOR, In real life, the impact of healthy hair on social perception has been extensively studied. But when it comes to the movies, do the hairstyles of villains also portray the physical embodiment of their immoral impulses?

The more movies you watch, the easier it is to identify an emerging trend: bald characters are overwhelmingly villains. Alopecia seems to be innately associated with moral decay, as if the character’s lack of hair and consequently their humanity was their evilness. At the same time, losing hair appears to be an adequate trigger for driving a character into a pit of immorality and crime.

We investigated whether alopecia is disproportionately found among evil characters in Hollywood films. The main question we asked: is the bald guy the bad guy?

In Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort is bald but his opponents all sport impressive heads of hair. Moreover, Hollywood films have frequently used gradual hair loss as a reflection of a character’s transition from good to evil. In the Lord of the Rings, kind-hearted Smeagol had a full head of hair before he was turned evil by the ‘One Ring’. Scott Evil in Austin Powers flaunts a gradually receding hairline as a visual manifestation of his increasing malevolence, with his hair volume diminishing from stage III AA to a completely hairless scalp in the final scene.

[snoozeofreason]

I know that correlation is not causation, but since the age of 30 I have been getting steadily balder, and steadily more evil.

[dyqik]

I know that correlation is not causation, but since the age of 30 I have been getting steadily balder, and steadily more evil.

Since the age of 25 I've been getting steadily balder, attempting to be steadily less evil, but also steadily having more involvement in volcano based lairs*.

*telescope, lair, whatever.

[Bird on a Fire]

The trope of conventionally-attractive goodies and bald, disfigured baddies (sometimes played by an otherwise attractive actor, but with a burn added in makeup, or a prosthetic scar or eyepatch or something) is something I find irritatingly lazy.

As a dashingly handsome guy with hair down to my boobs I'm getting pretty damn sick of everyone just assuming I'm not evil.

[JQH]

Maybe you should weave your hair into a rope with which to strangle scriptwriters.

[Bird on a Fire]

I like the idea.

Although if I were then to wear a hat I'd technically be carrying a concealed weapon.

[Tessa K]

Generally yes, Hollywood goes for the ugly = evil cliche. And baldness falls into that 'less than perfectly manly' category.

Jean Luc Picard was a baldie. As was Professor Xavier. Yes, they're both played by Patrick Stewart. The young Xavier (James McAvoy) has a full head of hair so maybe that saved him from falling into early evil.

Bruce Willis, Yul Brynner, Samuel L Jackson, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Ben Kingsley. All baldies.

So while there is a case to be made for evil baldies, there are enough exceptions to make this finding a bit tenuous and selective. And that's just about men.

As for bald women - Karen Gillan in Guardians of the Galaxy, Tilda Swinton in Dr Strange, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens 3, Cate Blanchett in Heaven, Persis Khambatta - Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

In women it implies either that they're serious badasses or weirdly exotic.

[discovolante]

The patriarchy at work again. I bet women aren't generally nearly as fussed about MPB as men are.

[Tessa K]

The patriarchy at work again. I bet women aren't generally nearly as fussed about MPB as men are.

It depends. Full-on bald is more acceptable than combovers or thinning hair on top and a pony tail or man bun. This is not a good look. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ef/63/38/ef63 ... 03615a.jpg

[Tessa K]

The patriarchy at work again. I bet women aren't generally nearly as fussed about MPB as men are.

It depends. Full-on bald is more acceptable than combovers or bald on top and a pony tail or man bun. This is not a good look. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ef/63/38/ef63 ... 03615a.jpg

[discovolante]

The patriarchy at work again. I bet women aren't generally nearly as fussed about MPB as men are.

It depends. Full-on bald is more acceptable than combovers or thinning hair on top and a pony tail or man bun. This is not a good look. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ef/63/38/ef63 ... 03615a.jpg

That's a style choice, I'm talking about the phenomenon that's beyond their control.

[Tessa K]

The patriarchy at work again. I bet women aren't generally nearly as fussed about MPB as men are.

It depends. Full-on bald is more acceptable than combovers or thinning hair on top and a pony tail or man bun. This is not a good look. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ef/63/38/ef63 ... 03615a.jpg

That's a style choice, I'm talking about the phenomenon that's beyond their control.

It is a style choice although the bald on top part isn't. I suspect that a lot of apparently completely bald men are shaving off the bits they have left though.

[shpalman]

Well that's what I did, during Lockdown Part 1.

For "shave" see "clipped at shortest setting of clippers" anyway.

There was a Jason Statham movie on last night.

[Martin_B]

Pure evil:

[Boustrophedon]

I was thinning noticeably by the sixth form, by the end of university, bowing to the inevitable, I had shaved it all off. For most of my adult life I have adopted the No1 all over look.