How Did Baldness Start?

[Vigaku]

Somehow I can't find the answer to this anywhere...

 

[Jack82]

...there was a bald Adam and a hairy Eve, created by an old man with white long hair and long beard... He was so lonely these days... then a bad snake...

 

[BodyDysmorphic]

some speculate that baldness is from very primitive times of human beginning

these are times man did not live very long like maybe 40 or so years

a female could notice a balding "mature" man from across the field
being able to live and produce is the fundamental nature of our being

a balding "mature" man would have more assets and an recognizable ability to live a long time

this may also explain why some women find bald men attractive

in essence baldness shows signs of maturity

these days men normally live a long time and assets can be acquired anytime in ones life

these balding traits are no longer desirable and thats why men pay large amount of money every year on drugs to prevent it

 

[Boondock]

In my crazy world view, balding began (for humans at least) as a genetic trait when we were all still in Africa, and, hence, black. Everybody knows that balding and baldness doesn't look half as bad on black males.

After moving north, the melanin in our skin made us look whiter, but the balding gene remained. Only now, it looked pretty shitty!

 

[first]

The whiter your skin is, the more likely you are to lose hair. This is due to white people living in colder regions with less sun exposure, so they lose hair on top of their head in order to produce sufficient Vitamin D (which comes from sun exposure). This is why you see most hispanics (such as South Americans or Christiano Ronaldo) not being as affected by hair loss, the same is even more true for native Africans.

It used to be a genetic advantage during for example the ice age (or if living up north), however nowadays you can just buy some extra Vitamin D instead (or go to a solarium at times during the winter).

 

[irishpride86]

I disagree... most people from the middle east are dark skin and there bald early...

 

[ElectricalWzard]

This is faulty logic. Look around you, people that are bald comes from all over the world. They are caucasian, black, asian etc.
But I have heard that people with bright skin are more likely to get eczama which in some cases can lead to hair loss.

 

[cuebald]

Baldness more than likely predates Humanity itself, as it is seen in the Great Apes

 

[first]

This is faulty logic. Look around you, people that are bald comes from all over the world. They are caucasian, black, asian etc.
But I have heard that people with bright skin are more likely to get eczama which in some cases can lead to hair loss.

Evolution doesn't make something 100%, it just makes a trait appear more often or less often depending on how the trait suits your surroundings. It is a fact that white men have more hairloss than any other race. Your anecdotic "evidence" will not change that.

So who's at most risk for hair loss? Genetically, light-haired and skinned men are more likely to lose their hair than dark-haired and skinned men. Furthermore, Caucasian males are much more likely to lose their hair than non-Caucasians. So, if you are a blond, light skinned Caucasian, with a family history of male pattern baldness, you are several times more likely to lose your hair than a Japanese man, for example, or an African-American man.

from http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-ar ... 83675.html and there are countless other articles that confirms that white people are the ones who are most affected by male pattern baldness.

 

[Vigaku]

Thanks for all your comments guys. I posted this thread on balding forum and someone replied saying he didn't know what exactly the question was asking (which is not a bad thing since indeed my question can seem a little vague) but all your responses were awesome. It's really something to think about though, right? Like Adam was either bald or not (I assume he's not) so baldness had to sprout from SOMETHING. I think someone in the gene pool the follicles in the male pattern baldness affected area were just becoming more victim of the male hormone testosterone/DHT.

 

[Bryan]

I think someone in the gene pool the follicles in the male pattern baldness affected area were just becoming more victim of the male hormone testosterone/DHT.

Yes, but that's neither here nor there. The REAL question is this: why did scalp hair follicles ever become sensitive to androgens in the first place? Why aren't they like all the other hair follicles on the body, which are actually STIMULATED by androgens? I've seen a few theories that try to explain that phenomenon, but the one that I think makes at least as much sense as any of the others is this one: balding developed in scalp hair follicles as a way to provide extra cooling in the growing and developing brains of primates.

 

[BoilerRoom]

...balding developed in scalp hair follicles as a way to provide extra cooling in the growing and developing brains of primates.

Then why do people from the coldest climates, such as Scandinavia, seem to have the highest prevalence of balding?

Why aren't Africans more prone to baldness than Northern European whites?

 

[Bryan]

Then why do people from the coldest climates, such as Scandinavia, seem to have the highest prevalence of balding?

I don't know if that's even true. Even if it _is_ true, you have to keep in mind that this evolution of scalp hair follicles almost certainly occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago, or even longer than that (in some ancestor of homo sapiens). Long before the migration of Modern Man to colder climates.

 

[BoilerRoom]

Even if it _is_ true, you have to keep in mind that this evolution of scalp hair follicles almost certainly occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago, or even longer than that (in some ancestor of homo sapiens). Long before the migration of Modern Man to colder climates.

A possibility. However, I certainly think there are differences in baldness prevalence between ethnic groups, especially between whites and Native American/Asiatics peoples.

The issue of modern man and genetics is a mystery. Different modern type humans may have possessed varying degrees of baldness. Subsequent interbreeding between these groups may be a big factor in each ethnic genetic makeup. We really don't know.

I've always pondered whether hair loss was a way for people to absorb additional vitamin D through sunlight.

 

[Bryan]

A possibility. However, I certainly think there are differences in baldness prevalence between ethnic groups, especially between whites and Native American/Asiatics peoples.

Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I consider to be the original impetus for scalp hair to evolve into becoming sensitive to androgens (to help cool the brain).

 

[Vigaku]

Thanks Bryan. Baldness sucks. Circumcision too.

 

[OverMachoGrande]

...

 

[ali777]

Like Adam was either bald or not (I assume he's not) so baldness had to sprout from SOMETHING.

Adam was a fish and he had no hair. Then Adam slowly slowly became a land animal and developed fur to keep his body temperature regulated.

Then evolution and natural selection made Adam stand up and he no longer needed fur, so Adam lost all his hair again.

Basically, it all depends on how you interpret the 7 ages of the creationism. Even if I was religious, which I'm not, I still would think that Adam is a symbolic creature and not necessarily in the same form as modern humans.

Adam had no hair, then he developed fur, and then lost it again. Adam was not meant to have hair in the first place, so male pattern baldness is no biggy.

In my crazy world view, balding began (for humans at least) as a genetic trait when we were all still in Africa, and, hence, black. Everybody knows that balding and baldness doesn't look half as bad on black males.

After moving north, the melanin in our skin made us look whiter, but the balding gene remained. Only now, it looked pretty shitty!

You really are obsessed with the genetic differences in races, aren't you? It's all part of the gene pool. The more, the better...

a female could notice a balding "mature" man from across the field
being able to live and produce is the fundamental nature of our being

That's how Bryan put it... It's an interesting theory, I like it.

 

[OverMachoGrande]

The whiter your skin is, the more likely you are to lose hair. This is due to white people living in colder regions with less sun exposure, so they lose hair on top of their head in order to produce sufficient Vitamin D (which comes from sun exposure). This is why you see most hispanics (such as South Americans or Christiano Ronaldo) not being as affected by hair loss, the same is even more true for native Africans.

It used to be a genetic advantage during for example the ice age (or if living up north), however nowadays you can just buy some extra Vitamin D instead (or go to a solarium at times during the winter).

I've always pondered whether hair loss was a way for people to absorb additional vitamin D through sunlight.

I too have always thought this... When you have large amounts of intracellular calcium, you have lower levels of Vitamin D-3. Notice how African men have extremely thick hair and obviously darker skin, while American or English men have thinner hair and lighter skin! Does this mean that African men per say, have stronger bones than American or English men, considering calcium metabolism (meaning, African men have less calcium stored in the tissues and more calcium stored in the bones, where it is meant to be stored)?

 

[barcafan]

A possibility. However, I certainly think there are differences in baldness prevalence between ethnic groups, especially between whites and Native American/Asiatics peoples.

Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I consider to be the original impetus for scalp hair to evolve into becoming sensitive to androgens (to help cool the brain).

Then why is female balding much less prevalent and or severe. Dont they need cool brains too?