The human brain responds positively to a full head of hair, and less positively to balding. I'm not sure why, as it seems there is no huge evolutionary advantage to hair.

However the way the brain responds to it is incontestable, and no amount of body positivity will change the impact it has, thus for an individual it makes much more sense to pay a few thousand to conform to beauty standards than hope that everyone you meet will turn off their primate brain when interacting with you.

Unless you happen to be one of the lucky few who look better bald, balding makes you less conventionally attractive (there are actual studies about this). Whether that matters depends on how much weight you place on being conventionally attractive.

Wouldn't the same also apply to preferring the shaved head look over a more natural male pattern baldness look when those are your options? Why shave it? Who cares? Does it matter?

More directly, at the risk of a handwavey evo-psych just-so story: Hundreds of millions of years of evolution, perhaps? A ton of characteristics driving attraction are signals of health / youthfulness. Weight, musculature, nice skin, good teeth, etc. And yeah, good hair! Male pattern baldness is definitely associated with aging even though many people will probably spend more of their lives follicularly challenged than they did with good hair.

Speaking as someone who's been shaving for 20 years now, it is bad.

More sun exposure, less cold protection.

It has benefits too, but it's overall harmful.

Some people look great bald. Some don't. I am in the latter group, so I'm hoping not to go bald! If I do, I will probably buy a beret.

If it makes someone feel better about themselves, why not?

Why are so many people brainwashed to think that anything makes an aesthetic difference? We just like what we like, having a great head of hair when you're older is rare, so it's more attractive.

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