The Value of a Bald Head.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 32, 8 February 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Value of a Bald Head.

A medical correspondent attributes to a lay contemporary "some remarks upon his profession, which, although in some respects containing a good deal of truth, ore nevertheless confessedly amusing. His main object in view is to show that he has made a gross mistake in joining the ranks of medicine instead of investing his moneys, which had been spent upon his education, in some business concern. He describes himself as a failure, and this after working exceedingly hard ab his profession. The causo of his failure he attributes tothe absence of two things which are chiefly essential to success medical profession. There are, he asserts, in the firsb place, money ; and in the second, a bald head. 'I havo no money, and my hair is inconveniently thick. Incipient baldness gives the appearance of a "high and dome-like forehead," and inspires the ladies with confidence. The fortunafco possessor of this boautiful feature is pronounced " very clever," which settles the matter. Besides, ib is almosb indispensable for a "'good bedside manner." All my medical friends who are getting on well have either money or bald heads ; most of them have both.' It is, no doubt, very much to the advantage of a young practitioner to exhibit a •modern antique' appearance, and nothing contributes so greatly to this end as a head which is innocent of "hair. There is a real commercial value in a bald head, but. thi3 value is by no means confined to the medical profession. Whatever advantages, however," ib may confer on a ' business young man,' to a medical man a fair estimate under favnurable circumsbances would bo, ab the lowest, £500 a year. The assumption of age and ripe philosophy which a man can safely indulge in whose hair follicles upon the top of his head have in early manhood undergone a process of fatty degeneration, leaving a white expause of reflecting integument, is a matter of common observation. The public are impressed by the appearance of things under bhese circumsbances ; a bald head will carry conviction to their minds when nothing else will—saving, perhaps, a flowing beard. Even the lower animals are not insensible to its attraction! It is recorded that an ostrich once sat down upon the bald head of an Englishman uuder the impression that it was an egg that required hatching. The circumstances were favourable to this slight error of judgment, and the sagacious bird must be acquitted of having purposely attempted to play a practical joke. Bub in this matter, as in all things olse in life, appearances are everything. No one knows better the value of a bald head than •he who possesses it, at all events in medicine ; but how strangely captious is Nature, for while one man, greatly to his worldly prosperity, conveniently finds his head becoming bald, another has to seek consolation whore he can under the depressing circumstances of knowing that his head is the only place upon which he cannot get bair to grow.