Bald Heads.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 877, 21 December 1888, Page 4

Bald Heads.

SO COMMON NOW THAT THEY NO LONGER MAKE MEN SENSITIVE.

Thackery somewhere makes the remark that if yon dislike a man at starting, and continue yonr aversion, it is ourious what reasons you will find and even advanoe in support of your view-—his . manner to his mother-in-law, or his undisguised baldness. Now, it is a singular thing, that twenty years ago baldness was' much more noticed than now, and forty or fifty years ago much more noticed than then. There are several reasons foe this but the most obvious is that baldness is .now much more general than it used to be. If we take up an old Punch there are plenty; allusions to this cause of annoyance. . Testy old gentlemen grow angry with hairdressers who unnecessarily allude to what was thought an affliction.. Precocious children wonder at the foreheads which their uncles display at the back of their heads. In the old pantomimes wigs were always falling off and revealing unexpectedly polished scalps. One has but to let one’s memory ran back, and endless illustrations of the same truth reoar. Those were the days when men Beemed afraid ' of being venerable, and an old beau was an object rather of admiration than of reproaoh. One cause was that those days followed on the days when all gentlemen wore wigs, and therefore no gentleman looked bald. Tha eye was unaccustomed to smooth surfaces, and such ,as were seen at. once attracted notice. But the main cause was that baldness and gray hairs were alike regarded as the inevitable Indications of age. People were not then accustomed to see middle-aged men bald. ;’■■■- : ; : ' They are. accustomed to it now. It is cmions how caducity has increased, and the prevalence of it taken away the old reproaoh. All the arguments are against its existence, and all the facte prove that the argument* are .misleading. People lead healthier lives now than, they used to do, and yet they are balder. People lead-longer lives, and yet they grow bald earlier, and moreover, it is the healthiest people who are often the baldest. Indeed, it almost becomes a question whether in these days baldness is evidence to a very reliable extent either of age or of delicacy. Of the decay of vital power it is certainly not conclusive proof. Consumptive patients and persons suffering from lingering disease are not, as a rule, bald, and more frequently than otherwise seem to put a great deal of strength into their hair.—Lon. don Globe.