Prince William Takes it All Off, and Other Hairless Heads of State

Prince William Takes it All Off, and Other Hairless Heads of State

Prince William Takes it All Off, and Other Hairless Heads of State

Even if you don't follow the royals (hi, most Americans), you probably still glean a few tidbits about them, like that Prince Harry recently got engaged to (divorced!) (American!) (actress!) Meghan Markle.

You might also have noticed that the second in line to the throne, Prince William, has been showing more and more skin on top of his head.

Well!

A few weeks ago he took the action taken by so many balding men and women before him, and shaved it all off. Rather, someone else shaved it nearly all off (BBC News calls it a very close military-style cut), for (according to some reports) 180 GBP, or about $252.

Never fear, the British press was all over this news. BBC News also reported that the Duchess of Cambridge and Harry have both ribbed William over the hair loss.

But it's not like he doesn't have company in terms of hairless leaders: Eisenhower, Churchill, Lenin, Gandhi...

A popularly held belief in Russia holds that a hairy leader will be followed by a bald one, who is then followed by another leader with hair. This alternating-scalps phenomenon goes all the way back to Tsar Nicholas in 1825.

At least onestudy, oft-cited in these parts, justifies heads of state being hairless, showing that people tend to see bald men as dominant and leaders.

Of course, the canon of bald leaders isn't limited to benevolent leaders. The genes for balding aren't limited to any type of ruler, and there are plenty of bald baddies...but that's a topic for another post.

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