The curious case of Howard Hughes' recession

[NickyA]

I rewatched The Aviator a couple days ago and read more about Howard Hughes' life and chuckled after seeing some of his photos. Many people here would have told the guy to hop on finasteride in his twenties had he lived in this age and made a thread here, but it seems like he never went past NW3-3.5, despite all the stress he went through, his drug abuse and crippling OCD.

Howard R. Hughes, Sr.:

Howard R. Hughes Jr. (Born in 1905):

1921, as a teenager:

1930, beside a film crew on set:

1940s: Fivehead status: Achieved!

1950s and old:

 

[Will Be an Egg in 5 years]

God getting old is depressing. The last par of pictures are Sad. I wanna die Young.

About his hair, yep, his recession didn't look that bad. I'd hate that NW3 on me tough. My father looked fine with a NW1 in his 60s, would look atrocious with receded temples.

Temple recession only suits older looking, no matter what age.

 

[NickyA]

God getting old is depressing. The last par of pictures are Sad. I wanna die Young.

About his hair, yep, his recession didn't look that bad. I'd hate that NW3 on me tough. My father looked fine with a NW1 in his 60s, would look atrocious with receded temples.

Temple recession only suits older looking, no matter what age.

Well the guy did have a pretty stressful life and many issues, most people didn't exercise at all back then either.

He definitely had the right face to pull off that kinda recession, much like Jack Nicholson. Put that hairstyle on Conan O'Brien for example and he'd look terrible lol. Nowadays men have many different hairstyles that are socially acceptable tho, back then they only had like 4 or 5 popular haircuts.

 

[justinbieberscombover]

My father stayed nw3 for decades too. Back then balding wasn't as aggressive for some reason. Now you can lose all your hair in a few years

 

[Will Be an Egg in 5 years]

My father stayed nw3 for decades too. Back then balding wasn't as aggressive for some reason. Now you can lose all your hair in a few years

Nobody shaved back then, no matter how little hair you had. So even NW7 wouldn't look that bald.

 

[justinbieberscombover]

Nobody shaved back then, no matter how little hair you had. So even NW7 wouldn't look that bald.

It should be this way now too. Dudes panic and surrender to the shave it all off meme over every little sign of balding nowadays lmao, and then they end up looking like a nut. When I look at r/bald most of them looked better in the before pics, all they needed was a fade and a trim. The bald look is empty and boring. A few guys can pull it off but most don't.

 

[NickyA]

My father stayed nw3 for decades too. Back then balding wasn't as aggressive for some reason. Now you can lose all your hair in a few years

Yeah I've read theories that baldness is a triplet repetition condition to a certain extent, which means that with each subsequent generation there's a chance that you'll develop it earlier, much like Huntington's where the dad gets it in his seventies, the son may get it in his 50s-60s and the grandson in his 30s-40s. Other theories are that it's exacerbated due to Vitamin D deficiency, harsher shampoos or better nutrition, which raises Testosterone and DHT levels.

 

[Haironnu]

Yeah I've read theories that baldness is a triplet repetition condition to a certain extent, which means that with each subsequent generation there's a chance that you'll develop it earlier, much like Huntington's where the dad gets it in his seventies, the son may get it in his 50s-60s and the grandson in his 30s-40s. Other theories are that it's exacerbated due to Vitamin D deficiency, harsher shampoos or better nutrition, which raises Testosterone and DHT levels.

so you're saying eat sh*t diet to have better hair?
no wonder all those homeless people have nw1 thick head of hair!

 

[NickyA]

so you're saying eat sh*t diet to have better hair?
no wonder all those homeless people have nw1 thick head of hair!

Personally I wouldn't just put all the blame on diet, in my opinion baldness is a multifactorial disease, much like type 2 diabetes, hypertension or schizophrenia: It has a genetic component not tied to a single genetic loci (Nowadays we're almost sure on this for baldness) and is also influenced by environmental factors such as lifestyle, stress and diet. I doubt eating less or following a medieval diet would have much impact, but for example the same healthy and balanced diet for kids and teenagers that has allowed a steady raise in height and IQ in developed countries could be partly the culprit of earlier alopecia.