Q: Is there an evolutionary benefit or reason for male pattern baldness? Or is it a problem worth solving? Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying answer this question and more in their most recent Locals Only Q&A.

Heather is still super into Bret and I think it’s VERY sweet🥰⚡️⚡️⚡️😇

Its deinosuchus. The giant alligator that she's trying think of. Was one of my favorites as a kid.

It's a defense mechanism! When a man has to much stress the body reacts by changing. So that females will leave it alone. It's the first line of defense for stress. Don't blame the head, it's just doing what it's designed to do.... 😅

Baldness is a downstream consequence of androgen-driven traits that helped ancestral men compete and reproduce, with maturity signaling as a bonus. Side benefits? Thermoregulation: Bald heads dissipate heat better during intense activity/endurance - useful for persistence hunting or hot climates. Parasite reduction: Less hair = fewer lice/fleas and easier wound detection. Vitamin D: More scalp exposure for UVB → Vitamin D synthesis, potentially aiding bone density (especially in low-efficiency VDR genotypes) or other health in higher latitudes.

I've always thought it was to increase sun exposure - make Vit D and whatever other benefits needed as one gets older.

This guys balding too. He’s covering it up with his bangs

Only on the DarkHorsePodcast can we start with male pattern baldness and venture into the developmental potential of crocodillians. That's why I love you two.

Imagine going through this without realizing that this dork is wearing a wig

Wait, this guy is asked about male baldness like he is an expert but doesn’t know the simple facts about why it affects males more than females. Testosterone and DHT brah!

Hair on the top of our heads isn't adaptive. It's a spandrel. Both neural tissue and hair develop from the ectoderm. The neotonous processes by which proto-humans became humans involved continuing the juvenile growth patterns for longer times. Hence with chimps, they will reach a point where the juvenile skull looks much like an adult human skull, but as it gets larger, the shape moves to the chimp adult shape. The genetic changes by which humans got larger skulls and larger brains came from taking the juvenile growth pattern in the head and prolonging it. While this was occurring, the rest of the body slowed its development. But the goal wasn't giganitism where all parts of juvenile patterns of growth extend indefinitely. It's to see the head grow further and further to increase brain size, which is adaptive. Every other part of the body effectively was slowed relative to the growth of the head Hence did humans develop heads larger than the rest. This process had two effects relevant to the discussion: 1) The retardation of the body's development helped to retain the vertical disposition of the spine relative to the head, facilitating the upright heads that baby chimps have as they cling to their mothers. But it also slowed the development of hair. The neotony driven to delay maturation to simian adult skull shape also slowed the progression to thick body fur. 2) But the head differentiated to extend the growth period. I suspect we will discover that the developmental signal cascade that prolongs the growth of the head also kicks hair follicles to produce hair, but only in the parts of the ectoderm adjacent to cephalic expansion. Its a side-effect of the driving force for big brains. So what about male pattern baldness? Neotony cannot indefinitely force the organism to remain always and everywhere juvenile. So in humans, upon puberty, the hormones that produce secondary sex characteristics force maturation to adult anatomy in the places where sex glands are most active: namely, the pubis and the arm pits. Males have an added driver to the development of the jaw, as jaws are important in the primal fighting patterns of simians. All of this points to hair follicles being sensitive to kicking up to a degree in the presence of adult sex hormones. This triggers movement from bald to hairy in some places, but in the hair that's always been in overdrive relative to the rest of the body, in some individuals this pushes these follicles over the top. The pattern comes depending on whether an individual has scalp follicles that are highly sensitive to testosterone, and testosterone levels. The senescence is basically follicular burnout. Thoughts, @BretWeinstein and @HeatherEHeying? I've been musing on this for a long time.

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Is it possible that woman who had pattern baldness didn’t mate as much so the genetic frequency dropped?

I think these two are incredibly intelligent at what they know and do, but I can’t help but think of the SNL skit while listening to their podcast. The one where the “shwetty balls” recipe is served up and they eat them while commenting on them.

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don’t change it. it is an evolutionary development to ensure that not only kings, but also paupers are rewarded for surviving and acquiring wisdom with a bright shiny crown.

You know why we go bald? Because of women like her. STFU

My hypothesis: it's a way of making men LESS attractive to women so that they have fewer distractions / temptations from women other than their mate and instead of "chasing skirt", they focus on raising their children.

You can tell he thinks about it a lot. Look at that terrible toupee. At least colour match. Why go for something that would suit a 22 year old face when you're like 60!?

It’s literally cpu cooling. It’s not that complicated.

Better Cooling

First thought: simply a reaction to loss of testosterone. Second thought: hair would insulate your point of greatest heat loss: the top of your head. Body heat regulation issues stemming from aging might create a need for less hair or more? It's there correlation between baldness and a tendency toward overheating? Between retaining hair and a tendency to be cold?

Can you please get to the point? I wasn’t planning to take a nap today.

I’m the author of the Solar Window Hypothesis, published in Medical Hypotheses (2026). I was very interested to see this clip of Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discussing whether male-pattern baldness has an evolutionary explanation or is simply a senescent failure. Their discussion of scalp hair as protection against UV is exactly what makes the exposed bald scalp biologically interesting. My hypothesis asks whether, in some ancestral environments, male-pattern baldness could have created a trade-off: less UV protection, but greater UVB access to a large, upward-facing skin surface, potentially enhancing cutaneous vitamin D production. I do not argue that baldness is universally beneficial, or that every case of AGA is an adaptation. Rather, I propose that the phenotype may have had context-dependent selective value, particularly under low-UV/high-latitude conditions and possibly in individuals with less efficient vitamin D/VDR biology. The strong male specificity that Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying also highlight is one of the reasons I think AGA deserves an evolutionary explanation beyond simple “senescent failure.” It remains a hypothesis—but importantly, a testable one.

EVOLUTIONARY BENEFIT 5+4+6+3+3+2+9+6+5+1+9+7+2+5+5+5+6+9+2={94} Interesting, the Essence of ‘Form Follows Function’ along with quite a few other resonant and enlightening (to your query) results: THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE 
2+8+9+5+5+4+9+5+5+1+9+6+5+1+3+1+7+1+3+5={94}

I just realized where I knew these two from..

or it’s something that happens after children so it can’t be selected out

Most men have some degree of male pattern baldness as they age. Recession in the temples shows more front lobe (ie-brain) inferring wisdom. Continued balding signals men are no longer part of mating. Women don’t bald as it’s the defining gender signal.

Maybe evolution was selecting for humans that would make and use hats.

My hair always stops growing at the midway point between the bottom of my ear and the top of my shoulder, despite desperately wanting shoulder length hair. But my hair also started turning grey at 16 and I was almost entirely white haired by age 35. Eyebrows still dark, so maybe my hair is weird.

Male pattern baldness? Well, if we originated from aquatic origins, rather than apes, then male pattern baldness gives you a slight advantage in swimming.

These people are so full of sh*t. “I don’t know anything about this but I’ll just see if I can make something up about uv” why don’t u at least google it?

“I’m too hairy..” “no, you’re perfect just the way you are”.. 🥰😋

There's a interesting high testosterone correlation with baldness. It may have become a sexual selection thing. Just throwing it out there.

Finasteride minoxidil derma stamping. Massage that minoxidil in after a nice derma stamp.

Gods punishment for Adams so the Eves would resent them after the fall