It's definitely more socially acceptable now than it was in earlier times. Do you remember the bald guy episode from Seinfeld? While it was not shocking that the guy had a bald head, it was certainly unusual enough for Jerry to remark "Is he from the future?"

Only anecdotal, but my father always tells that the original skin heads when he was a young man were so transgressive as the hair cut was usually one of weakness. It was the cut of prisoners, insane asylum inmates, prisoners of war etc.

At the time it was in no way considered manly or even threatening. It was truly a statement that we likely can't imagine now.

But it rapidly became the haircut of the working class, especially factory workers. It's really nice to have very short hair in dirty, greasy environments.

I decided I liked a buzz-cut when I was in university. My mother's reaction when she saw it over a videocall was that I looked like a criminal.

My mom liked so-called "clean cut" guys (military background), so she made my brother and I buzz our hair growing up. Now my hair is now over a foot long and her reaction is that I also look like a criminal.

Heh, my father is a military man and growing up we always had our hair cut short. Several years ago I started growing my hair out and was ready for barrage of “hippie” jokes or whatever else would come with that.

Surprisingly it never happened. In fact my parents were really surprised. My youngest brother (nearly 20 year age difference) has a very curly head full of hair and it turns out mine also gets very curly/could with some length. Never new that was in our genetics.

The Islamic State forbade shaving one’s beard, but I don’t think they had similar rules for shaving one’s head. If they had, they must have made exceptions for pilgrims, as shaving one’s head after one is part of the rituals around (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihram#Behaviour_and_cleanlines...)

As a tall, skinny white guy who also likes leather jackets, I fear if I shave my head I'll be lumped in with the neo nazi sympathisers.

So you think every skinny white guy who also likes leather jackets is a neo nazi sympathiser? Don't assume/worry what others think about your look

Your look is a message, it's something you chose and thus he should be aware of it.

"You can't fire me, I quit!"

in indian culture, one shaves the head when one is mourning, lost their dear ones (parents).

also, there is the practice of tonsuring one's head to offer the hair to the gods (as a sign of humility)

and, historically, losers have their heads tonsured to show their weakness, also a punishment for petty theft, like stealing cattle, etc

In the Indian culture, it was also expected for the Priestly caste to shave their heads (with the exception of the shikha. Side note: when Brahmins would mourn for the death of their parent, they wouldn't shave the shikha, it would instead be left open & unknotted) - there's a certain traditional cultural cache in India with shaved heads.

Wasn't common for white guys until relatively recently. It was a common hacky baldness joke in the 80s and 90s to say "if I was a black guy, I'd shave it all off!" Probably increased at around the same time as the hipster beard thing.

>has it ever been not socially acceptable to shave your head...?

Yes, if you took the Nazarite oath (think Samson in the Bible).