The concept of "pretty privilege" is something I'd never really payed much attention to throughout life. I always focused on hard work, kindness, sincerity, positivity, and openness. I hit 30 recently, and while I had a lot of people who value me, I didn't really feel like I was being pulled in so much as proving my way into society.

So I started focusing on superficial stuff. Better clothes, better style, cologne, shit like that. I don't think these things alone would be enough to matter; I think it's really important to work on who you are on the inside before becoming a facade.

But holy fuck there's a difference. From what I can tell, being more or less attractive is the single biggest factor in how people will treat you.

And from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense: good looking is supposed to mean good genes, and good genes are precious.

Sorry if this is kind of a bummer thing to talk about, but I think the more aware of it we become as a species, the closer we'll get to recognizing our pre-programmed bias towards good looks and perhaps looking passed it to the actual quality of the character.

Also, I'm pretty sure every girl learns this the day they wear makeup, and then the day they don't.

> From what I can tell, being more or less attractive is the single biggest factor in how people will treat you.

Sadly, this is absolutely correct. I want to say I wish someone told me this sooner... but they kinda did... only in hints that were easy for me to misunderstand. Socially dumber people, like me, need to be told things less ambiguously.

Things like hard work, kindness, sincerity, positivity, openness... yes, they definitely contribute to long-term success and happiness. Problem is, your looks decide which doors will open for you. And it doesn't matter if hypothetically you could do a great job, if you are not allowed to try. On the other hand, if you get invited to many places, you get many opportunities to practice, so even if you suck at first, over time you improve.

There is this thing called "halo effect", which means that if you are attractive, people are going to assume all kinds of good things about you, without any evidence, sometimes despite the evidence to contrary.

> Also, I'm pretty sure every girl learns this the day they wear makeup, and then the day they don't.

With makeup, it is easy to make an A/B test. I wonder if we could borrow an artificial body and face for a day, how much that would change our priorities in life.

There's a great Sci-Fi short story by Ted Chiang called, "Liking What You See: A Documentary".

It's about a reversible procedure that inhibits the ability for people to detect prettiness 'calliagnosia'. They talk about 'lookism'.

It does an interesting job exploring what this would mean and the good and bad associated with it (which I think Ted Chiang always does a great job of).

It's definitely worth reading.

> And from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense: good looking is supposed to mean good genes, and good genes are precious.

There’s also other inferences you can draw, such as being disciplined enough to groom, having time and money to have clean, fitting clothes, etc.

Not sure why this is getting down voted, there are definitely evolutionary advantages to looking for secondary and tertiary indicators of health.

The biggest part of the transformation is his attitude towards it. If you don't make a big deal out of it, nobody else will.

Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Jony Ive are all media darlings in the tech industry, so clearly being bald isn't an impediment.

If you look at the acting world, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson all make it incredibly clear that baldness doesn't stop you from being considered a sex symbol.

WRT to Patrick Stewart / Picard - Roddenberry had this retort when asked about it by reporter about casting Stewart in Star Trek: TNG. "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." And Gene Roddenberry responded "No, by the 24th century, no one will care." Could by apocryphal, I'm too lazy to check. I've worried a fair bit about losing my hair and it use to take up a lot of head space. Since then though, I've acquired a chronic, mildly painful condition. I'm not as optimistic as Roddenberry however, I do now see being bald but in otherwise good health as still being very fortunate, more than many, perhaps most. It doesn't mean that we can't find ways to remedy it, but it helped me see it in a grander scheme. I just wear a hat now.

> WRT to Patrick Stewart / Picard - Roddenberry had this retort when asked about it by reporter about casting Stewart in Star Trek: TNG. "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." And Gene Roddenberry responded "No, by the 24th century, no one will care." Could by apocryphal, I'm too lazy to check.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Roddenberry took this position in response to outside questions once the decision was made, but if so it's a bit ironic given that it's also been widely reported (including by Stewart) that Roddenberry was openly anti-Stewart during the casting process for not having the look he wanted, in part because of his baldness.

As a (somewhat insecure) Asian guy, I have to say that skull shape matters. Some of us tend to have flat back of heads, which is less than ideal in Western beauty standards.

In my younger years I had my head buzzed to a near monk length (I was pretty obsessed with Buddhism at the time) and it did not look right. Friends commented that I looked 'intense.' While perfect for the monk persona, I was going for the more badass tough guy look. It was a tough few months.

Also, facial hair helps a lot, which I am unable to grow.

So I look forward to hair plugs if I ever start going bald.

fwiw I dont think anyone you encounter on the street even notices skull shape, don't sweat it..

Well, that list implies you have a built body so that the baldness is not a factor. If you're average or worse, it's not going to play the same way.

a built body is an achievable target for most men

Oh dear. He does look better with hair. I'm sure it's nice to say "No one cares about your hairloss other than you". But I don't think any metric in society would back that up.

Being bald was good for the careers of The Rock and Bruce Willis, but that only holds if you're not a fit tough guy with the right head shape.

That's the problem with bald, the pretty much the only 'stereotypically attractive' archetype you have is fit muscular action man.

The only non-fit celeb I can really think of that might be known as attractive is Patrick Stewart in TNG, and I'm not sure if he was considered attractive vs. more respected role model and leader.

I wouldn't put Willis in the category as particularly muscular. He's usually cast at the every man. What he does is exude man in his on screen confidence.

I don’t know if Willis would have succeeded today. I can’t think of any similar “every man” casting today. Maybe the new Jurassic Park guy? But I would say he’s much better looking than Willis.

He is above average in fitness and muscularity, and he is an action hero actor, so it's pretty close!

I know a number of women who made comments about wanting to jump captain Picard's bones back in the day, but I think that was as much about his aura of intelligence and authority as his looks.

Elon Musk is a great example of what is possible with hair transplants. He had severe balding at a very young age, and you would never know it today. I have a feeling that public perception of him would be quite a bit different if he still looked like his old self. Here is a before and after...the “before” image was taken in 2002:

https://pagesix-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/pagesix.com/wp-co...

Then there's Jeff who doesn't care.

There is a lot of stuff you don't have to care about when your a top ten wealthiest man in the world.

He does look tired and sickly on his younger picture, that doesn't help either.

Yeah Elon and Seth MacFarlane are touted as big examples. But basically every celebrity has had this done.

A lot of men get plastic surgery too.