Out of these, Vin Diesel is the only one who has full head of hair but still shaves it. The rest do it because they are all bald. Just my observation :)
Interesting bit of trivia: for the early casting meetings on TNG, the producers got nervous about Patrick Stewart's baldness, and fitted him with a toupee. It didn't test well, which is probably for the best.
According to Patrick Stewart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOK-ZVJMaU), a reporter once told Gene Roddenberry that having a bald captain wasn't believable. By the 24th century they will have cured baldness. Roddenberry's responded that, by the 24th century, no one will care.
I also would have accepted the nerdier answer, which is that in the ST universe, humanity went through a whole genetic engineering craze (in the '90s!) that resulted in Khan and a lot of other madness. So we kind of avoided it after that, and just went au naturel with our gene pool.
The franchise actually did make a few attempts to circle back on this topic, usually as a convenient way of explaining why humans in the 24th century aren't all perfectly fit, hyperintelligent, post-Singularity badasses. Genetic engineering had become a taboo. This was highlighted in a DS9 episode, where Julian Bashir was hiding the fact that his parents GE'd his intelligence, coordination, etc. It was illegal, and he was worried he'd be kicked out of Starfleet.
Matthew Inman used the characters from Breaking Bad for an in-depth analysis called the Proximity to Violence vs. Amount of Hair on One's Head
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/breaking_bad_hair
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Walter White in the pilot - full head of hair and a mustache - he's hapless, blown hither and thither on a wayward course by cancerous winds.
Walter White by the end of season 4 - shaved head and a goatee - large and in charge.
See also Sisko in Season 1 of Deep Space 9 vs Sisko in Season 5.
Although I'm struggling to think of many more examples of hairless protagonists outside Star Trek.
Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Vin Diesel...
Out of these, Vin Diesel is the only one who has full head of hair but still shaves it. The rest do it because they are all bald. Just my observation :)
Vin Diesel is definitely balding. You can see it very clearly in xXx.
may be more recently. But certainly not as much as willis, stathom etc.
Interesting bit of trivia: for the early casting meetings on TNG, the producers got nervous about Patrick Stewart's baldness, and fitted him with a toupee. It didn't test well, which is probably for the best.
According to Patrick Stewart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOK-ZVJMaU), a reporter once told Gene Roddenberry that having a bald captain wasn't believable. By the 24th century they will have cured baldness. Roddenberry's responded that, by the 24th century, no one will care.
Love that response.
I also would have accepted the nerdier answer, which is that in the ST universe, humanity went through a whole genetic engineering craze (in the '90s!) that resulted in Khan and a lot of other madness. So we kind of avoided it after that, and just went au naturel with our gene pool.
The franchise actually did make a few attempts to circle back on this topic, usually as a convenient way of explaining why humans in the 24th century aren't all perfectly fit, hyperintelligent, post-Singularity badasses. Genetic engineering had become a taboo. This was highlighted in a DS9 episode, where Julian Bashir was hiding the fact that his parents GE'd his intelligence, coordination, etc. It was illegal, and he was worried he'd be kicked out of Starfleet.
Here's one more: Michael Chiklis in The Shield.
Ah, very true, yes - and he's definitely in the uber-manly-man role there.
Matthew Inman used the characters from Breaking Bad for an in-depth analysis called the Proximity to Violence vs. Amount of Hair on One's Head http://theoatmeal.com/comics/breaking_bad_hair