Ugly is the field without grass, the bush without leaves, and the head without hair.
This quote from the Roman poet Ovid makes it clear that bald men already had it difficult in ancient times. In Egypt, Greece or Rome, baldness was not very well received and was interpreted with the loss of vigor or masculinity -and that hurts a man-. Therefore, the use of wigs was common, trying to camouflage alopecia with true works of capillary engineering (ensaimada type, letting the hair grow in the back and combing it forward...), directly covering the head or using some of the treatments of the time.
A remedy used in ancient Egypt, included in the Ebers Papyrus , one of the oldest medical treatises written around 1500 BC, was to recite a magic spell to the god Ra (god of the Sun) and then rub his head with a mixture of onions, iron, red lead, honey and alabaster. Given the lack of results, the Egyptians left Ra for other tasks and focused on the miraculous ointment. This time, and using "logic", the ingredients of the ointment in question would be the fat of the most powerful and feared animals in the region:lion, hippopotamus, crocodile and snake (the lion also "provided" its beautiful hair). Needless to say, the results were not as expected.
In Greece it would be Hippocrates , the considered father of medicine, the one who would worry and deal with the subject. And I say worry because he himself suffered from hair loss. He began treating his illustrious head with a mixture of horseradish, cumin, pigeon droppings and nettles. Seeing any of the busts in which he is represented you will get an idea of how he fared. Even so, the study and concern for the subject have been recognized:Hippocratic wreath (crown or garland of Hippocrates), this is the name given to the hair that remains around the bald spot (crown) on the sides and in the back.
Of course, observing that the eunuchs did not go bald, he was the first to relate the loss of hair and sexual organs or, better said, the "non-loss" in the absence of sexual organs. He didn't know why, but scientists managed to prove it in the 20th century:since eunuchs had their testicles removed, responsible for producing most of the androgens, they didn't produce DHT (dihydrotestosterone ), largely responsible for male pattern baldness, and therefore they did not lose their hair. So, castration could be a cure... but who was the handsome one who would lend himself to it.
An extreme case, due to the character in question and the peculiar method used, was that of Julius Caesar, who requested permission from the Senate to allow him to permanently wear the laurea crown , the laurel wreath with which the victorious generals were crowned when they entered Rome and which, later, the emperors made their own.
Same Aristotle he was right when he said that hair only falls out to the most libidinous…
The cause is that lasciviousness cools the upper parts of the body, which have little blood, so that food is not digested there and, not receiving food, the hair falls out.
I suppose there is no need to clarify where the blood and food that the upper parts of the body lack is.