The Armour Archive

I didn't want to derail the beard thread, but I had a similar (although perhaps sillier) question. I began losing my hair in a big way when I turned 20. Kind of unfun. But rather than succumb to the creeping death, I just shaved the mangy stuff off and have shaved my head ever since. A different kind of vanity than a toup, but vain just the same

Anyway, other than the monk's funky do, and the occasional poor soul whose hair fell out all on its own, is there any evidence of shaven domes in the middle ages (I'm thinking 13th/14th century)?

heretics were shaved, as were adulterers, but neither gtot to enjoy the cool breeze for very long... aside from that, i know not.

-+G

One of the dukes of Burgundy in 15th century suffered from a malady. To cure it doctors recommended shaving his head.
Bald head just happened to become a short lived fashion in the Burgundian court at the time.
I may be totally wrong, but if I recall correctly it would hav e happened to Philip the Good, maybe in the 1430s.

Another angle is that members of the military orders are supposed to have shaved their heads too. At leats the Teutonic order was supposed to keep beards together with shaved head.

Don't confuse the monk's "tonsure" for a completely shaved head. They are not remotely the same thing.