History Main / HairTodayGoneTomorrow

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'''s protagonist Saitama is totally bald but shown in flashback to have a full head of spiky hair. His explanation for his baldness is that his training regimen, which turned him into an InvincibleHero, also caused him to lose all his hair.

* ''Series/TrueDetective'': In season 1, Hart has a full head of hair in the 1990s flashbacks. In the present day, he sports a shaved head. Inverted by Cohle, who is clean-shaven in the 1990s flashbacks, but has a PornStache in the present day.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' first shows Meredith Quill as bald from chemotherapy as she's dying of cancer. The second film shows her from before she got sick when she has long blonde hair.
** While the present-day films all depict ComicBook/NickFury with [[Creator/SamuelLJackson his actor]]'s baldness, ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' is a [[TheNineties '90s]] PeriodPiece which features a younger Fury with a full head of hair.

* A variation in ''Film/TheGodfather'' – the film takes place over about a decade, during which Tom Hagen gradually loses his hair. (This was done simply by having actor Robert Duvall wear smaller and smaller toupees.) The sequel ''The Godfather Part II'' has Tom completely bald on top in the present day, but includes a flashback scene set prior to the first film where he has a full head of hair.

In many shows, when a bald character is shown in a {{Flashback}}, they're shown as having more hair in the past than they do in the present. Quite a lot more, in fact. This guy had such flowing locks that you would have to think he was punished by the hair gods for whatever reason.

* Mortadelo from the Spanish comic ''Comicbook/MortadeloYFilemon'' had exceptionally great and long locks before losing all of it thanks to a failed experiment by the comic's resident MadScientist, Profesor Bacterio.
* Yorick fears he is going bald toward the end of ''Comicbook/YTheLastMan'' and considers shaving his head if this happens. In a flashback in the DistantFinale, we see that's exactly what he's done, but his elderly self still has a good shock of white hair.
* One issue of ''ComicStrip/TwistedToyfareTheatre'' takes place mostly in TheSeventies, and ''everybody'' has an afro. Comicbook/ThePunisher, Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}, Man-Thing, everybody. The biggest, most funktastic afro of all belonged to the otherwise famously bald [[ComicBook/XMen Chuck Xavier]], the best dancer in town.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' first shows Meredith Quill as bald from chemotherapy as she's dying of cancer. The second film shows her from before she got sick when she has long blonde hair.

* ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamSeries''
** The Penguin, who is bald on top with a ring of hair on the sides and back in ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamCity'', is shown to have more hair in the prequel game ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamOrigins''. This is a downplayed example, however, since it's still pretty short and his hairline had already begun to recede at that point. In the sequel, ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', Penguin is completely bald, apparently having shaven the rest of his hair off.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** ''Bender's Big Score'' has a rare example that isn't down to the natural aging process. [[spoiler:"Lars," Leela's boyfriend and eventual fiancé who is bald, turns out to be the [[TemporalDuplication Temporal Duplicate]] that Fry left behind after briefly traveling back to his old era, who resumed Fry's life for twelve years before [[HumanPopsicle freezing himself again]] to find Leela, physically aging around 17 years in total. His baldness, though, is due to a time-traveling Bender blowing up his apartment and singing his hair off, and is actually a key part of the StableTimeLoop; recognizing himself as Lars after that incident was what spurred him to become Lars in the first place.]]

* Wallace of WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit is shown in a montage of photos at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' to have had a bushy head of curly hair, sideburns, and a mustache back when Gromit was a puppy.

** Discussed when Doc in 1955 sees a video of his 1985 self, and his first reaction is "Thank God I've still got my hair!" Granted, 1985 Doc's hair had turned white, stringy, and even more unkempt, but it was still ''there''.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Coach Z has no hair in the present, but in a flashback in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "stand-up" he's shown to have a FunnyAfro and a big, bushy mustache.

* Bill Dauterive of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is shown to have had a head full of EightiesHair in high school. Then he got it buzzed short when he joined the army. Then he started balding around the time that Hank and Peggy got married.

[-[[caption-width-right:243:His hair went the way of the doh-doh.]]-]

** Laurie's teenage self had RapunzelHair but in the present day, it's just above her shoulders.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "How Long Is Forever?", a FlashForward shows Beast Boy as a demoralized, balding, paunchy sideshow exhibit. Upon hearing of this back in the present, he yanks out a double handful of his own hair.

* ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'': Durkon Thundershield is a dwarf cleric who's completely bald on the top of his head, contrasting to his large beard. The ''Utterly Dwarfed'' storyarc features several flashbacks to Durkons childhood and early adulthood, showing that he had a normal head of hair as a child (along with a smaller beard, like all male dwarves), only for it to begin to receede at ''15 years old'', which is even worse than it sounds, because due to dwarves having a longer lifespan than humans, this would be the same age catagory as a human in ''kindergarten!'' By the time Durkon had finished his training and became a fully ordained cleric, he was completely bald. He's understandably a bit touchy about his hair loss.

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%%* [[AuthorAvatar Rayne's brother]] in ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo''.
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[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Coach Z has no hair in the present, but in a flashback in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "stand-up" he's shown to have a FunnyAfro and a big, bushy mustache.

* ''{{ComicBook/Foxtrot}}'': Roger's baldness is a constant source of worry to him. In one arc, Peter shaved his head for a bet, so Roger hung around with him as the no longer-baldest member of the family. Paid back with interest at the end of the arc when Peter's hair starts coming back.
--> '''Peter:''' Isn't it great how hair just grows back?

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kablam}}'': Bob of ''Prometheus and Bob'' used to have a full head of hair. He singed it all off with a laser in the first tape Prometheus took of him.

* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' depicts Stu, Howard and Drew with receding hairlines. Drew, being the oldest of the three, seems to have gotten it the worst.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kablam}}'': Bob of ''Prometheus and Bob'' used to have a full head of hair. It was singed by a laser in the first tape Prometheus took of him.

* {{Inverted|trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', where Lou Pickles meets an old navy buddy who has a full head of hair -- but is bald in the past. He's wearing a wig in the future.

In a broader use of the trope, the modern character may be known for a conservative business-like hairstyle only to reveal them as [[FormerTeenRebel a shaggy punk-rocker style as a teenager]]. It can be an effective visual shorthand [[ShowDontTell to show a scene is set in the past]], but also imply CharacterDevelopment in how a person has changed. Maybe he's undergone an ImportantHaircut to pick up a BaldOfAwesome by choice, or he's fallen from the heights of his youth to become a total loser. Maybe it adds to them being uncomfortable with a [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim particularly embarrassing or dated hairstyle]], showing his tendency to fall victim to fad fashions and being more mature now.

** The series establishes that a full-blooded Saiyan has a distinct hairstyle from the day he is born that never changes throughout his life. But this would contradict a flashback in which the normally bald Nappa is shown to have had hair when Vegeta was a child. Fans [[FanWank explained this]] by stating that while it's possible to shave a Saiyan, his hair would quickly grow back to its original shape (dovetailing nicely with a scene in the original ''Manga/DragonBall'' where Mercenary Tao cuts off some of Goku's hair, only for it to quickly grow back to normal) -- Nappa presumably is so dedicated to his BaldOfAwesome that he shaves his head very regularly.

* In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Charles Xavier, normally the owner of a BaldOfAwesome, is shown as having long hair in 1973. ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the next film, shows the unusual circumstances in which he lost that hair.

** While the present-day films all depict ComicBook/NickFury with [[Creator/SamuelLJackson his actor]]'s BaldOfAwesome, ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' is a [[TheNineties '90s]] PeriodPiece which features a younger Fury with a full head of hair.

** ''Bender's Big Score'' has a rare example that isn't down to the natural aging process. [[spoiler:"Lars," Leela's boyfriend and eventual fiancé who has a BaldOfAwesome thing going on, turns out to be the [[TemporalDuplication Temporal Duplicate]] that Fry left behind after briefly traveling back to his old era, who resumed Fry's life for twelve years before [[HumanPopsicle freezing himself again]] to find Leela, physically aging around 17 years in total. His baldness, though, is due to a time-traveling Bender blowing up his apartment and singing his hair off, and is actually a key part of the StableTimeLoop; recognizing himself as Lars after that incident was what spurred him to become Lars in the first place.]]

** Any episode set in the future has adult Milhouse sharing his father's baldness.

** Mr. Satan/Hercule goes the opposite direction, with his hair having fallen out between his prime in ''Dragon Ball Z'' and scenes twenty years later in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' episode "[[Recap/LiloAndStitchTheSeriesS1E3Clip Clip]]", Dr. Jumba Jookiba is shown to have had long, luxurious black hair before Experiment 177 (a.k.a. Clip) almost completely devoured it immediately after her creation.

* ‘’WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers’’: In “The Deepening”, a young Teddy is shown with shaggy blond surfer hair in a flashback to his time as an extra in a shark movie.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'', Jamie has a short bob but is shown to have been a hippie with RapunzelHair when Pepper Ann was a toddler.