Line #144 Main/HairTodayGoneTomorrow


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4	[[quoteright:243:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hair_today_gone_tomorrow_homer.jpg]]]]
5	[-[[caption-width-right:243:His hair went the way of the [[{{Pun}} doh-doh]].]]-]
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10	In many films and TV 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.
11
12	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 be bald 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.
13
14	In the strictest practical sense, it's also a lot easier and more convincing for a bald actor to wear a long-haired wig than to make a realistic-looking shorter haircut. It also makes it clearer that this is a younger version of the character played by the same actor, avoiding the hassle and expense of finding a TimeShiftedActor. But the strength of the trope allows it to be used even in animation.
15
16	This trope can look forward, too -- a character with hair in the present might be shown to be bald in the future, either because he's ''really'' old or to hammer home the idea that he's a FutureLoser.
17
18	Evidently this can be TruthInTelevision. Just because someone had thick hair when they were young does NOT mean they won't lose it all as they age. Since baldness is genetic, there is a wide amount of variation in how it happens to different people. [[note]]As a rule of thumb: a man should go bald in the same way and starting at the same age that his mother's father did (because oddly enough this is a trait on the X chromosome, so it's your mom's genes that decide it). It is also important to note that haircuts cost money. Men might take to shaving their hair because they simply don't have enough of it to justify the cost of the haircut. So just because a man is bald doesn't mean his scalp no longer grows hair at all. Also, depending on his cowlick pattern he may end up with patches of hair surrounded by bald areas. Since this can look rather silly, a lot of men will opt to just shave it all.[[/note]]
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20	Opposite of RapidHairGrowth. Can overlap with, but is not to be confused with FunnyFlashbackHaircut, where a haircut in a flashback can take all sorts of shapes or [[HairstyleInertia not change at all]] as a joke. Compare NeverTrustAHairTonic, for when bald characters try (and fail) to recapture their once-glorious hair. Contrast PrematurelyBald, which is a common {{subversion}} of this trope -- you'd expect the character to have had hair when he was younger, but he didn't.
21
22	----
23	!!Examples:
24
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
28	* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Genma Saotome is shown as having had prodigious and unruly locks when he was younger -- and he's not happy about being completely bald now. He's gone to crazy lengths to get his hair back, including a scheme where his son would go bald in his place. The silliest was a ShoutOut to ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', where he uses a [[NeverTrustAHairTonic hair tonic]] that gives him immense, nearly vertical AnimeHair that stands up in spikes -- but only when he's angry, and it falls off if he so much as cracks a smile.
29	* From ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', a series otherwise famous for its prodigious AnimeHair:
30	** 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 baldness that he shaves his head very regularly.
31	** Master Roshi is shown to have had a full head of hair when he was a teenager -- using himself as a contrast to Krillin, who regularly shaves his head because that's what all great fighters do.
32	** Mr. Satan/Hercule goes the opposite direction, with his hair having fallen out between ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' and the DistantFinale of ''Dragon Ball Z''.
33	* In ''VideoGame/ArcanaFamiglia'', Dante has hair in Liberta's flashbacks. He seems to grow it back in the sequel.
34	* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'''s protagonist Saitama is totally bald but shown in flashback to have a full head of spiky hair. Not much actual time passed; Saitama claims his training regimen, which turned him into an InvincibleHero, also caused him to lose all his hair.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Comic Books]]
38	* 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.
39	* 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.
40	* 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.
41	* The ''Film/NationalLampoon'' did a fotonovela story "Too Old for Menudo", where a member of the boy band says his mandatory goodbyes on his 15th birthday. The next morning he finds he's turned middle-aged and bald, and can't land a singing job anywhere.
42	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Judge Shenker, the head of Psi-Division, started out with hair, but he later lost all of it.
43	* Flashbacks to Lex Luthor's youth in {{ComicBook/Superman}} show him with a full head of red hair. In the Post-Crisis reboot, he hadn't entirely lost it by the time Superman appears on the scene, but he's fighting rapid balding by wearing what remains of it surprisingly long for a man of his position and personality.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46
47	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
48	* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' is known to play with its characters in this way. In one strip, showing the office in 1985, 1990, and 1995, Wally is shown progressively going from a full head of hair to bald (and he's shown to have had a FunnyAfro in TheSeventies). The PointyHairedBoss' hairstyle also changes when he's shown in the past, as a MythologyGag to [[ArtEvolution his previous character designs]]. Only Dilbert never changes.
49	* Walt from ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' had bushy, curly hair as a teenager. Jeremy's dismissive attitude towards hair is a constant source of pain to him.
50	* ''{{ComicBook/Foxtrot}}'': Roger's baldness is a constant source of worry to him.
51	** 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.
52	---> '''Peter:''' Isn't it great how hair just grows back?
53	** In an arc where Roger and Andy look at old photos of their children, Andy mentions that Roger had a perm around the time Jason was a toddler.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56
57	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
58	* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'':
59	** 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''. In ''Part II'', Doc mentions that he got a rejuvenation in the future that includes a hair repair and his hair appears a bit fuller afterwards.
60	** Defied with [[DeanBitterman Strickland]], who was almost as bald in 1955 as he is in 1985.
61	-->'''Marty:''' That's Strickland! Jesus, didn't that guy ever have hair?''
62	** Biff had a full head of hair in 1955, but the various versions of 1985 consistently show him with a combover. In 2015, his remaining hair is even more sparse.
63	* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', [[MadScientist the Doctor]] is shown to have short hair in flashbacks. He is bald in the present, but tries to hide it with a wig.
64	* Lou in ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' is as bald as the actor who plays him, Creator/RobCorddry. But in the past, he's got a full head of hair. He first notices this in the mirror -- while taking a leak, not caring about his degraded aim while he admires his former glory.
65	* The ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series has an unintentional and amusingly extreme example: In ''Film/FridayThe13thPart2'', Jason has an impressive mane of hair, but in ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII Part III]]'', he's completely bald -- even though it takes place only a day after ''Part 2''.
66	* In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Charles Xavier, one of the most notable ChromeDomePsi characters, is shown as having long hair in 1973. ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the next film, shows the unusual circumstances in which he lost that hair.
67	* ''Film/AGuideToRecognizingYourSaints'':
68	** Monti has a full head of hair in the 1980s portions but is balding in the 2006 ones.
69	** Laurie's teenage self had long hair but in the present day, it's just above her shoulders.
70	** Inverted with Nerf and Antonio, who had short hair as teenagers but grew it out as adults.
71	* Jenko in ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet'' isn't bald but has a very short haircut. A flashback to [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim his teen years]] shows him with much longer hair.
72	* Carolyn in ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' is codified with PowerHair to project her image as a successful businesswoman. Flashbacks to her youth, where Lester describes her as happier, show her hair long.
73	* Inverted in ''Film/TheAgeOfAdaline'': The eponymous character has long hair in the present, but short hair in the past, reflecting a period when short hair was [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim the height of fashion]].
74	* In ''Film/SpiceWorld'', the girls' friend Nicola has short hair in the present. In a flashback to when the girls were a struggling group, she's shown with long hair down to her waist.
75	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
76	** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' first shows Meredith Quill as bald from chemotherapy as she's dying of cancer. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 The sequel]] shows her from before she got sick when she has long blonde hair.
77	** While the present-day films all depict ComicBook/NickFury with [[Creator/SamuelLJackson his actor]]'s baldness, ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' is a [[TheNineties '90s]] PeriodPiece, and consequently, features a younger Fury with a full head of hair.
78	* In ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'', one of Giles' great regrets is that he no longer has the hair he had in his youth. He resorts to wearing a toupee when he wants to impress people, such as the diner owner. He is overjoyed when [[spoiler:the Asset uses his HealingTouch to cause his hair to regrow]].
79	* 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 the balding Creator/RobertDuvall 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.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
83	* In ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', Balding Mr. Belding is shown to have a hippie-esque head of hair in a FlashBack to his student radio days.
84	* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
85	** George Costanza, the series' resident expert on baldness, is shown in {{flashback}} to have had much more hair when he was younger. But he was no less of a loser in the past than he is in the present.
86	** Elaine dates a man who shaves his head but discovers an old ID of his showing him with long, flowing locks. She's totally enamored with that hair, so she asks him to grow it back -- only for him to discover that it's not growing back evenly, and he's "going bald" (even though he's ''already'' bald). In keeping with this trope, he sinks into a depression at becoming a loser; he even goes to George for advice on what to do, and they both treat it as if going bald [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything is a fatal diagnosis]].
87	* Subverted in the ''Series/{{Lost}}'' episode "Deus Ex Machina", which shows a flashback of Locke that appears to show him with hair, only for it to turn out to be a very DodgyToupee.
88	* On ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
89	** Turk shaves his head in the present but is shown with hair in flashbacks. It has degraded, though, as it grows back in awkward patches when he tries to grow it back. One silly flashback, though, shows that he lost his hair by tearing it out in frustration after JD's scatter-brain costs him a chance to see Michael Jordan play live.
90	** Resident ButtMonkey Ted is shown as balding, but is occasionally shown in flashback with more hair, showing a time before it all fell apart for him.
91	* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Series/{{Psych}}'', as Corbin Bernsen plays Shawn's father in the series and wears a wig in nearly all the flashbacks (at least those set when Shawn was a preteen).
92	-->'''Shawn:''' Slap a wig on you, you're a dead ringer for when I was a kid.
93	* A ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode had Pete explain that he almost got into the Olympics in 1980, but that year the Olympics were in [[UsefulNotes/SovietUnion Moscow]] and the U.S. boycotted them. The accompanying flashback shows Pete, who is bald in ThePresentDay, having a full head of hair (and an impressive moustache) back in 1980.
94	* One ''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour'' was about how Lucy and Ricky met. Young Fred has a full head of hair that he is ''very'' proud of, causing Ethel to comment that one day he's going to lose it all.
95	* Almost everyone in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', when shown in {{flashback}} to 25 years in the past, will have more or different hair. The most subtle example is Joy, who is shown wearing her hair down in scenes before she had kids but nearly always wears hair bands in the present day.
96	* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', several flashbacks and one comment by Starfleet Academy's [[AlmightyJanitor groundkeeper]] reveal that Picard once had hair. [[SeriesContinuityError Curiously]], there is also a photograph of a bald Cadet Picard in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. Maybe he experimented with a buzz-cut but let it grow back?
97	* On a related note, Ben Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' shaved his head and grew a goatee between seasons (which, incidentally, became the TropeNamer for [[GrowingTheBeard another trope]]). The Doylist reason for this was that Avery Brooks had been playing another role that called for him to do so in the interim and there wasn't time for it to grow back before shooting commenced, but audience reception to the new look was enthusiastically positive and it stuck for the rest of the series. In-universe it seems he just felt like a change.
98	* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' used a version of this trope in its flashback to the pilot episode of ''Tool Time'': Tim, usually clean-shaven, is shown with a beard, while Al, who usually has a beard, is clean-shaven.
99	* One game of "Weird Newscasters" on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' had Ryan acting out the entire life of Colin, and made sure to have him ''losing his hair'' in one part.
100	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
101	** Flashbacks to Wilson Fisk's childhood show him with a full head of hair.
102	** Inverted with Matt, who is pointedly shown without his PermaStubble in flashbacks to when he and Elektra were in college.
103	* In the ''Series/MrShow'' sketch, the host of the "Pre-Taped Call-In Radio Show"[[note]]which records all shows a week in advance[[/note]] is shown to have had a full head of hair when the show first went on the air. By a month into the show, his exasperation with oblivious callers who are unaware of the pre-taped nature of the show has caused him to lose most of his hair.
104	* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', [[Creator/BryanCranston Walter White]] shaved his head and adapted his iconic bald look after starting chemotherapy. Thus, the trope is in effect for flashbacks of Walt working at Gray Matter in season 2, or Walt house-shopping with Skyler in season 3. He was also seen as a graduate student with longer hair than we've ever seen on the show.
105	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'':
106	** Carey has a pixie haircut. In a home video of when the twins were babies, she's shown with long hair.
107	** A flashback to TheSeventies shows that Mr. Moseby, who is balding in the present day, once had a large afro.
108	* ''{{Series/Charmed\|1998}}'''s Penny was depicted with short hair in the 90s up until she died. Flashbacks to her younger self in the 60s -- when she was a hippie -- show that her hair was quite long. And in another flashback to after Patty's death when Piper was still a child, she's shown to have long hair again (when it was short in "That 70s Episode", which chronologically takes place before the latter flashback).
109	* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Hell Week" a picture is shown of Mac as a physics grad student. He still had the mullet but also had a nifty PornStache.
110	* ''Series/{{Reba}}'' has the title character having short hair in the early seasons, but most flashbacks showed her with lots of EightiesHair similar to the real-life Reba [=McEntire=].
111	* ''Series/{{Titus}}'' has numerous flashbacks to the characters in high school, still played by the adult actors. Everyone had slightly different hairstyles, but Titus had long EightiesHair contrasting his modern business cut. One episode had a news report of the cast being arrested, and the only photo they could find of Titus was of him in high school.
112	* ''Series/{{Norsemen}}'': Season 3 is a prequel to the first two seasons and shows that Jarl Varg used to be very proud of his full head of hair and a pretty nice guy. Then he developed a bald spot, another jarl made fun of it, and he snapped, becoming the hairless psychopath introduced in season 1.
113	* ''Series/TrueDetective'': In season 1, Marty Hart has a full head of hair in the 1990s flashbacks. In the present day, he sports a shaved head. Inverted by Rust Cohle, who is clean-shaven in the 1990s flashbacks, but has a PornStache in the present day.
114	* Bob Duncan from ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' is a balding middle-aged man who used to have thick hair as a teenager, similar to PJ's. However, by the time he was 25, he already started to lose hair. In one episode, PJ grows paranoid about losing his hair.
115	* ''Series/LazyTown'': One episode depicted Milford in the past with a fuller head of hair than he has in the present.
116	* ''Series/LateNightWithDavidLetterman'': On the Top 10 list "Top 10 Things Overheard at Our First Show" Dave mentions, "It would be a shame if that bandleader ever lost his magnificent head of hair." An obvious joke, [[DontExplainTheJoke since Paul Shaffer had been bald well before the show began.]]
117	* ''Series/{{Veep}}'': A flashback to the earliest days of Selina's political career shows that both Gary and Mike, both of whom have short and thinning heads of hair in the present day, had far fuller heads of hair back in the 1990s. Gary even had a mullet back then.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Video Games]]
121	* The Pond Owner in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has a full head of hair when Link is a child. When seeing him again as Adult Link, he wears a hat. If you catch his hat with your fishing rod, it reveals that he's balding.
122	* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries''
123	** 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.
124	** Also from ''Arkham Origins'', the Joker lacks the receding hairline he had in ''Asylum'' and ''City''.
125	** The Mad Hatter is like this as well, Having a full head of medium-length hair in ''Origins'', a bald spot in ''City'' and completely bald on top in ''Knight''.
126	** Mr. Freeze is an inversion, as the accident that transformed him left him bald, but he managed to grow his hair back in ''Knight''.
127	** In ''Knight'', Alfred's hairline has receded a fair bit since ''Origins'', where he had a full head of hair.
128	* In ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', prices are paid for pacts with aspects from the human body, be they literal (loss of sight, voice, etc) or metaphorical (loss of 'time', or happiness). Verdelet is a man who made a pact with a petrified dragon on a whim and lost his pretty boy hair in the deal. Comparatively speaking this is a fairly tame price with no real drawbacks considering a lot of pact prices are physically debilitating, but as they also tend to be ironic punishments, it can be inferred that Verdelet very much prized his hair.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
132	* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', we see balding prosecutor Winston Payne in flashback with a pompadour. We also see how he loses it: [[spoiler:he's so shocked at losing a case that his hair ''explodes''.]]
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Webcomics]]
136	* ''Webcomic/PvP'': Cole Phelps has been mostly bald for the entirety of the comics run, and more than a few bald jokes have been made at his expense. One flashback storyarc to the creation of the magazine shows that Cole had a full head of brown hair in college. A photo of him alongside his wife and young son, stated to have been taken only a few years after graduation, shows him with the lack of hair he has in present day.
137	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': 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.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Web Original]]
141	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'':
142	** 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.
143	** Strong Mad also has no hair, but the sbemails "high school" and "imaginary" portray him with red, curly hair in his teenage years.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Western Animation]]
147	* ''WesternAnimation/FiftyFiftyHeroes'': In the cartoon's present time, Mr. Brick is a balding man who wears a wig that doesn't hide his baldness. Ten years before, he had way more hair. It's the first thing Mo and Sam see when they go back ten years in time.
148	* Dr. Thaddeus Venture of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is bald in the present and shown with more hair in the past, but he starts rapidly balding when he's still a teenager. This may or may not have been a result of [[spoiler: his deformed twin brother residing in his abdomen and thus ruining his hormone balance.]] Or perhaps he was just taxing it too much by trying to grow it out.
149	* Pickles of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' is a direct parody of [[Music/GunsNRoses Axl Rose]]. He tries to cover his receding hairline with a dreadlock comb-over.
150	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
151	** Homer Simpson is the epitome of [[ThisLoserIsYou the bald loser]], and he's always shown as having had much more hair when he was younger. However, given the show's NegativeContinuity, there are [[MultipleChoicePast multiple conflicting accounts]] of ''how'' he lost his hair:
152	*** One episode shows him tearing his hair out while freaking out on being informed by Marge that she's pregnant, all three times it happens -- by the time she gets pregnant with Maggie, he's torn his hair out to the point that he's as bald as he is today.
153	*** Another episode shows that he lost it while participating in an Army medical research project, which he signed up for to avoid having dinner with Patty and Selma.
154	*** "Kamp Krusty" shows Homer's hair beginning to grow back when the kids are out of the house. The second he sees on TV that Bart has commandeered the camp, all his newfound hair falls out, implying it fell out the first time due to the stress of raising them.
155	** A flashback to Mr. Burns' childhood shows him with enormous golden curls, a visual reference to a stereotypical image of a wealthy boy in TheGayNineties.
156	*** "Simpson And Delilah" reveals that Mr. Burns used to have a full head of red, curly hair in college, only for it to receede almost completely by his senior year.
157	** Inverted in "Lisa's First Word", which shows Marge's famous beehive hairdo as being much shorter when she was younger.
158	** Played with in an episode where a flashback to a young Kirk van Houten shows him with really long hair -- only for him to shake it out and reveal that he's already bald on the very top of his head.
159	** Every episode set in the future has adult Milhouse sharing his father's baldness.
160	* In the first "flashback" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}},'' Dr. Otto Scratchansniff is depicted with a full head of gray, Einstein-esque hair. By the time his first meeting with the Warners is over, he's pulled out every follicle on his head in frustration and remains bald for the rest of the series.
161	* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': When Sonic and Sally go back in time, the in-the-present nearly hairless henchman Snively is shown with a full head of hair that he's quite proud of. An encounter with Sonic's super-speed causes him to lose it all.
162	* In his youth, [[SternTeacher Mr. Lancer]] in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' [[http://dannyphantom.wikia.com/wiki/File:S01e09_Lancer_the_cheerleader.png used to have a full set of hair]]. He still grows his hair, all over his body -- ''except'' on his head.
163	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
164	** Professor Farnsworth is almost always shown with hair in flashback, even when he's as old as 130. In "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", where the entire cast starts to [[FountainOfYouth age backwards]], Farnsworth is shown with a bodacious FunnyAfro.
165	** Spoofed in "Möbius Dick": a flashback to Planet Express' first delivery fifty years earlier shows Zoidberg with hair, even though [[NonMammalianHair Zoidberg is an alien lobster-thing]]. Amy [[LampshadeHanging questions]] this impossibility, to which Farnsworth claims he never mentioned that Zoidberg had hair; that's just how the others were imagining him.
166	** ''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 {{Temporal Duplicat\|ion}}e 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.]]
167	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Squidward is shown with hair in a flashback that he constantly fawns over during the episode where the Krusty Krab's old fry cook comes to visit. In the flashback, Jim tells Squidward they should open their own restaurant together. Squidward declines, saying he's just working at the Krusty Krab until his clarinet career takes off. When Jim then says he should have something to fall back on, Squidward scoffs and remarks that his clarinet career failing is just as likely as him losing his hair. Cue [[InstantlyProvenWrong all of Squidward's hair immediately falling out]].
168	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollz}}'', Jasper is seen with an afro at first. Then Amethyst's spell makes him lose his hair permanently. [[RuleOfCool He gets over it pretty quickly.]]
169	* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Mr. Garrison had hair in a flashback in "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", but he's shown as a child with [[PrematurelyBald the same baldness]] that would plague him later in life in "Weight Gain 4000".
170	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' 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.
171	* 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. A destressing sees him immediately sprouting a big, poofy afro (even though it was straight in the flashback), but [[StatusQuoIsGod he decides to go back to being bald]] since he became used to not having to maintain so much hair.
172	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
173	** Lou Pickles is shown to have a hairstyle similar to Drew's in flashbacks. Tommy's other grandfather Boris also had hair as a young man.
174	** {{Inverted\|trope}} in an episode where Lou 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.
175	* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' depicts the adult fathers with varying receding hairlines. Drew and Randy seem to have gotten it the worst.
176	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
177	** Greg Universe plays with this a bit; he's only gotten hairier as he's grown older, but he is now bald on top of his head (excluding the waist-length hair he still has on the sides).
178	*** In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'', [[spoiler:Greg loses his signature long mane due to cutting himself free from Bluebird, who was threatening to kill him. He now only has two tufts of hair on either side of his head.]]
179	** Marty already had a receded hairline when introduced in a flashback, and reappeared in a later episode in the present day, mostly bald save around his ears and the very top of his head.
180	* During flashbacks seen in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episodes "Blendin's Game" and "A Tale of Two Stans", minor characters have more hair than they do in the present.
181	* 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. Also, Dale Gribble to a lesser extent having a receding hairline that is covered with a hat.
182	* 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. He lost it by the time Gromit finished college.
183	* ''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.
184	* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': A flashback shows that Kevin ([[CharlieBrownBaldness who has three strands of hair poking out of his hat]]) used to have a thick mullet. Johnny (who has a few strands of hair on his head and is treated as bald in-universe) also used to have more hair.
185	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': One episode reveals that Stan has actually been bald since college due to taking an experimental anti-acne medication to fix his severe acne problem. It worked, but also had the side-effect of permanent baldness, which he's been hiding for decades with a wig. Thanks to the shows NegativeContinuity, this is never brought up again.
186	* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': Frank has a receeding hairline along with a bald spot at the top of his head by the time the show takes place. Flashbacks, home movies and photos show him with a full head of black hair in his younger days, often in a crew cut due to his time in the military. Humorously, he's apparently not aware of the bald spot, as Vic mentions in season 5 that the whole neighborhood has an unspoken agreement to never mention it to him.
187	* ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'': The Chief of T.U.F.F. is currently bald, but is shown in "Internal Affairs" to have had a full head of hair during his days as a T.U.F.F. agent.
188	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HairTodayGoneTomorrow