Chrome Dome Psi
are a common occurrence throughout various media, fitting into many different genres. It gives a character awesome abilities, but seems to often come at a price: It would seem that much of this same media would infer that hair follicles inhibit the ability to properly access these powers, and so many psychics lack hair.
Worth noting that Bald Telepaths are almost exclusively male. Presumably because a bald woman is generally considered unattractive. It also goes along that if a woman is Psychic AND Bald, it's generally a sign that her powers are having a terrible toll on her health.
May overlap with My Brain Is Big
, Bald of Awesome
, Bald of Evil
, Bald Black Leader Guy
, Bald Women
, and Prematurely Bald
. Not to be confused with Psy
, who is neither bald nor psychic.
- Marvel Comics:
- Professor X, leader of the XMen, the most powerful telepath in the Marvel Universe.
- The Leader, enemy of the Incredible Hulk, is bald and a telepath.
- Uatu and his entire species, the Watchers.
- Moondragon is one of those rare bald female psychics.
- DC Comics:
- Superman's original concept was a villainous, bald telepath.
- The Tangent Comics version of The Superman, inspred by the above, is bald and has mental powers including telekinesis.
- The Martian Manhunter typically takes a bald form in his semi-human appearance (he can give himself hair if he wants to) and is a telepath.
- Henry King, Sr., the original Brainwave, was bald.
- Mindsweeper from Pride High.
- Abe Sapien from Hellboy is bald and a telepath (and half fish) due to an arcane experiment.
- In Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire, PSmIth is bald and psychic.
- Star Trek
- The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Sixth Finger". After being being subjected to a device that advances him along the evolutionary scale, a man develops a bald head and advanced psychic abilities, including telepathy and telekinesis.
- Sykers in Deadlands: Hell on Earth are all bald. Something about their training regimen causes all the hair to fall out.
- Champions adventure "V.O.I.C.E. of Doom". The villain Le Maistre is bald and has multiple psychic powers.
- Pretty much all psykers in Warhammer 40,000. Librarians are also bald, but that's because they're Space Marines first.
- Discussed and justified in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Hair interferes with certain psionic headgear and makes it harder to spot the Skull Fungus that psions sometimes get.
- Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, being a game about psychic powers, has a few characters like this, including Edgar Barret◊ and the main character Nick Scryer who, while not bald, has a shaved head.
- Mentor, in Freedom Force, is both a psychic and bald. As he's something of a combination of Professor Xavier from XMen and the Martian Manhunter, it should be no surprise.
- Mass Effect 2: Jack, a career criminal and biotic powerhouse, sports a shaved head. She later admits that she originally picked up the hairstyle when she joined a cult, and liked it so much that her head remains shaved throughout the game even though she's no longer a cultist.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion feature Yuri, whose similarity with Lenin includes the baldness. Of course, he uses Mind Control.
- Second Sight features this in its protagonist, John Vattic: during the segments of the game set in the present, he sports a close-shaved head as a result of being imprisoned and tortured by the Big Bad- along with a wide range of impressive psychic powers. Subverted later in the game, when his past self develops psychic powers and retains a full head of hair.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Combustion Man can firebend with his mind alone (rather than needing to use his body). He's also bald.
- Guru Pathik is bald, and shows psychic-like abilities such as reading people (and creatures') chi which lets him feel people's emotions, or even their locations through the connections they have with one another. Though his abilities are not strictly psychic, they are used in a manner fairly similar to that of an empath.
- The Legend of Korra:
- Tenzin claims that the reason why the Air Nomads had their heads shaved was so that they could have a higher awareness of the air around them. This is later confirmed when Daw, one of the new airbenders, was able to feel a net coming out from behind him, allowing him to evade it in time.