Most male actors have used wigs or augmentation to enhance their hairlines.
Sean Connery famously wore a toupee in every single James Bond movie.
Bond followed the classic "leading man" archetype, tall dark and handsome, and many of the actors playing this type of character wore wigs to emphasize a masculine ideal. Even Christopher Reeve wore a hairpiece in at least some of the Superman movies.
You see the trend, right? Iconic male heroes are expected to look a certain way. Superman has super strength, so why shouldn't he have a super-hairline?
This followed the tradition of nearly all the legendary actors during the Golden Age of Hollywood -- Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, James Stewart -- all wore wigs or toupees of some kind.
John Wayne admitted to wearing a hairpiece, famously explaining that “It’s not phony. It’s real hair. Of course it’s not mine, but it’s real.” You can even see it fly off in a quick shot from "North to Alaska."
Many of these actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood wore hairpieces manufactured by Max Factor, a Polish-American entrepreneur who revolutionized the cosmetics industry, and more specifically the wig industry of Hollywood. Previously, toupees were crude and obvious, simply sitting on the head with a conspicuous seam. Hence the derogatory term "rug." Factor innovated with more intricate pieces that wove single hairs into a nearly invisible mesh, creating a more believable hairline that looked great on camera. Max Factor actually changed the entire cosmetics industry forever, and popularized the term "make-up."
Once hairpiece technology became good enough and affordable enough, it became virtually universal for leading men.
Humphrey Bogart was a seasoned wig-wearer, including in both "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon." He even allegedly had a seventeen year affair with his wig-maker, Verita Bouvaire-Thompson. She claims to have slept with one of his wigs under her pillow, which is information she volunteered. Nobody even asked.
William Shatner wore toupees during his entire run on Star Trek, and allegedly liked them so much that he'd steal one at the end of every season.
Christopher Lee on and off wore them during his earlier film career. Later, when he wasn't wearing a wig while playing Saruman, he was still wearing a hair system, even off camera.
You see, years of deceptive hair practices have clouded what is seen as a "normal hairline." It's actually extremely uncommon for a man in his 40s or 50s not to have measurable hair loss, but that's not often reflected in movies, especially leading men.
Someone explained it like this on Reddit -- Realistically, imagine all the hairlines of men you know over forty years old. Now imagine the hairlines of all the men on film/TV. It's not natural, is it? Because media is elevated.
To the untrained eye, this isn't always obvious. Jet black hair with an uncompromised hairline looks great on camera, but often appears fake in real life.
Alec Guinness wore a wig in Star Wars, having lost most of his hair years earlier.
John Travolta has worn a series of hair systems for years, on and off camera. He even wore a custom Danny one when he surprised an audience at a Grease screening.
I also assumed he'd worn one for Pulp Fiction, but actually that's mostly his real hair augmented with extensions. Samuel L. Jackson, however, did wear a wig. Originally, director Quentin Tarantino pictured an afro for his character, but when reviewing options, Jackson opted for a jheri curl instead.
Jason Alexander wore a hair system for a bit, which mirrored one of his character's plotlines from Seinfeld.
Ted Danson wore a hairpiece for most of his run on Cheers, to cover his crown, and that even made it onto the show.
There's a rumor that Vince Vaughn once accidentally knocked off Ben Affleck's toupee at a party in the early 2000's. I have no idea if that's true.
But his Batman wig looks great! Affleck wanted Bruce Wayne to have a distinctive widow's peak, like he often does in the comics. Hence the hairpiece.
I can't find evidence that Vince Vaughn generally wears wigs, except once on Ellen. He'd recently shaved his head for the film "Brawl in Cell Block 99," which is a hidden gem and you should definitely watch it if you haven't.
Wigs aren't only worn to hide receding hairlines. Sometimes they're used to compensate for scheduling conflicts, even for actors with iconic hair.
John Krasinski wore a wig for part of season 3 of "The Office," because he was filming George Clooney's movie "Leatherheads" around the same time, and had a shorter, noticeably old-fashioned haircut.
Robert Pattinson wore a wig for reshoots of Breaking Dawn: Part II, since half his head was shaved for David Cronenberg's film "Cosmopolis."
In the Eleventh Doctor's regeneration scene in Doctor Who, Matt Smith wore a wig emulating his iconic hairdo, since he'd shaved his head for Ryan Gosling's movie "Lost River." Coincidentally, he shared the scene with Karen Gillan, who was also wearing a wig. She'd recently shaved her head for the part of Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tom Hiddleston wore a wig for some of his appearances as Loki, including in The Avengers. However, he grew his real hair out and died it for the Loki TV show.
Chris Evans has worn a hairpiece, usually a topper, in nearly every single appearance as Captain America. This is a case of an actor who seemingly has great hair, but wears augmentation for consistency and as an alternative to frequent hair dying. This can be confirmed in some behind the scenes photos, where he took off his helmet and has noticeably different hair. He did however wear a full wig in the post-credits shawarma scene in The Avengers. He had short hair at the time to film "Snowpiercer." He also had a beard, which is why he's blocking his face.
The Marvel movies have their fair share of wigs of varying quality. Their purpose is generally style consistency, and they're not limited to superhero characters.
Jacob Batalon wears a wig in the Spider-Man series, given he has alopecia and is completely bald, which he confidently rocks off camera.
Hugh Jackman generally has great hair, but that didn't stop him from wearing wigs of varying altitudes as Wolverine.
Henry Cavill wore one during his cameo as Logan too. And actually, Cavill's a great case study for demonstrating male hair loss stigma.
He's handsome as hell, has great hair that worked for Superman, could have worked for James Bond, yet despite that, he gets hate online from trolls who claim he's "balding."
Why? Because he has natural visible temple recession, so minor that he makes me look like George Costanza, yet this is the reaction from haters online.
And that's why so many modern actors have turned away from hair systems, and opted for surgical options instead. In the last fifty years, hair transplant technology has exploded in quality and affordability. Many actors now openly admit to having hair transplants, sometimes even multiple, and in my opinion these are the leading men who 70 years ago would have had toupees. But now they don't have to.
This trend isn't just for the media elite -- it's trickled down to influencers, and every day people. You may even know those who've had great-looking hair transplants. I do. But I don't know anyone who wears a rug anymore. I know they exist, but maybe they're just so good I haven't noticed.
But aside from fantasy, sci-fi, or period wigs, I think the cosmetic male hair augmentation industry of Hollywood has largely shifted away from hairpieces and become surgical.
But this is hard to know for sure, since modern hairpiece technology has evolved so much since the early Max Factor days. 3D scalp scanning and laser hair density mapping have enabled high quality wigs with ultra-thin polyurethane faux-skin bases, which can create seamless hairlines on camera. Imperfections are sometimes cleaned up digitally, which makes accurate wig-detection quite difficult.
Pixel peepers zooming in on 4K Blu Ray screenshots are unlikely to detect most hair systems, unless they're brutally obvious.
If you're a male actor and surgery is an option, and wigs are better than ever, it's hard not to resist having a perfect hairline on screen. And personally, it doesn't bother me. I don't mind superheroes and super spies having super hairlines. But I do think it's helpful and important to be aware of the illusion, so we don't judge our own hairlines based on false standards.