Head voice singing proper has been fashionable since the beginning of the revival and is strictly a 'woman' thing. In order for a man to sing in head voice proper he has to go into falsetto; I am not aware of that happening in the past.
I believe it stems from efforts on the part of singing teachers to make women sound gentile, vulnerable and 'ladylike'.
The two main problems with head voice tone is (a) it is extremely difficult to control and at a certain point in the range (descending) the singer will find it virtually impossible to maintain and will slip back into chest voice; and (b) head voice requires twice as much breath than chest voice so the singer has to take breaths in inappropriate places.
We may not be talking about the same tone, but this is how I understand head-voice.
Jim Carroll