WASHINGTON: Almost two out of every three men will start balding by the time they’re 60. The majority doesn’t part with their hair willingly American males jointly spend $1 billion a year trying to hang onto those locks.
And with good reason, recent research suggests that women find balding men less attractive then their counterparts who have a thick head of hair, and they may also be turned down for executive positions in their careers. But what really causes hair loss, and is there anything that can be done about it? This natural breakthrough for hair loss may be the answer.
Recent research suggests that the most common type of hair loss, male pattern baldness, can be triggered by faulty hair-making progenitor cells in the scalp. Researchers long believed that men whose hair progressively thins—starting with a receding hairline, and then stretching to the crown—lacked a sufficient number of these cells. Rather, it appears that the cells are merely unable to complete their normal development and mature to a fully-functioning state. That finding, published last month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could be the key to reversing hair thinning and baldness. 1
Other potential contributors to hair loss include illness, age, genetics, and even primping habits. Meanwhile, a flurry of myths contribute to men’s anxiety, if not to baldness itself. “I get athletes who think helmets caused their hair to fall out, and men who say it’s because their mothers rubbed their heads with black tar soap,” says dermatologist Gary Hitzig. Neither helmets nor soap are at fault, he says. And more blame may get heaped on mothers than they deserve.
