Don't Believe These Baldness Myths

BALDNESS MYTH 1: IT'S YOUR MOM'S FATHER'S FAULT

It used to be that if you wanted to know your chances of keeping your hair, you looked at your maternal grandpa. If that guy had strong hair game, you were in the clear. If he was bald, your fate was sealed. Turns out that's just not true. "It's totally a myth that you should look at your mom's father," says Joshua Zeichner, Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research in Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. Why? Because hair density is a polygenic trait, meaning more than one ancestor’s genes determine what’s going to happen. “Look at your parents,” says Zeichner, “and your siblings. If a family member is bald or showed early hair thinning, then you need to pay closer attention to your own hair and seek care from a board-certified dermatologist earlier rather than later."

BALDNESS MYTH 2: BALD GUYS HAVE MORE TESTOSTERONE

Long standing legend has it that bald guys are victims of their own elevated testosterone levels. They also have more active sex lives. They compulsively chop wood. And all that boiling testosterone cooks the hair off their heads. (They have great beards, though.) In fact, studies have shown that men who go bald and those who don’t have the same levels of testosterone. It’s more about how sensitive your hair follicles are to the influence of hormones in your body. And what determines that sensitivity? Genetics.

BALDNESS MYTH 3: TANNING WILL BAKE YOUR HAIR OFF

There are those who say lying out in the sun speeds up hair loss. While there’s plenty of bad news about UV radiation, it’s not exactly making you go bald. Follicle function will continue even when you’re playing beach volleyball. The concern here is that sun exposure can degrade the hair shaft itself. You know how a summer at surf camp can make your hair blonder? It can also make it more damaged and brittle, which could lead to shedding. Not the same as male pattern baldness, but maybe a reason to use conditioner. Or wear a hat.

BALDNESS MYTH 4: WEARING A HAT TOO MUCH SUFFOCATES YOUR HAIR

Speaking of hats, we all know that bald guy who always wears a baseball hat. So which came first? The hat, or the bald spot? Pop science says hats can suffocate hair and speed up the rate at which it disappears. Actual science says that’s baloney. "If you're wearing a really tight hat, maybe that can put pressure on areas where it contacts your head," says Zeichner, "which could potentially lead to traction alopecia." That's the medical name for hair loss triggered by pulling hair too tight. But don't worry. "Unless you are being really aggressive with the tightness, there's nothing to worry about," says Zeichner.

BALDNESS MYTH 5: STRESS IS MAKING YOUR HAIR FALL OUT

The final thing you don't need to worry about? Worrying. This one's a bit more complicated. True, certain traumatic events have been linked to hair loss—big stuff like suffering an illness, or going through a really tough time and losing or gaining a large amount of weight. But according to the Mayo Clinic, types of hair loss associated with high stress are telogen effluvium, a "resting phase" in which hair follicles pause, and alopecia areata, patchy hair loss. Both of which can be temporary. Neither of those is what we talk about as male pattern baldness. And neither is related to the everyday definition of "stress." So if you're fretting about your evil boss, or what your new line should be on Tinder, do so without fear. But also, you know, fix it. Because there’s no reason to tear your hair out.

Experimental drugs restore hair loss

Experimental drugs regrew hair for patients with the second most common type of hair loss. Now scientists want to make them work for the first: plain old male-pattern baldness.


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Health and Baldness

While for many men, the main impact of baldness is psychological — especially when hair loss begins prematurely in a man's early 20s — there are some physiological downsides to the process. Hair loss quite obviously causes an uptick in a man's risk for skin cancer of the scalp.

More unusually, though, researchers have linked male pattern baldness to an increased incidence of heart disease, hypertension, and high levels of cholesterol. This study found risk of heart attack increased along with spreading baldness on the crown of the head. Another study, which involved 250 men between 35 and 65, found those with a blood pressure reading above 120 over 80 (average) had double the risk of hair loss compared to those without hypertension. And past research has consistently linked excessive hair loss to cholesterol levels. Importantly, in all these cases the doctors say the link between baldness and heart health may be obvious but the underlying reasons are not.

While the experts claim these effects may be due to either excess testosterone or to genes, one thing is certain: Men who experience hair loss should begin watching their blood pressure and cholesterol and overall protecting heart health.

If you begin to lose your hair, read it as a visible sign to begin saving your life. Time to change: quit smoking, curb your drinking, and start an exercise and diet program to promote heart health.

Scientists A Step Closer to Treating Baldness

Scientists have moved a step closer to finding a treatment for baldness in men and women with the discovery that it is possible to grow new hair follicles from human skin cells. The new test results are the first breakthrough in 40 years of research into finding a way to regenerate the structures in the skin that cause hair to grow and could lead to radically different therapies for hair loss. Scientists have struggled for decades to to replicate human hair follicles in the laboratory, but the new techniques prove they can be stimulated to grow in skin tissue and made to produce hair shafts.

The researchers claim that instead of the current method of transplanting hair from another part of the body, patients' own skin could be used to produce an essentially never-ending supply of hair follicles for transplant operations.

One of the study's lead authors, Professor Angela Christiano of Columbia University said, "This approach has the potential to transform the medical treatment of hair loss. Current hair-loss medications tend to slow the loss of hair follicles or potentially stimulate the growth of existing hairs, but they do not create new hair follicles. Neither do conventional hair transplants...Our method, in contrast, has the potential to actually grow new follicles using patient's own cells."