Being bald has a bad reputation. On winning an Emmy Award in 1993 for his work in the American sitcom Seinfeld, comedian Larry David said: “It’s all great, but I’m still bald.” (Read this also | Hair Loss in Women: When Should You Be Worried?,
David has a great lesson for bald men who are trying to compensate for their hair loss rather than accept it. In 2000, David wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine titled: “Kiss my head.”
“I’m a bald man who exists everywhere. No caps, no implants, no hats, no beards… How can anyone have respect for bald men if we go to such ridiculous lengths? That’s why people with hair treat us with such disdain,” David wrote.
Although 85% of men experience hair loss in their lifetime, hair loss isn’t just a male problem – 33% of women experience some form of hair loss or thinning.
But despite the efforts of baldness advocates like David, many people seek ways to restore hair growth. And now, there are more ways than ever to do so.
First, let’s look at the causes of baldness.
Did you inherit baldness from your mother?
Going bald is mainly related to your genes. Estimates vary, but about 60-70% of your risk of going bald is due to genetics.
The most common cause of hair loss is called hereditary baldness. Its technical name is androgenic alopecia, and it affects up to 50% of men and women.
There is a joke that men inherit baldness from their mothers, but this is only partially true.
It’s true that baldness is strongly linked to a gene found on the X chromosome (the one you get from your mother) – it’s called the AR gene.
However, baldness is polygenic, which means there are many genes involved – by some estimates, as many as 200 genes. Only a few of these genes are inherited from the mother’s side, and many from the father’s, so blaming your mother’s genes isn’t entirely fair. Research shows that more than 80% of people who experience hair loss have a father who is or was bald.
Baldness is not guaranteed
Your genes don’t decide the fate of your head. It’s not certain that you’ll go bald, even if all the men in your family sit like eggs at the dinner table. And there are plenty of bald men who have loose hair in their families.
This is because of the environmental factors in our lives that impact hair loss, with stress and nutrition having the greatest impact.
Stressful jobs and home lives, alopecia areata, chemotherapy, nutritional deficiencies, or even hairstyles that pull the hair tightly (such as ponytails) can cause temporary or permanent hair loss.
Hormones also play a role. One idea is that high testosterone levels cause baldness, but this is only partially true. It’s more about specific hormones and their effect on hair: specifically, the sex hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is derived from testosterone. Hair loss is affected by how sensitive hair follicles are to DHT.
And it’s not just men who suffer hair loss due to hormones. By the age of 80, more than 50% of women experience hair loss, mostly due to hormonal changes throughout life during menopause, childbirth and pregnancy.
How to stop hair fall?
The hair growth products business is growing rapidly. The total market size of hair loss treatment products was estimated at $3.3 billion (€3 billion) in 2020. This is expected to nearly double by 2030.
There are many “hair restoration treatments” available for people who are losing their hair, as if baldness were a disease.
For one thing, hair transplant surgery has become very common in recent decades. Hair transplants involve transplanting the hair follicles you already have into the bald area. Turkey has become a popular destination for many people seeking hair transplants and other cosmetic surgeries.
Then there are hair growth medications that require a prescription. One is finasteride, which works as a DHT inhibitor to stop the hormone from affecting hair follicles. And another is minoxidil, which is a vasodilator, but how it promotes hair growth is not fully understood.
Layer hair therapy is also a regulatory-approved method of hair growth. Scientists are not entirely clear how this therapy works, but daily low-level laser treatments for 6-12 months appear to increase hair follicle growth by boosting stem cell activity.
But scientists are working hard to find more treatments for hair loss.
Sugar gel helps in hair regrowth
A study in mice was testing a sugar called 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), which occurs naturally in humans and animals, for its potential to aid wound healing. In this study, researchers found that 2dDR increased hair growth around wound areas.
The researchers then tested the compound for hair growth and found that applying sugar as a gel for 21 days led to faster growth of hair follicles.
One caveat – so far it’s only been tested on mice, so don’t expect it to hit the market anytime soon.
In the meantime, consider David’s theory that bald men are better lovers. “There’s testosterone. We have lots of it. That’s why we went bald in the first place,” he wrote all those years ago.
