Will there ever be a baldness cure?

seamus wrote: »

There will probably be something you can take to delay or inhibits its onset - preventing it from occurring - but most likely it won't be possible to "cure" it. As best I understand, the follicles in the bald man's scalp start to die and once that's happened there's basically nothing you can do to reverse it.

I'd reckon the same. It's how the prevention may work could be the problem. Like you say it's a hormonal thing and that's hard to fiddle about with. IIRC it's largely caused by a genetic weakness in the hair follicle in response to "byproducts" of testosterone(though it's untrue that bald men have more testosterone). These weak follicles are to be found at the top of the head, the hair on the sides is far less affected, hence transplants from there work. I could see gene therapy working alright. Either by switching off the weakness in the baldy areas before baldness hits, or after natures harvesters have been at work by cloning a blokes strong side hair so you don't have to transplant hair from the sides. That way you could (with expense and time) create a new full head of hair.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that it may not be all to do with hormones, or not directly. That receding hairlines are genetic, but bald spots at the back and a general overall thinning is more down to environment and diet and maybe stress. IIRC it was a twins study. If one twin smoked for example he had less hair. Higher blood sugar, low vitamin D and fungal infections were other factors. Must dig that up. Running on what passes for my memory here. It wasn't just baldness either, it was amount of gray hairs, skin elasticity and other aging factors that were involved too.

I think most men's woe about baldness isn't that they think they'll look ugly without hair, it's that baldness is associated with age, so going bald is just a reminder that you're getting old.

That and I reckon another aspect might be for guys more into that choice over style too S. Blokes with hair can wear it long or short or whatever. Bald is bald pretty much.

It varies depending on populations too. Some populations rarely go bald, whereas with others it's near a given. Those Amazon jungle dudes with their (usually jet black) Beatle hairdos seem to stay hairy for life, whereas some European populations go bald at a much higher rate. Northern Europeans seem to be more baldy than southern Europeans. Maybe more vitamin D? Here's a thought, maybe it was selected for because of vitamin D? More skin exposure to sun? Then again if that was the case women would go bald too(though they can). Europeans in general are the hairiest overall, but the most likely to lose it off the top of their heads. It's an odd one.