National Hair Institute, Follicular Hair Transplantation & Restoration, Hair Loss Solution, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia

Another reason not to make the Marlboro Man your role model comes from the National Taiwan University in Taipei: even among Asian men, who suffer less hereditary baldness than Caucasians, cigarettes speed up hair loss.

 

“Smoking destroys hair follicles, interferes with blood and hormone circulation in the scalp and increases production of hair-shrinking oestrogen,” says researcher Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen, who’s unlikely to be on Big Tobacco’s Christmas card list. Studies at Leigh Infirmary in the UK also found smokers are four times more likely to have grey hair than non-smokers. That’s something to check out as you stand outside the office in the cold with your fellow smokers.
 

Back in the Eighties, when vasodilator drugs, which increase blood flow, were also found to improve the health and performance of hair follicles, it didn’t just turn science on its head. “Alternative health practitioners advised headstands to increase blood flow and combat baldness, while Liverpool FC’s receding goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar promoted an inversion machine to do the trick,” says trichologist Gary Heron, at the Hair Centre in London. But according to Heron, there’s absolutely no proof that a rush of blood to the head will restore your flowing locks. Unless you spot that missing hairpiece under the sofa.

 

Take the legs of a newt, the fingernails of an insurance salesman . . .

 

Amid the bogus pills, internet potions and improbable scalp-weaves, there’s genuine hope for the fifty per cent of men who are likely to be afflicted by male pattern baldness (MPB) by the time they hit 50. “Among the estimated 300,000 hair-loss treatments available, two have been clinically proven to slow MPB and help re-growth,” says Heron. They are finasteride (available as the one-a-day pill Propecia prescribed by a GP) and minoxidil, an externally applied solution sold as Rogaine and available from pharmacies.

 

Research in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found 80 per cent of men using finasteride retained more hair than placebo-takers, and two-thirds actually re-grew hair. About half of men using minoxidil staved off further balding, and 15 per cent recorded re-growth. So hitting the bottle isn’t always bad for you.

 

The higher your levels of brain growth protein, the faster your locks will tumble, according to research by Dr Ralf Paus, at Humboldt University in Berlin. “It’s the first evidence that suggests growth factors for the development of brain cells are also important for the growth of hair follicles,” says Paus. Homer Simpson was unavailable for comment.

 

Well, kind of. “The action of pulling out the hair can rupture the follicle,” explains trichologist Philip Kingsley, the author of The Hair Bible. The replacement hair that grows takes longer to regenerate, by which time another, mostly grey, hair is beginning to grow next to it.

 

“When the hair that was originally pulled out does grow back, you’ll have two hairs,” says Kingsley – and so your slide to “distinguished” does appear more dramatic. Still, you won’t look as ridiculous as you would if you’d added blond tips.

 

Whatever your barber tells you, a little off the top will not cause your hair to grow back thicker than a particularly dim WAG.

 

“All of the hair above skin level is actually dead and cutting it has absolutely no affect on the volume of re-growth,” says Keith Hobbs, clinical director of the UK-based Institute of Trichologists. “Bristly short hair may create this impression, but the reality is that no more hair grows back than you had in the first place.” Step away from the scissors, young man . . .

 

Research from the University of Munster in Germany found that diet directly affects hair retention, and crusts are manna from heaven for the follically challenged. The testers found crusts contain eight times more antioxidants than the rest of the loaf, while researchers in the US, Taiwan and Japan have all shown antioxidant intake is crucial to improving scalp circulation and creating melanin – the hormone that makes your hair thicker, richer and less likely to block the plug hole. You naturally lose an average of 100 hairs a day, but shunning tasty crusts could put you in the “unhealthy diet” group who lose three times as many.

 

If it’s starting to snow over your shoulders, then you’re working too hard. “The fungus which causes dandruff is present on all scalps,” says Hobbs. “But dandruff often becomes a problem when your immune system is weakened.” Research from the American Academy of Dermatology confirms that stress is a key reason for low immune function. Can’t drop out of the rat race just yet? The study found tea tree oil-based shampoos, such as Redwin Shampoo Tea Tree Treatment ($3.86/250ml; available from Woolworths), made for the best snowploughs.

 

Tony Soprano could pin plenty on his mamma, but like any thinning man he can’t let the maternal side of the family take the full rap for his forehead expansion. “Genetics do play a major part in male pattern baldness, but the gene can come from either parent,” says Heron. Just because your dad’s as bald as Britney in breakdown mode doesn’t mean that one day you will be. But check out your grandparents for worrying signs of baldness. “MPB can often skip a generation,” says Heron.

 

Mock not the cue-ball brigade: losing your locks is no laughing matter. Harvard Medical School studies found that men with frontal baldness had a nine per cent increased chance of heart disease, while those whose crowns were completely bald recorded a 36 per cent greater risk compared with the follically retentive.

 

Researchers reckon baldies have more androgen receptors in their scalps, which contribute to the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries. The British Heart Foundation recommends you counter this by cutting your fat and salt intake and doing 30 minutes of exercise three times a week. We recommend you don’t wear a headband while you do it.

 

So whose bedpost do you really think has more notches, Russell Brand’s or Rupert Murdoch’s? If you’re retreating faster than the Italian military, it really isn’t because you’re spilling over with testosterone, despite what you’ve been telling everyone. “The causes of male pattern baldness are genetic inheritance, age and the presence, not the amount, of the hormone testosterone,” says Hobbs.

 

Remember this for the changing room banter: the link with baldness only occurs when an enzyme converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, which slows down hair production, produces weak, shorter hair and can often stop growth completely.



 

Credit: Australian Men’s Health Magazine – October 2009 “Thatch Fitness” by Rob Kemp