BALDNESS: THE FINAL FRONTIER

There’s still no cure for baldness, but your body might contain clues.

MY DAD’S DAD WENT BALD in his 30s. My father’s response was lifelong use of vitamins, hair tonics, and a medicine cabinet full of other treatments. He’s made it to 60 with a full head of hair, but not without preaching the same daily prevention regimen to my three brothers, aged 20 to 31. You’d think in the 50-some years since my grandfather lost his hair, we’d have figured out better solutions to male pattern baldness. Not yet, though experts think we’re getting closer.

Traditional balding treatments, like my father’s, prevent hair loss. Until recently, there was little that could be done if hair had already started disappearing. But increasing interest in hair loss has led to new research that holds promise even for those already balding, says Wilma Bergfeld, a dermatologist and researcher at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

On a normal, healthy scalp, hair has three life phases: two to five years of growing, a few weeks of resting, then about three months of shedding. Then the cycle repeats. When men start balding, the growing phase gets shorter and shorter, until eventually the hairs don’t grow long enough to poke out of the scalp.

Bergfeld says male pattern balding is caused primarily by genetics, though being in poor health can also contribute. Since it is polygenic (caused by several genes), taking a gene-based approach to a cure would be complicated.

Older balding treatments often focused on prolonging the growth phase to prevent balding altogether. Rogaine, for example, blocks a hormone that’s known to stunt hair growth over a lifetime. You keep your hair as long as you use it daily.

But some promising new treatments may help those already balding by revitalising damaged follicles and even restarting the growth phase. They’re still being researched, but below are some of the most interesting options. – This story is dedicated to my brothers, Bob, Steve and Dave.

• Micro-needling

Available from some

• Stem-cell therapy

• Status: Still being researched • How it works: Stem cells from your own body can be used to regrow specific types of tissue, like new skin for burn victims. It’s thought the same can happen with hair follicles if stem cells are applied or injected into the scalp. Scientists have even considered using them to 3D-print new follicles outside the body, but, like all stem-cell research, this is in its infancy.