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Is the Age-Old Quest for a Baldness Cure Reaching Its End?
- sunseb 8y agoHair Growth Clinical Therapies Pipeline (from folliclethought.com): https://i0.wp.com/www.folliclethought.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FollicleThoughtPipeline-short.png https://i0.wp.com/www.folliclethought.com/wp-content/uploads... It's fair to say that the next few years are interesting for balding men (I am one of them lol)!
- AndrewOMartin 8y agoI was hoping this would be able people no longer judging others or feeling judged about their hair. No such luck.
- tux1968 8y agoIt's baked into evolution and sexual selection. Guys with hair look better because it says something about their suitability for reproduction. Not much different than say breast size in women. We can combat such bias at an intellectual level, but that doesn't change our underlying wiring. The nice thing about getting older is I no longer care what anyone thinks about my baldness ;-)
- sunseb 8y agoI think balding has an evolutionary purpose too: you get more vitamin D from the sun.
- scandox 8y agoTo me this sounds like utter nonsense. I never actually met a woman who had a problem with baldness. Only men. It's like a certain other subject that only men worry about and maybe 1% of women.
- tgb29 8y agoI find that men around me are more judgmental of my baldness than women
- emilsedgh 8y agoThere's a bit of stigma about a woman commenting on a bald man's head to him.
- hfdgiutdryg 8y agoWomen generally won't express it. They often won't return advances, though, which speaks louder than words. Not that it matters, as there are far more important things to be anxious about.
- dahdum 8y agoStudies have shown that a shaved head makes men appear more dominant. While that may be cultural, it’s interesting since testosterone/ dht are the instigator in hair loss.
- dmm 8y ago> It's baked into evolution and sexual selection. Human attraction is way more complicated than this
- tux1968 8y agoPlease explain.
- romdev 8y agoSexual reproduction selects either the fittest available mate or the most compatible with the group, to create offspring that is likely to be either more independent or more compatible with group living. Natural Selection favors throttling the reproductive pace of individual members of a species for the overall diversity and health of the group, and to prevent overpopulation that could be ruinous to a group. Some species are reproductive for the majority of their lives, and have shorter lifespans or less abundant reproduction. Humans' relatively long lifespan and relatively short reproductive period allow us to use less energy concerning ourselves with survival and reproduction than other species. Baldness, menopause and homosexuality are examples of nature telling us to slow down our mating activities and ideally to find other ways to contribute to the collective- like supporting the young (teach), creating persistent works (write a book), sharing resources (buy a family house), or conserving resources (die).
- loco5niner 8y agoWell, of course. They just highlighted the relevant aspect.
- guiomie 8y agoI'm pretty sure if a woman has the choice to reproduce with Jeff Bezos or some hairful homeless person, she will choose Jeff.
- tux1968 8y agoOf course it's only one small factor and not the most important by far. But all other things being equal....
- eanzenberg 8y agoNot sure because many bald powerful physically unfit men have no problems getting women.
- tux1968 8y agoIt's not like it's the only factor, or even a primary one.
- notadoc 8y ago> It's baked into evolution and sexual selection Careful, you're treading into dangerous territory by relying on scientific evidence and evolution, if you don't watch out you'll be the chased off the internet for "body shaming" or some other imagined slight by the internets virulent cultural cleansing mobs. You must learn the new rules of the modern post-fact and feelings-first world, and adjust accordingly; the first rule is that evolution is offensive!
- gamblor956 8y agoNo, he's making claims about evolution and sexual selection without any sort of scientific evidence to back them up.
- notadoc 8y agoYou don't think there is scientific evidence to back up physical attraction? LOL! Indeed we are in a post-fact era!
- refurb 8y agoIt's baked into evolution and sexual selection. Primates can go bald. My understanding is that it is a positive for sexual selection. And if humans being bald actually affected sexual selection, we wouldn't have bald men any more.
- pseudalopex 8y agoSexual selection wouldn't eliminate baldness. Most men marry between their early 20s and early 30s, when a large majority of men still have a large majority of their hair. It's influenced by a number of genes, and the X chromosome (inherited from the mother) has the most influence.
- jajajabink 8y agoSo what, not having hair is a disability now? Better stop giving insurance money to those paraplegics with the full head of hair. Bastards don't know how privileged they are to have hair.
- exceptione 8y agoWhat is up with todays journalism? Long meandering stories where the meat (facts/news) is hidden or completely left out. Does someone have a TLDR?
- protonimitate 8y agoNew Yorker isn't typical journalism in that they focus more on long-form think pieces. Getting a TLDR of a New Yorker piece kind of defeats the purpose.
- ferongr 8y agoLong form pieces are nice but most of New Yorker's stuff read like student essays padded to meet a quota.
- benbreen 8y agoAs someone in the process of grading 50 undergrad essays, I respectfully disagree! I read the WSJ and NYT for short form news. But the New Yorker does something else entirely and, in my view, continues to do it very, very well.
- asdfman123 8y ago"Today's journalism"? It's called long-form journalism, and it's a format for people with longer attention spans who like to read. If you don't like it, you probably shouldn't read New Yorker articles.
- exceptione 8y agoOk. I like to read novels, but when you want to inform me about the status of baldness treatments I rather like you to be to the point. But I get this is the saucage making for the New Yorker. Unfortunately, this had become a trend. So ok, then just not for me.
- unimpressive 8y ago
- weiming 8y agoJust a few days ago, Japanese researchers announced major breakthrough in hair follicle replication and start of pre-clinical trials. [1] Can anyone more knowledgeable about the field dissect how viable this looks? This is in addition to Shiseido/Replicel in Japan also doing clinical studies [2]. [1] http://www.organ-technol.co.jp/uploads/2018/06/98a3d5caabf1c7829941ab2d5caf20f8.pdf http://www.organ-technol.co.jp/uploads/2018/06/98a3d5caabf1c... [2] http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/replicels-cell-therapy-pattern-baldness-proceeds-clinical-trial-launch-japan-tsx-venture-rp-2144293.htm http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/replicels-cell-ther...
- ekianjo 8y ago> start of pre-clinical trials. Means it's still at 10 years away from commercialization, if everything goes fine. in pre-clinical they may find adverse events that kill the drug early. Like most experimental drugs.
- weiming 8y agoInteresting. If I understand correctly, this one is not a drug but a means of replicating a single hair follicle (to then be surgically planted one-by-one as in hair transplants)
- baldHeaded13 8y agoThe Korean paper 6 months ago look d promising as well.
- bigtones 8y agoIt was solved a long time ago - just start taking 1mg of Propecia once a day as soon as you start to see the start of hair loss. Propecia will allow you to keep the hair you already have, well into your seventies - just ask Trump. There are even generics so it won't cost that much.
- charlesdm 8y agoIt does have some nasty side effects though..
- smittywerben 8y agoNo, this is absolutely false. Provide me a valid study. Any one of the persons here claiming finesteride has these side effects, I need a study supporting this.
- ekianjo 8y agoHere you go. It's in the label of the drugs these days. https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20120418finasteride.html https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20120418finas...
- brailsafe 8y agoWorth noting that this article does explicitly denounce the existence of a causal link being supported by science.
- ekianjo 8y agoYou would need to do explicit clinical trials to look exactly at that kind of adverse events to prove the link. Nobody is going to do that.
- smittywerben 8y agoThe FDA also uses black-box warnings for antidepressants. It's an association closely tied to a high risk population.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoIt’s a real head-scratcher. But this strand of research might be at the root of a solution.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- brown 8y agoGene Roddenberry was asked by a reporter about casting Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: TNG. "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." And Gene Roddenberry responded "No, by the 24th century, no one will care."
- scythe 8y agoI like how it's somehow "progress" that we stop caring about things. If someone who spent their life contributing to society in exchange for green pieces of paper is willing to give up thousands of them to keep their hair, who am I to complain? Nothing in the Universe has any inherent value. Maybe it feels good to have hair, vs. not. How should I know? I've never been without it. We spend an amazing amount of money on fabrics made from insanely tiny fibers, $300 chairs, carbon fiber bicycles, 10-megapixel screens, and a cornucopia of crap whose only real purpose is making some fraction of life slightly more pleasant at a basic sensory level. But somehow if you want to keep the hair on your head it's a stupid complaint and nobody should ever do anything about it, don't you know that we need that money to find a malaria vaccine, how could you be so vain? Have you looked at EA's profits lately? How about InBev? I guarantee people will care in the 24th century. People will care about so many pointless things we'll have forgotten how to blow off the distress of balding men with virtue signalling. And we'll be better off for it.
- jrhurst 8y agoI think you miss the point of the quote. He was basically telling the interviewer his question was stupid. Yes. In the 24th century they can grow hair on a bald man's head, but they're not gonna judge him if he doesn't. Just like no one gives a fuck if Van Diesel or Dwayne Johnson doesn't have haie.
- raverbashing 8y agoMr Roddenberry was very progressive, though I think he might have been too optimistic with how humanity evolves (as others before and after him).
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- cvburgess 8y agoMore and more men have embraced baldness, especially with beards being the facial focal point at the moment. If it can prove to be more than a fashion trend, perhaps going bald won't be seen as an "issue" as much as just another style of appearance.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoMuch of it is probably due to the exclusivity of not being bald as you get older. If everyone has a full head of hair, then its value is zero.
- jeffreyrogers 8y agoI've always heard, you can't choose if you go bald, but you can choose when you go bald. Just shave your head if you don't like going bald. It seems to me like the people going bald are the ones who care about it. I don't think it affects how others think of you much at all. Propecia is apparently effective but the sexual side effects seem to make it not worth it.
- fossuser 8y agoShaved head is the best option, but going bald definitely negatively affects your attractiveness and makes it harder to get dates - especially when younger.
- gadders 8y agoI think attractiveness is like creating a D&D character. You have a low score for "hair" - to compensate max out on sense of humour or abs or something.
- toasterlovin 8y agoFWIW, all of the things you mentioned are probably highly determined by genetics.
- naasking 8y agoYou think abs/a good physique and humour aren't skills you can develop?
- toasterlovin 8y agoYeah, pretty much. The person I responded to didn't mention physique, which can be influenced by lifting weights. Diet works to a certain degree (ie, you can avoid most of the really bad stuff and you will see improvements, but you probably won't end up as a fitness model). I think there's a good chance that the ability to stick to a diet is highly influenced by genetics, as evidenced by the fact that dieting is a notoriously poor long-term intervention, even though it is incredibly simple in concept. The person I responded to specifically mentioned abs. Having visible abs requires an incredibly low level of body fat, which is not achievable my most people unless they take performance enhancing drugs of some kind. But, you know, the people selling programs and methods for achieving abs have a vested interest in this not being widely known. As for sense of humor. I dunno. I guess you're probably funnier when you're in a specific state of mind (at ease, not stressed out, etc.). And I guess you can memorize some jokes and gags. But in my personal experience, funny people all tend to be funny in unique ways. As in, there's no way they learned their particular brand of humor from somebody else.
- Liquix 8y agoGreat article for the first ~75%, but why the abrupt transition to a buzzfeed piece on Trump and the lack of conclusion? The author really lost his momentum there..
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoIt seems to be a literal compulsion. I think Trump supporters call it "Rent Free" and they aren't wrong.
- shoguning 8y agoI am in my late 20s and recently lost all my hair from alopecia universalis. It was a shock when it happened, but now I don't think I'd even want to go back. There is zero maintenance, no hair grows anywhere. I only get positive comments on my look. I do work out to stay fit, my face would have no definition otherwise. For a lot of guys, the slow progression of baldness is a source of anxiety, but now I have it all over with and I don't need to think about it.
- matwood 8y ago> For a lot of guys, the slow progression of baldness is a source of anxiety, Bald is fine. Full head of hair is fine. IMO, the only problem comes in when people are hanging on to hair when they should really just let go. I had really long hair in my late teens, early 20s. I noticed it start to go in my 30s and once it hit that point, I just started trimming it super short. Does anyone really care anymore or is this just some thing made up by the media now? And a bit of tangent to your point, if someone is worried about attractiveness, hitting the gym will do way more for that than grasping on to hair.
- simplegeek 8y agoOff-topic but slightly related question: people with good hair in their 40s what do you do? Do you oil? Shampoo less often? What do you do? Other than genes, what can makes good hair? What can make hair-fall slow?
- WhompingWindows 8y agoI am no expert, but I would avoid super hot water onto your head and try not to wear hats, tug on your hair, or otherwise encourage the hairs to fall out. Also, stay fit and potentially cultivate facial hair: both of these will help balance out the receding hairline.
- overcast 8y agoYou shouldn't be washing your hair daily to begin with.
- danbolt 8y agoDoesn’t answer your question, but men in their twenties can be prescribed Finnasteride which can help prevent testosterone from being metabolized into DHT. It’s something they have to continually take though.
- hairthrowaway 8y agoCan confirm, been on Finasteride since my early 20's, maybe 6-7 years. Now 30 and haven't lost any hair. You have to keep taking it but it works damn well at maintaining what you have
- pound 8y agoAlso as brand name Propecia. Many have reported that it causing sexual issues for them, for some they are permanent even after stopping taking it. At the very least, even without big issues - (not sure if it's within posting here guidelines, but still) "morning wood" would be gone.
- anarchimedes 8y agoThere is some relation between DHT and hair loss [1](Under Biological functions). Maybe it's possible to lower your DHT level to delay male pattern baldness? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrotestosterone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrotestosterone
- wufufufu 8y agoSometimes an article and the upvoting thereof express HN's insecurities so well it makes me wonder if every single post is in someway tainted by similar psychological issues.
- tomxor 8y agoYou can probably extend that to 90% of what everyone in the world verbalises or writes, we aren't robots, even when being objective we are driven by feelings. It doesn't mean everything is "tainted", just that everything we say and do is entwined with our thread of history, that's a more interesting reality than one where everything is clinical entirely distinct and independent - such a reality would be so inert life probably isn't even possible... what are we talking about?
- 1auralynn 8y agoIn general the crowd at hacker news prides themselves on being super objective, so I think it's worthwhile to recognize the fundamental subjectivity of being a human.
- tomxor 8y agoYes, when looking deeper into objective comments all kinds of things will be revealed, the more you look, the more that "objective" can often seem linguistically superficial. I think it's an important thing to recognise especially in the worst case when some people exploit this to convincingly present opinion as fact... anyway i'm way off topic, my point was in response to wufufufu: I don't wonder if posts on HN have some kind of psychological biases, I am confident they do, in spite of perceived objectivity.
- jerf 8y agoOnce you start down that dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. (If you can manage it safely, it's not a bad thing to consider. But it really easily turns into a cognitive hammer big enough to beat any fact into submission to your prior beliefs, and seals you off from intellectual discourse.)
- scarface74 8y agoIt’s a cultural thing in the Black community, it’s looked at as less attractive to be balding than to be bald. I started having a receding hairline at around 30 and have been shaving my head every since - for the last 15 years. I chose to keep a bald head at times even in college. Being clean shaven also helps with ageism as a 40+ year old developer. With no gray hair showing, people assume I’m at most in my early 30s.
- baldHeaded13 8y agoHave you looked at SMP? It looks really good on darker skin tones, and black guys can pull off a fairly straight/young hairline with it.
- scarface74 8y agoWhy would I? Having a bald head is not considered unattractive in the Black community. Bald with a full beard is also a trend now. When I’m interviewing, I go completely clean shaven to get rid of the gray hair. I stayed clean shaven at my last job because it was very corporate and the CxO level folks I dealt with as the architect were very conservative. Now that I work for a smaller company, I let my facial hair grow out but still shave my head.
- baldHeaded13 8y agoI mean, you'd snap your fingers today and regrow all your hair if you could. Nothing wrong with making small improvements. IMO having a defined hairline again can really help frame the face. You still look bald/buzzed after the SMP.
- scarface74 8y agoActually I wouldn’t. Even when I had a full head of hair, I went months with a clean shaven head.
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- brightball 8y agoI'll take baldness treatments seriously when it doesn't involve taking something or applying something, every month for the rest of your life.
- baldHeaded13 8y agoCheck out SMP, scalp micro-pigmentation, which is essentially thousands of tiny tattoo dots. I'm SO HAPPY I got an SMP earlier this year. The tattoo dots match the appearance of a recently shaved/buzzed head and make it appear as if you have a full head of 5 o'clock shadow.
- wellboy 8y agoWhat did people/girls say who stroke your hair? What was their reaction to you saying it was a tattoo?
- baldHeaded13 8y agoI still have diffuse thinning hair in the area, so it feels like real stubble. Just feels less dense than on the sides, if you really measure your touch. My wife knows from when we discussed it prior, but that's literally it. No one else has asked. It looks very natural as long as you buzz every couple days. Be sure to get a natural hairline. Mine is receded in the temples rather than a straight line. Underneath my real buzzed hairline only; just filling in density.
- baldHeaded13 8y agoNo mention of the Korean paper?
- ourmandave 8y agoCounterpoint: How about a cure for back hair? (Asking for a friend.)
- rbobby 8y agoIf you have non-blonde hair... laser removal. For blonde hair it's still electrolysis.
- malloreon 8y agoI started losing my hair at 20 and by 26 I was shaving it off. I'm 36 now and can honestly say I look far better without hair than I ever did with. That doesn't stop me from thinking every month or so that maybe I should investigate what's new in regrowth.
- subpixel 8y agoIn my early 20s I shaved my head b/c I thought I would not care. As it turned out, my head is as spherical as a ping-pong ball and of almost the same color and sheen. I'm balding now and more vain about it that I wish I was.
- potatoblaster 8y agono
- wyld_one 8y agoHm, I'd rather have a intimidating set of dragon horns. Maybe something modular for the way I feel atm. Ooo RGB mood horns? They would less to clean and take care of. A way to head butt morons, and keeps the sun off my head and out of my eyes as well as a cool way to do sunglasses. It might be hell on the car roof upholstery. It would also be cheaper than all of the fake products they sell for 'healthy hair'. Also relieve 'Crack cures' on the internet and medical burden as well.
- loco5niner 8y agoNo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...
- godelmachine 8y agoAm favorating this since this topic is V V important for me!