[henk1106]

By Karen Fittall
September 07, 2008 12:00am

Treatments to fix baldness are everywhere. But how do you sort the facts from the fiction?
Balding is to men what stretch marks are to women: a body-image issue, a condition that’s sparked an entire industry of creams and procedures, and something about which, to a large extent, there’s not a lot you can do.

And yet most men hate it.
The thought of losing their hair is, well, enough to make their hair fall out. Which isn’t surprising when you learn what the Hair Sciences Center in Colorado, US, recently discovered about people’s perceptions of baldness.

A whopping 66 per cent of people surveyed said they thought men with a full head of hair were more successful, while more than 46 per cent thought they were more intelligent than those who were balding or already bald. It’s not surprising that the billion-dollar hair-loss industry is booming.

But what is at the root of all this hair loss? And why does it seem to happen to men and not women?

“As we get older, our hair follicles shrink and reduce in number, and that happens to everyone, both males and females, as a natural part of the ageing process,” says the honorary secretary of the Australian College of Dermatologists, Dr Stephen Shumack.
“But the baldness that we commonly see in men, where they lose large amounts of hair, that’s typically a genetic problem.”

And if the statistics are anything to go by, it’s a problem that affects many males.
Called male pattern baldness, or androgenic alopecia if you want to get technical, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal, it strikes 30 per cent of Caucasian men by the age of 30, 50 per cent by the time they hit 50 and 73.5 per cent once they’ve celebrated their 80th birthday.

“In men who have inherited the condition, testosterone, or more accurately the enzyme which testosterone is converted to, actually targets the hair follicle and, in effect, switches it off so that it shrinks to a microscopic size and the hair shaft becomes very short and fine,” says Dr Shumack.

This is why women aren’t typically afflicted by this type of balding, because even if they inherit the condition, they don’t have enough testosterone to create the same effect.

If the genes fit
So if the condition is hereditary, which side of the family should you point your bottle of thickening shampoo at?

Some researchers – particularly those from Germany’s Dusseldorf University Clinic – believe the gene that is responsible for some men having more of the male-pattern-balding hormone receptors lies on the X chromosome – and is therefore inherited from the mother.
But Dr Shumack says the jury is still out.

“It’s not clear cut,” he says. “So this type of balding is called polygenic because it’s likely that there are several genes involved.”

So just because your dad was bald, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be.
“You may have inherited the condition from your maternal grandfather,” says Dr Shumack. “So you and your brothers might start to go bald at 30 even though your dad still has a full head of hair at 60.”

But one thing is certain: if you’re predisposed to going bald, then sooner or later your hair will start to fall out.

Can you keep your hair on?
Believe what you read and see on TV, and there are all sorts of treatments for preventing and reversing baldness.
Tablets, creams and even laser therapies that promise to kick-start those hair follicles seem to be a dime a dozen. But do they work? We asked Dr Shumack for his opinion on three popular hair-loss treatments.

Treatment Tablets
The most popular pharmaceutical involved in the battle against male pattern balding is a product called Finasteride.
A prescription-only medicine, Dr Shumack says it’s anti testosterone, “so it works by inhibiting the conversion of testosterone into the enzyme which can affect the hair follicles on the scalp”.

And according to a string of different studies, it does work.
“There is good clinical evidence to show that Finasteride stops the hair falling out, and in about 40 per cent of men it’ll also encourage some noticeable hair regrowth.”

It won’t happen overnight, though; you’ll have to wait at least six months – and sometimes up to two years – before you start to see a difference, and at roughly $100 for a one-month supply, it doesn’t come cheap.

“The important thing is that you have to keep taking it,” says Dr Shumack. “If you stop, your new head of hair will go back to the way it was before medication in about four to six months.”

Treatment Lotions
There are several lotions and creams that claim to treat baldness, but if you want a treatment to pack a punch, then it should contain an ingredient called Minoxidil.
Sold under a variety of different brand names - including Rogaine - it works to a certain extent, says Dr Shumack.

“Around 30 per cent of men will see a noticeable amount of regrowth, but again, you have to be vigilant about keeping up with the treatment.”

In the case of Minoxidil, that means rubbing a lotion into the scalp twice a day and, like Finasteride, as soon as you stop, your hair will revert back to its balding state.
You can buy these products over the counter without a prescription, but it will still set you back around $40 to $50 a month.

Treatment Laser therapy
Advertisements for laser treatments which claim to give you back a full head of hair are all over our TV screens – many of them being touted by celebrities, costing thousands of dollars, and failing to mention that they often also rely on tablets and lotions in order to be effective.

Dr Shumack has a few words of warning: “There is no hard evidence which proves laser therapy – whatever that term means, because it’s frequently used to describe any number of different treatments and products - actually works to halt or reverse hair loss.
It’s my opinion that it doesn’t work.”

Dr Shumack isn’t alone.
Last year, British advertising regulators gave the Shane Warne-endorsed Advanced Hair Studio advertisements a slap over the wrist, saying the ads were misleading and could be construed to imply that the product halted or reversed hair loss, two things for which there is no hard evidence.

If you are determined to have a bash at any or all of the treatments listed above, Dr Shumack has one last piece of advice: “Remember that the sooner you catch the problem the better,” he says.

“So, where a treatment has been clinically proven to work, the younger you are and the less balding you have, the better, as far as seeing an improvement goes. If you’re already experiencing a significant amount of balding, then no matter what you do, it’s not likely to make much of a difference.”