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Body hair also follows trends.
Men's facial hair has gone through every conceivable styling
trend over the centuries, from naturally grown out, to complex
mustache and beard styling to shaved smooth. Modern feminists
often complain that women are expected to be as hairless as a
Barbie doll. With the rise of physical culture and the ever-present
media image, it has become popular for both men and women to
remove nearly all their body hair below the neck. Sometimes growing
or retaining hair is believed to be more desirable, as in certain
cultures or religions. In nearly all cultures that wear facial
hair, a beard is one of the main distinguishing features separating
the men from the boys.
Over 50% of men are bald or
have significantly thinning hair by age 50, whilst 20% of women
are thinning and 5% are losing their hair in clumps around the
crown by the same age. A quick scan on the Internet will expose
hundreds of products alleging to cure baldness. The history of
baldness cures can be summed up in a few words. From prehistory
to the late 1980s, nothing worked. All baldness cures were metaphorically
and often literally snake oil. Then came Minoxidil (marketed
as Rogaine) followed quickly by Finasteride (marketed as Propecia
or Proscar). These products don't grow new hair, but they avert
hair loss. What is intriguing, however, is that in this age of
enlightenment many continue to be tempted by so-called natural
ointments, massage techniques and even more absurd baldness remedies
all based on timeless superstitions and misunderstandings about
the original source of baldness.
The ancient Egyptians were among
the first to develop treatments for baldness - rancid fat from
snakes, geese, crocodiles, hippos, lions, and ibexes. These were
severe topical ointments. Their bad smell was the most important
factor, for it was proof that the concoctions were working. We're
still fooled by this notion today in the belief that medicine
is supposed to taste bad. Denorex, a dandruff shampoo, prides
itself with the motto "it tingles" (1).
The Greek doctor Hippocrates
treated his patients' baldness with pigeon droppings. Aristotle
tried goats' urine to cure his own baldness. Julius Caesar was
bald, which is ironic because the name Caesar, from the Latin
"caesaries," means "abundant hair." Cleopatra
prepared pastes for him made of ground horse teeth and deer marrow,
but these didn't work. Neither did Roman cures of sulfur, tar,
and the finest samples of animal urine from around the Mediterranean.
In the end, Julius resorted to covering his bare head with wreaths
of laurel.
Baldness treatments such as
urine and rancid fat survived the fall of the Roman Empire. Cow
saliva as a remedy for baldness was introduced in the Renaissance.
Meanwhile in China, treatments progressed with the introduction
of animal testes mixed with ground herbs. Meditation and headstands
had long been a standard cure there and in India. With the advent
of modern technology in the late 1800s, baldness treatment entered
the realm of the titillating: electric shock, vibrators, motorized
scalp massagers, and suction devices.
What do all these treatments
have in common, aside from the potential of making you look foolish?
They all work on three premises: increasing blood flow to the
scalp, unclogging pores or hair follicles, and providing nutrients.
Maybe these treatments really do that. These aren't the causes
of baldness, though. Baldness, for the most part, is genetic.
You'd have to be literally starving to lose your hair due to
poor nutrition. This is certainly possible, but far from likely.
You don't need extra blood in the head, either. The clogged pore
idea is absolutely wrong, unless you're coating your scalp with
sealing wax or rancid hippo fat. And whilst you can certainly
lose your hair from stress, medication, or chemotherapy, it usually
grows back.
Genes are behind most of the
bald and thinning heads out there, male and female. You can inherit
baldness from your mother or your father. Baldness is not passed
only through the mother's side. A quick look at the countless
number of bald fathers and sons will counteract this myth. Hair
transplants take hair from the back and side of the scalp and
move it up top. This certainly works, but the procedure can be
painful and expensive. Usually, hair follicles never die until
very late in human life. Bald individuals have very tiny hairs
in most of those 100,000 follicles. If the right drug comes along,
those same hair follicles can start producing longer, thicker
hair. Scientists predict that very soon, perhaps within a decade,
there will be a drug that spurs head hair growth (2). Researchers
know what causes hair to stop growing and pharmaceutical companies
are pouring millions of dollars into drug development. They know
that the anti-baldness pill has the potential to be as big as
Viagra.
(1) Medtech Products, Inc. (2003)
Denorex [WWW document]. URL http://www.denorex.com/thera-strength.htm
(2) Donn, J. (Sunday August 3rd, 2003) Genes begin to reveal
secret of longer life [WWW document]. URL
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2003/08/03/152975-ap.html |
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