
Is the Age-Old Quest for a Baldness Cure Reaching Its End? - ca98am79
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-the-age-old-quest-for-a-baldness-cure-reaching-its-end
======
weiming
Just 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/2018/06/98a3d5caabf1c...](http://www.organ-
technol.co.jp/uploads/2018/06/98a3d5caabf1c7829941ab2d5caf20f8.pdf)

[2] [http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/replicels-cell-
ther...](http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/replicels-cell-therapy-
pattern-baldness-proceeds-clinical-trial-launch-japan-tsx-venture-
rp-2144293.htm)

~~~
ekianjo
> 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
Interesting. 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)

------
jeffreyrogers
I'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.

~~~
msamwald
The one scientific text on the matter I found via a quick Google search
suggests that a shaved head increases perception of dominance and confidence,
but decreases attractiveness:
[http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/DPlab/papers/publishedPapers/M...](http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/DPlab/papers/publishedPapers/Mannes_2012_%20Shorn%20scalps%20and%20perceptions%20of%20male%20dominance.pdf)

Oddly, but not surprisingly, the public press over-represented those findings
as also suggesting that fully bald men are perceived as more attractive:
[https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4469188/bald-men-
perceived...](https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4469188/bald-men-perceived-
more-attractive-confident-dominant-study/)

Which is quite a common thing in this kind of discourse. People are quick to
suggest that being bald is really okay and nobody should care, but give the
same people 100 pictures of men and they will end up rating those with full
hair more attractive than those with hair loss or baldness without further
reflection.

Startup idea: creating some kind of stylish, fluffy headgear that somehow
replaces hair while still not trying to pose as fake hair / a toupee. This
could be huge fashion market.

~~~
ViViDboarder
“Startup idea: creating some kind of stylish, fluffy headgear that somehow
replaces hair while still not trying to pose as fake hair / a toupee. This
could be huge fashion market.”

Hats. You’re describing hats.

~~~
msamwald
No, hats usually have a completely different aesthetic and function than hair,
they don't complement the shape of the face in the same way at all. Hats are
also mostly worn outside, but seem improper to wear while simply sitting at a
desk or lazing on a couch. Someone who would like to cover up a bald head most
of the waking time is not well served with most types of hats.

~~~
kbenson
> Hats are also mostly worn outside, but seem improper to wear while simply
> sitting at a desk or lazing on a couch.

There are many different types of hats. Baseball caps, berets, cowboy hats,
beanies, ascot/flat caps, fedoras, boonies, Panama hats, etc. That's mostly
just the traditionally male ones too.

Some work better indoors than others. I don't often wear hats anymore, but if
I'm wearing a baseball cap type, I'll slide it around backwards when indoors
most times.

If I'm lounging on my couch and don't feel Co for table exposing a portion of
myself I'm sensitive about and it's not temporary, I've made a major mistake
at some point.

What you're suggesting might be useful, but it would just be another type of
hat.

------
sunseb
Hair Growth Clinical Therapies Pipeline (from folliclethought.com):

[https://i0.wp.com/www.folliclethought.com/wp-
content/uploads...](https://i0.wp.com/www.folliclethought.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/FollicleThoughtPipeline-short.png)

It's fair to say that the next few years are interesting for balding men (I am
one of them lol)!

------
shoguning
I 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
> 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.

~~~
xedarius
I guess given straight choice though, would you have preferred to keep your
hair?

Maybe that's what this is about. I know I would, given a choice. I like my
hair.

~~~
matwood
I would still keep it super short because it is easy and fits my lifestyle,
but obviously making a choice is typically better than being forced.

------
brown
Gene 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."

~~~
magduf
Patrick Steward is one of the very few men who looks really, really good with
a bald head (which he had from an early age, he was in his early 30s in 1984's
"Dune" IIRC). Most men just don't look very good that way.

~~~
electricslpnsld
> Patrick Steward is one of the very few men who looks really, really good
> with a bald head

Say what? Lot's of guys rock it! Off the top of my head Jason Statham, Michael
Jordan, shaved-head Sam Jackson, Johnny Ive, shaved-head Bryan Cranston all
pull it off pretty damn well. What would Vin Diesel even look like with hair?

~~~
magduf
You're listing mostly a bunch of very successful actors and entertainers, most
of whom (except Jordan) probably wouldn't have gone very far if people thought
they were ugly. If Vin Diesel looked bad, he wouldn't have gotten the parts he
did.

So this is confirmation bias.

Out of the whole population of bald/balding men, these men are the exceptions.

------
AndrewOMartin
I was hoping this would be able people no longer judging others or feeling
judged about their hair. No such luck.

~~~
tux1968
It'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 ;-)

~~~
scandox
To 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
I find that men around me are more judgmental of my baldness than women

~~~
emilsedgh
There's a bit of stigma about a woman commenting on a bald man's head to him.

------
wufufufu
Sometimes 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
You 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
In 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
Yes, 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.

------
scarface74
It’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
Have 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
Why 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
I 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
Actually I wouldn’t. Even when I had a full head of hair, I went months with a
clean shaven head.

~~~
baldHeaded13
shaved full head >= shaved balding head

------
baldHeaded13
Check 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
What did people/girls say who stroke your hair? What was their reaction to you
saying it was a tattoo?

------
cvburgess
More 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
Much 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.

------
wyld_one
Hm, 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.

------
brightball
I'll take baldness treatments seriously when it doesn't involve taking
something or applying something, every month for the rest of your life.

------
malloreon
I 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
In 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.

------
Liquix
Great 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
It seems to be a literal compulsion. I think Trump supporters call it "Rent
Free" and they aren't wrong.

------
simplegeek
Off-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?

~~~
danbolt
Doesn’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.

~~~
pound
Also 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.

------
ourmandave
Counterpoint: How about a cure for back hair?

(Asking for a friend.)

~~~
rbobby
If you have non-blonde hair... laser removal. For blonde hair it's still
electrolysis.

------
baldHeaded13
No mention of the Korean paper?

------
godelmachine
Am favorating this since this topic is V V important for me!

------
loco5niner
No

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

------
exceptione
What is up with todays journalism? Long meandering stories where the meat
(facts/news) is hidden or completely left out.

Does someone have a TLDR?

~~~
asdfman123
"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
Ok. 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.

------
bigtones
It 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.

~~~
pests
Propecia caused some pretty serious hormonal changes in my friend which
persisted after stopping. Its apparently a known problem but still not labeled
correctly. You can find many support groups across the internet with
sufferers.

~~~
proaway
Over the course of a few years taking Propecia, in my late 20s, I completely
lost my sex drive.

When I started taking the drug, my doctor warned me of possible side effects.
I figured I could just quit if that happened, and things would go back to
normal. Eventually, they updated the labeling to say that side effects can
persist indefinitely.

I’ve talked to men who have been on it for years without experiencing side
effects. I cannot say for certain Propecia is the root cause to my symptoms,
there’s really no way to know for sure, but I experienced a radical shift
while on it. Taking a powerful but poorly-understood drug that rewires your
sex hormones isn’t a decision to take lightly.

~~~
hfdgiutdryg
I've read that it's only a problem if men ignore the side-effects and continue
taking the drug. Is this not true?

~~~
smittywerben
It's hard to separate from men who don't take the drug but have erectile
dysfunction.

But it is a problem that propeciahelp.com trolls scourge the internet and
preach how destructive propecia is.

~~~
proaway
I’m not trolling, I just saw the drug mentioned here and decided to talk about
my experience. I was a healthy guy in my twenties, and my sex drive went from
high to non-existent while I was on the drug. Like I said, I can’t be sure
Propecia was to blame, but personally I believe there was a connection.

Anyway, if you take Propecia and don’t get side effects, that’s great! Nobody
said _all_ men will get side effects and nobody’s questioning your virility.

~~~
hfdgiutdryg
_Nobody said all men will get side effects and nobody’s questioning your
virility._

The problem is people implying that you may lose sex drive or the ability to
get an erection _for an indefinite period of time_ , essentially out of the
blue. Hence why I asked if the ED and sex drive problems persist _if one
immediately stops the drug when the effects are first experienced_.

~~~
pests
I'm not sure how long after discovering the new issues my friend waited before
stopping. He was only on it for less than a year, maybe even a half year, to
put some constraints.

------
mlthoughts2018
It’s a real head-scratcher. But this strand of research might be at the root
of a solution.

