Hello,

I hope all is well today. I was curious as to why hair around ones ear and lower hairline (the rim around sideburns/ ears to bottom back part of head / even up to temples) only grows a certain length. I guess I just assumed this hair would keep growing for years and be as long as ones hair on top. I am not experiencing MPB or anything, I was just curious. Seems as though even no matter how long my hair on top and mid sides gets these hairs around the hairline perimeter only grow so long, maybe just a few inches.

Thanks

Hair that grows in different parts of the scalp and neck vary from each other based upon your genetic programming. We are all different, so what applies to one person may not apply to another. For example, neck hair does not grow long like scalp hair in most people and it may even be different in texture.

Why is it that, despite the astounding leaps in cosmetic surgery, and in stem-cell research, we still are nowhere near the ability to give me back a full head of hair? I have recently read that scientists can now change someones eye colour for cosmetic reasons, and re-grow teeth. It seems bizarre considering the amount of money that is put in, and yet almost no treatment exists, yet other fields are advancing brilliantly so.

Are you familiar with the romantic spy movie that came out a few years ago called “Duplicity“, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen? The plot of the movie included an attempt to steal a secret formula, which is documented step by step. What is the secret formula, you might ask? What does this have to do with baldness research? The secret is — it’s a cure for balding.

I understand your frustration, but the movie does show the value business puts on a cure for baldness. There is a great deal of money to be made by any group that comes up with a successful treatment. Hair loss is not necessarily government backed research, as much of it is carried out or funded because the motivation is strictly for profit. There is a lot of research looking for the cure, and we must be patient and believe in the capitalistic model to see what I hope will be a truly effective treatment for balding sometime in our future.

Just don’t ask me when.

Snippet from the press release —

In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out, and most importantly, the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase).

Read the rest — Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root

This is a interesting discovery, that gray hair is caused by peroxide bleaching the hair at the root. If it is true, anything that can remove the peroxide will reverse gray hair. The author showed that catalase (a known enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of peroxide) can reverse the gray hair.

Thought our readers might like this one…

To celebrate Hairstyle Appreciation Day (which I didn’t know was a thing), MentalFloss.com takes a stroll down memory lane to showcase some popular hairstyles for women of 100 years ago. From sausage curls to the Eton Crop, I am sure there’s women out there somewhere still styling their hair this way.

Link: 100-Year-Old Hairstyle Trends for Hairstyle Appreciation Day

Snippet from the article:

Genetic variants have been identified which can increase serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations and prostate cancer risk. A new study published in The Journal of Urology® reports that correcting PSA levels for these genetic variants can have significant consequences, including avoiding unnecessary biopsies for some men and eliminating false complacency for others.

In this study of 964 healthy Caucasian men, correcting individual PSA levels for these genetic variants led to an 18.3 percent reduction in the number of men who initially had a measured serum PSA above the biopsy criteria, but whose adjusted PSA fell below the cutoff value. The latter group would have likely undergone what would have been an unnecessary biopsy. Conversely, genetic correction led to PSA levels moving from below threshold to above threshold for 3.4 percent of the men, thus sending out an alert for further investigation.

Read the rest — Personalizing Prostate Specific Antigen Testing May Improve Specificity, Reduce Biopsies

I’d just like to thank you for this informative website. Because of your article on minaturization, I didn’t stop consulting doctors when a dermatologist just told me ‘your hair is fine’ after a cursory examination, and had my slight minaturization confirmed by a doctor on the ISHRS website.

I’m now on Propecia, and your articles on its safety have helped me to start taking it – when I might have been otherwise turned off because of the horror stories on the internet.

Thank you for your kind words. We aim to educate.