The Healthy Scalp

A healthy scalp is the first step to healthy hair. In order to have thick healthy hair, a man should always vigorously massage the scalp when shampooing. It stimulates circulation and increases the blood flow to the follicle. Modern science has proven that the hair follicle is one of the body’s most rapidly metabolizing tissues and that this high metabolic rate demands an abundant supply of blood to carry oxygen and other nutrients to these cells. If the blood supply diminishes, the follicle cells will wither and die. To grow hair we need proper nutrition and healthy circulation.

DHT and Hair Loss

The adrenal glands above the kidneys produce androgenic hormones. The testicles produce testosterone. Androgens and testosterone (in particular it’s hormone DHT) cause the hair follicles to regress and die. The DHT binds itself to special receptors on the cell of the hair follicles, thereby causing the changes associated with balding. DHT also decreases the hair’s growing cycle and increases the hair’s resting phase, which in turn makes the hair shaft progressively smaller. This is why many men who don’t lose their hair do however have to contend with thinning hair as they age.

It might interest you to know that in societies that had harems, the men guarding these harems were castrated. In every society that had castration, it was observed that those who were castrated before puberty did not become bald.

Castration was also common among patients with certain types of mental illness in the early 20th century. It seemed to calm the patients and reduce their sex drive (imagine that). The reason I mention this is because a specific relationship between testosterone and hormonally induced hair loss was discovered during this time. There was a study performed on identical twins, one a castrated mental patient with a full head of hair and the other (testicles in tact) profoundly bald. The doctor decided to determine the effect of treating his patient with testosterone, which had recently become available as a drug and seems silly considering they castrated him and took away his ability to produce this hormone naturally. But I digress, the hairy mental twin was injected with the testosterone to see what would happen. He lost all but a wreath of hair on the sides, just like his twin. When the doctor stopped administrating testosterone however, his patient never regained his full head of hair.

…AND NOW FOR SOME OLD WIVES TALES

Clogged Pores

There is no scientific evidence that clogged pores interfere with hair growth. Let’s employ some common sense. Why would pores be clogged on the top of the scalp and not on the back and sides? What about ingrown hairs? If a hair can force its way through skin, it can grow through soft sebum at the bottom of an empty follicle. If clogged pores caused baldness, women would be as bald as men.

Lack of Air Circulation to the Head

Wearing hats causes hair loss and baldness. Hair follicles get their oxygen through the bloodstream and NOT the air we breathe. Unless you’re constantly wearing of "corn rows" or very tight braids, a condition known as traction alopecia, let us dismiss this myth.

Lotions and Drugs That Restore Hair

Over-the-counter lotions and drugs (which we’ll call snake oil potions for the sake of this article) sold through drug stores, salons or mass media, that claim to restore lost hair are, for the most part, useless. In a 1989 Supreme Court decision preventing any snake oil potion from being advertised or sold in the U S as a medication to prevent hair loss or promote the re-growth of lost hair. Isn’t it funny how such claims are still made?

There are only 2 FDA approved medications to treat male pattern baldness. Their benefit is limited but many are finding them useful. These medications are minoxidil and finasteride. If you are looking to slow the loss of hair due to pattern baldness, talk with your stylist and check with your doctor.