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Throughout time, whenever people start talking about baldness, they almost always focus on the threat to self-esteem. Most cultures have decided that men who lose their hair early are somehow worthy of mockery. Inevitably, this has put pressure on men to avoid or hide the problem. In reality, the poor quality of many wigs and toupées signalled the wearer’s embarrassment and aggravated the social difficulties. In turn, this opened up a market to the unscrupulous to sell magic remedies. We still celebrate this time in our history by retaining the idea of “snake oil” and “elixirs” from the Traveling Medicine Shows. But the results in a recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology may be a sign that men who lose their hair early are the lucky ones. Instead of despair as their hair recedes, they should be celebrating the news their risk of prostate cancer is halving.

The study involved some two thousand men in their forties, half of whom had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. In reviewing their medical histories, the researchers noted that men whose hair began thinning in their twenties were the least likely to develop a growth in the prostate (whether cancerous or benign). In publishing these results, a clear distinction must be made between the natural thinning and loss of hair that affects all men as they age, and male pattern baldness which characteristically affects younger men. The reduction in the risk of cancer benefits those who lose their hair prematurely. The researchers speculate this is a consequence of the changing level of testosterone in those who go bald. The higher the level of hormone, the more the body produces dihydrotestosterone (DHT). With more DHT in the bloodstream, the hair follicles shrink. This thins the hair and slows the rate at which hair is replaced as it is shed. But, higher levels of testosterone seem to lower the risk of a growth.

There are two points of interest in this story. The first is the presence of contrary research evidence showing a higher risk of cancer among the prematurely bald. Unfortunately, male pattern baldness and prostate cancer have the same triggering cause and both develop as men age. There needs to be further research to distinguish the cause and effect of both conditions. Put simply, asking men to remember when they began losing their hair is not very reliable scientific evidence. Secondly, propecia, the drug now shown as effective in treating male pattern baldness because it prevents the conversion of testosterone to DHT, was originally developed as a treatment for benign growths in the prostate. It is somewhat ironic to see modern research treading the same path that led to the FDA expanding the use of propecia from prostate growths to a treatment for male pattern baldness. So where does this leave us? As it stands, this latest research is on its own and contradicted by earlier work. It has a doubtful scientific method and a relatively small number of participants. Before we can celebrate early balding, we need a better designed research program with a significantly larger number of men involved. Only if these new findings are confirmed can men with male pattern baldness feel better about their hair loss. Until then, all they have to rely on is the ever reliable propecia – so long as you start early enough, it slows hair loss and can prompt some regrowth.

People have many different weaknesses, but one of the most common is vanity – the sense that we are somehow special, endowed with extraordinary abilities and attractive to the opposite sex. Unfortunately, most of us are slightly overweight and “ordinary”. If we are attractive, it is only to those who are equally ordinary. Yet, there is a major industry “out there” which sucks up money from all those people who want to look better. It ranges from a little foundation powder to hide blemishes, lifts in shoes to add an inch, to the more extreme forms of body renovation and redesign through different forms of cosmetic surgery. For men, the great fear is loss of hair. Whereas women can more easily hide under hair pieces and wigs, men are routinely mocked if they suddenly appear in public under a rug. Go back a few centuries, and mountebanks would ride their wagons into town to sell quack medicines – pills to cure all ills, potions to rub on the affected areas and liquors to drown all pains. Their plan was simple. Sell as much as possible in one day and then ride the wagons quietly out of town that night. It was dangerous to stay until the deceptions were discovered. Angry people do not ask for the return of their money politely.

Do not think the morality of marketing is any better today. Open a newspaper, turn on your tv or surf the internet and you cannot avoid all the same extravagant claims. Buy these pills, this topical cream, or this emulsion or suspension and not only will your hair loss stop overnight, it will immediately start to grow so fast you will have to keep a place permanently booked at your hairdresser to keep it under control. On the scale of miraculous cures, it is up there alongside Lazarus. The only difference between the old mountebanks and the modern merchants are the words. The claims are the same, but now they are all wrapped in the language of science. Active ingredients are given interestingly impressive names or codes. You will be referred to reports from clinical trials. Doctors will apparently endorse their effectiveness. Yet there is one underlying truth. Not one of these products has to be approved by the FDA before they are sold on the market. There are no tests required to prove effectiveness or safety. People can put anything in a bottle and sell it as a “stop hair loss” product. This always was and continues to be the snake oil sold by the travelling medicine shows.

That’s what makes it so refreshing to actually have a product like propecia. This is a drug that has been through the clinical trials required by the FDA to prove that it works and has no serious adverse side effects. When claims are made about this drug, they are backed up by real scientific evidence and vouched for by real physicians. When it comes to male pattern baldness, propecia really does stop hair loss and, in many cases, it encourages some regrowth. There are just two simple rules to follow. Start taking it early before too much hair is lost. Do not stop. Once you stop, hair loss resumes.