Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: Lauren Boga Bob here with another classic episode for you.
Speaker 1: Former host Christian Sager is explaining what's too many folks
Speaker 1: a pressing consideration as they get older. Why do some
Speaker 1: people go bald? Hi? I'm Christian Sager and this is
Speaker 1: brain stuff. Have you ever heard that if your maternal
Speaker 1: grandfather went bald, that you will to? Or what about
Speaker 1: the one we're getting? A scalp massage will send more
Speaker 1: blood to your head and cause your hair to grow back.
Speaker 1: Some people also claim that if you shave your hair,
Speaker 1: it will grow back even fullier than before. Sorry to
Speaker 1: break it to you, but all of these are bogus myths.
Speaker 1: As long as men have been losing their hair, they've
Speaker 1: been trying to figure out what causes baldness and how
Speaker 1: they can cure this sign of aging. In fact, it's
Speaker 1: estimated that forty million Americans are losing their hair, and
Speaker 1: that's men and women, and all of those people are
Speaker 1: spending more than one billion dollars a year on everything
Speaker 1: from hair transplants to two pays and spray on hair.
Speaker 1: Now hair, real hair grows just under the skin on
Speaker 1: our heads from the close to one hundred thousand follicles there.
Speaker 1: This growth happens in three phases, the antigen phase where
Speaker 1: it's growing, the catagen phase in between, and the telligen
Speaker 1: phase where it falls out. And hair falling out is
Speaker 1: totally normal. We should lose fifty to one hundred hairs
Speaker 1: every day as part of the intelligence cycle. But if
Speaker 1: more hair falls out then is replaced, you are probably balding.
Speaker 1: If the hair that grows back is thinner than what
Speaker 1: fell out, you're probably balding. And if it starts falling
Speaker 1: out in clumps, oh yeah, you are balding. But hey,
Speaker 1: take comfort that you are not alone. My friends, by
Speaker 1: age thirty, a quarter of all men have already started
Speaker 1: to lose their hair. What's weird is why do humans
Speaker 1: go bald in the first place. Baldness is actually pretty
Speaker 1: rare in other animals, and hair serves a lot of
Speaker 1: important purposes. It protects our heads from the sun, maintains
Speaker 1: our body heat when we're cold, and may even attract mate.
Speaker 1: Some researchers think it suggests a dominant status or a
Speaker 1: sign of maturity in different societies. In fact, a paper
Speaker 1: from the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found evidence
Speaker 1: that women find completely bald men more attractive than partially
Speaker 1: bald ones. The study also found that baldness was highly
Speaker 1: associated with two traits, dominance and strength. So if you're
Speaker 1: starting to lose your hair, maybe you should take action,
Speaker 1: shave it all off and show the world what a tough,
Speaker 1: assertive man you are. To understand baldness a little better,
Speaker 1: let's look at the different types that occur. First. The
Speaker 1: most common type is called and dro genetic alopecia, otherwise
Speaker 1: known as male pattern baldness. It's related to our inherited
Speaker 1: genetic predisposition from both of our parents. This affects how
Speaker 1: sensitive we are to a hormone called die hydro testosserone,
Speaker 1: hereafter referred to as d HT. For most guys, five
Speaker 1: percent of their testosterone is converted into d h T.
Speaker 1: If you're sensitive to d h T, it acts like
Speaker 1: a toxin on your hair follicles, producing thinner, weaker, almost
Speaker 1: colorless hair until hair production in the follicle simply stops.
Speaker 1: Researchers have also found that male pattern baldness also causes
Speaker 1: men to have an abnormal amount of a protein lipid
Speaker 1: called prostaglandin D two Some dermatologists even think that men
Speaker 1: could regrow their hair if this inhibiting protein were removed.
Speaker 1: Other types of baldness include the female pattern baldness that
Speaker 1: occurs in some women post menopause, an autoimmune disorder called
Speaker 1: alopecia ariata, and a condition called telligent effluvium that makes
Speaker 1: your hair fall out faster than normal. People can also
Speaker 1: have brittle hair from hair shaft defects, or in rare cases,
Speaker 1: they may even pull out their own hair compulsively if
Speaker 1: they have a disorder called trick atilla mania. You think
Speaker 1: that sounds scary. You can also lose your hair from illnesses,
Speaker 1: fungal infections, burns, chemical applications, medications, and of course, cancer
Speaker 1: treatments like chemotherapy. Smoking is also reported to increase the
Speaker 1: risk of baldness. You should definitely see your doctor if
Speaker 1: your hair starts falling out in clumps or if you
Speaker 1: get a burning, itching irritation on your scout. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Christian and produced by Tyler Clang. If
Speaker 1: you miss Christian, check out his new podcast dissecting pop culture.
Speaker 1: It's called super Context and it's available wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. And of course For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other Harry topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com.