I'm glad it's not that easy... I can see the "pranks gone wrong", the "ex-boy friend revenge" and the "shave-your-kid facebook 6-month trend" potential of this..
It's not simple to address something like this. Either you have to replace the follicles (e.g. transplant surgery), or mess around with people's androgens (right now, we can only do that pharmacologically). Drugs that affect people's hormones have a tendency of having longer-lasting effects than those that affect neurotransmitters, which makes treating a cosmetic condition with them somewhat iffy from a "first do no harm" perspective.
Minoxidil (topical) and Finasteride (oral) are the two most reliable pharmaceuticals for pattern hair loss.
- We don't actually understand how minoxidil works, but it probably stimulates blood flow to hair follicles that are going dormant, buying a little more time. It's fairly safe side effects wise, but only addresses some forms of balding (top of head, smaller areas).
- Finasteride affects the production of DHT in men, which can halt or even reverse male pattern hair loss - but a very small subset of patients experience loss of sexual function as a side effect, which can be permanent. This makes it iffy to recommend to everyone without reservation.
The worst thing about both of these medications is that they have to be taken regularly, or else the hair loss will resume.
Until we more fine-tuned ways of tinkering with people's hormones or editing their genes, I don't think that we'll have a truly consequence-free cure for hair loss. Medical technology is just not there yet.
...That said, you're absolutely right that there's a lot of money in selling people cures for hair loss. In fact, if you just take the two drugs I mentioned above, explain them to men on the internet in clear language, and charge a small premium (3x the price of generic) to sell it to them... Boom! You got yerself a startup that just raised a $47M Round B! https://www.keeps.com/
Good point. The fact that it would be multi-billion industry means that it's probably super hard. I may be wrong but when people claim we're on the verge of curing ageing, I like to point that we're not even able to cure hair-loss.
The holy grail would be a pill or lotion you could take and truly stop/reverse hair loss. There are some existing pills (finasteride) and lotions (rogaine) but they don't work for many, and have their own issues as well.
Hair loss is important in the IT field because age is frowned upon in our industry. It directly affects our career.
Fields like medicine and law value age. I'm jealous of those of fields. In IT you have a grey arrow on your back and have to consciously try to counter it, such as acting enthusiastic about dumb fads that management falls for.
Youngbees don't know better and lick them up with a smile: "Yum yum, block-chain q-bit microservice no-sql serverless node.js++ for our little contract tracking app! Woohoo!" I know better, but STFU to not look like an old-tech-loving geezer.
Today, just to stall your hair-loss / keep hair, you'll need to be on minoxidil (foam / liquid, twice a day) and finasteride and/or dutasteride (pill). Though many will use more products - and as of lately, microneedling your scalp has gained popularity.
Some of these meds have adverse health effects, but in the end - they can be expensive and time-consuming, and results range from poor/no effect, to good.
A hair-transplant could cost you between $10k-$50k, depending on where you get one. Musk has had a HT, but probably needs to stay on the meds mentioned above, to halt any other loss that's going on.
Long story short: The current solutions are expensive and time consuming. It becomes a lifestyle / daily routine, like with other chronic illnesses. And the effects can disappear if/when you can no longer afford them.
Edit: Just searched up synthetic hair implants
The FDA banned the synthetic fibers in the US in 1983. The ban resulted because widespread use in the 1970s led to numerous complications including recurrent infections, rejection, contact dermatitis, granulomatous hypersensitivity reactions and cyst formation. Not to mention frequent loss of fibers from breakage.
The synthetic fibers continue to be manufactured in Europe where they are still in use.
Check out this website with an unfortunate name for more info https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/artificial-hair-implants/
I’m still a bit surprised nobody is trying to tissue-culture skin with follicles that don’t go bald in the same way. Artists have already done the tissue culture part with a different goal in mind, and the tech in this area has been developing rapidly: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victimless_Leather
[0] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsob.190010
I'm a doctor, if that makes a difference.
It's not that fixing hair would improve heart health, but that on a systemic level improving heart health could prevent balding.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25632043/Anyway, that's the opposite of what you said before. Treating heart to improve balding is not the same as treating balding to improve heart.
And finasteride is not a cure for balding. At best it slows it, with variable results among different people.
Person's baldness was given to them at birth. They had no say in it just like the pigmentation color. What's the objective difference?
The entire history of human progress is about finding solutions to problems that seemed like they couldn't be solved. Humans will always try to shape reality to their liking.
That's just your opinion though. It's certainly not mine. In fact, I think bald people look cool. I also think a lot of them have much more confidence in themselves than I do and I have a full set of hair.
All people have hills to climb, though. I just wish people who are insecure because of their lack of fur on top wasn't. Only douche-bags will ever hold that against you. Don't try to please those people. They are jerks.
Not everyone can have hair.
The improvement in atteractiveness from losing weight for the “average” USA person far exceeds hair.
So if you want to look better focus on what you can control and lose body fat.
Not really true. Some people's genetics make it difficult for a 6 pack to show even at a low body fat %.
> Not everyone can have hair
I mean, this is the whole problem that is trying to be solved here.
Imagine if everyone _could_ have hair!
Perspective, perspective, perspective.
Not everyone with hair looks good. The ugliest person ever was probably one with hair on top.
>> some people have faces that look young instead of manly
Some women absolutely love a boyish look. Some men too.
>> Plenty of reasons men still hate losing hair.
Men with hair hate their lives just as much.
Cure for hair-loss.
Some might say it's just vanity, but if someone could come up with a cure, and sell it affordably, that would be a multi-billion, maybe even trillion dollar industry.
Going from quite balding (NW4-NW7 in balding terminology) to a full head of hair makes most guys look a solid 10-20 years younger.
The hair-loss industry has been in a permanent state of "in 5 years..." for 30 years now.
And yes, I know there are more pressing issues in the world of medicine, but it's a real problem for tens of millions of people.