Despite there being so many men who manage to pull off baldness in such a natural way, there's still a stigma towards guys who are distinctly lacking in the head hair department. So much so, in fact, that some dudes will go to the extent of
spending thousands on hair plugs, or subject themselves to ridiculous-looking wigs and toupees rather than go through life with a nude noggin.
Perhaps the worst thing about baldness (that is if you actually consider it to be a negative thing in the first place) is that it's pretty much unavoidable for a lot of men, and some guys will start to lose their hair at a very young age if it runs in their family.
However, that might be about to change.
Using stem cells taken from laboratory mice, scientists have found a way to grow hairy skin for the first time. According to the people behind the project, the artificially-grown biological material more closely resembles natural hair than any previous attempts, and the process could soon be used in trials for hair-loss treatment.
The work was done by a team from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, who narrowed down a very specific combination of cells that would be capable of generating hair growth.
Professor Karl Koehler, who worked on the project, said that an organoid - the type of stem cells which can be manipulated into growing a certain way - "looks like a little ball of pocket lint that floats around in the culture medium. The skin develops as a spherical cyst and then the hair follicles grow outward in all directions - like dandelion seeds."
The professor also explained that this method of growing skin cells could potentially be very useful in producing artificial material on which drugs can be tested, or even be used to analyze the progression of diseases such as skin cancer. This would be a huge leap for scientific progress, as it would allow for more accurate drug testing and eliminate the need for using
animal or human subjects who could possibly be harmed during the experiments.
However, the trials are still in the early stages, so it's not going to be a quick fix for people who are already experiencing thinning hair.
And there won't be any shortage of clients, as most men actually experience some form of hair loss by the time they reach their sixties.
Hormone changes are the biggest cause of baldness, and, obviously, a man's hormonal structure is going to change throughout his life. Believe it or not, about three in 10 guys will have some noticeable hair loss by the time they reach the age of 30 - and around 33 per cent of Caucasian women will experience the same thing by the age of 70.
Ultimately, though, the fact of the matter is that there's actually nothing wrong with balding. It won't damage your health, it won't change your personality, and the only thing you might notice as a result is that your head feels a little colder during the winter months. But if this treatment is going to improve the livelihood of people who feel negatively about balding, then it can't come soon enough.
