Posts Tagged ‘bald’
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Human beings share many common traits with our animal cousins. Although this is not the place for the debate about evolution, we do know that many animals also have hair on their bodies and their heads. Some of these are familiar to us because we have seen them in textbooks or at the local zoo. Mammals are the only species in nature that have been blessed with hair.
Many mammals like dogs, cats and other domesticated farm animals shed their hair according to the seasons. Some shed hair continuously. Since our pets and farm animals don’t have prehensile grip, they don’t find their dead hair in a comb or brush like we do. And apparently, this daily or seasonal hair loss doesn’t seem to bother them as much as it does humans. Hair loss is of little concern, except in harsh climates, where being bald makes it harder to retain body heat. For the majority of mammals, hair is functional.
If you are losing your hair, this observation might not be very comforting to you. On the other hand, you can take heart that humans are not one of the species of mammals that don’t have any hair at all. If the bald eagle comes to mind, you’re warm. Birds aren’t mammals and they have feathers, instead of hair. Yet, there are many species of mammals that enter and leave the world without ever having any hair to fret about.
Aquatic mammals like dolphins, whales and sharks don’t have hair because it would increase drag and resistance in the water. Elephants usually don’t have hair either; nor do hippopotamuses and rhinoceros. Of course, they have pretty thick skin, so hair might be functionally redundant for these species. There is also a hairless rat, hairless moles, hairless pigs and the hairless sphynx cat. You may find hair around their noses, ears or tails, but not much.
The main purpose of hair is to protect your skin from the elements of nature. Except for some naturally hairless mammals, humans have the least amount of skin covered with hair of all the mammals on the planet. Take comfort in knowing that your hair can do its job with little interference from you. All the same, it’s a good idea to protect your hair, so you can leave with the hair that you came into the world with.
Tags: animals, bald, body, body heat, dead hair, elements. skin, hair, hair loss, hairless, head, human beings, Mammals, purpose
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 2 Comments »
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
Bald men do not get a date with the prom queen and women with thinning hair are not likely to date the captain of the football team. Of course, few people experience hair loss as early as high school; however, our cultural views about hair loss are usually firmly set by the time we reach adulthood. It does not take a scientific study to prove that hair loss can affect your social life, and your career.
The news is rife with stories of discrimination against overweight people. Most politically correct people will now call them weight challenged, but does that even begin to undo the average person’s first impression of people with substantial girth?
We assume that they have no discipline and self-control. Even when they have a relatively proportioned body, attractive facial features or a great head of hair, our cultural prejudices will kick in. We either ignore them, try to fix them, or make jokes about their condition.
With few legal cases on the books, it is difficult to prove that the weight challenged suffer from unfair discrimination in employment. However, certain jobs, including the military, do impose weight restrictions on potential applicants. So, career opportunities for people whose weight exceeds the standard can be limited.
Career discrimination against bald people and those who are losing their hair is one of the hidden costs of hair loss. Our cultural perceptions of competency and leadership potential are tied to a genetic message hardwired into the human psyche.
In the days of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of early humanoids, the strongest men were appointed to track down dangerous predators like the saber-toothed tiger. Even those who were charged with hunting down the beasts that provided food had to meet certain requirements of speed, strength and virility. The bald and the old need not apply. With survival a priority, the subtle discrimination against people with hair loss took root in human culture.
We all know that appearance can affect career opportunities. Many people in line for management and corporate leadership positions go to great expense to hide any evidence of hair loss. They dress for success by investing in the right clothing, shoes and other career props. They also realize that they must treat hair loss aggressively before it affects their career opportunities.
Being the most competent and qualified often is not enough if your competition has more hair!
Tags: bald, baldness, career opportunities, cultural prejudices, discrimination, genetic message, hair growth, hair loss, hidden cost, strength, thinning hair, treatment, virility
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
The practice of locking ones’ hair allows it to reach extraordinary lengths in long coils. Some Rastafarians have hair so long that it extends past their waistlines. We know that the average strand of hair can only grow for a maximum of five or six years. However, many people do not understand that dreadlocks are mostly dead hair. Once the hair is locked into the traditional coils, the hairs that die daily cannot fall out of the locked coil. Even though this dead hair can be groomed and maintained, it is just as dead as the hairs that you find in your brush or comb.
Rastafarians do not cut their hair, so the weight of dreadlocks can put enough tension on the scalp to cause traction alopecia. It will often go unnoticed until an entire lock separates from the scalp and leaves a bald spot. The dreadlocks hairstyle that is associated with the Rastafarian political and religious movement has its roots in an unlikely place – Ethiopia.
Haile Selassie lived from 1892 to 1975. During this time, various political strategies to liberate European colonies developed throughout the African Diaspora, including the Caribbean. Haile Selassie, himself, claimed royal lineage that he traced back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, both of great importance to Judaism and Christianity. Even before he became emperor, Selassie often called himself “The Lion of Judah.” His birth name was Tafari Mekonnen. Ras, which simply means prince or ruler, was added later.
Jamaica, a British possession, was a hotbed of political agitation against colonialism and imperialism. When Haile Selassie ascended to the throne in 1930, Marcus Garvey and other notable Jamaican political activists saw the opportunity to inspire and embolden the international Pan-Africanist movement. They helped the biblical prophecy of the second coming of God to quickly gain credence in the Caribbean. Soon, Haile Selassie was being referred to by some Jamaicans as the reincarnated son of God and the designated savior of Africans throughout the Diaspora. The Rastafarian religion was born from this mix of philosophical and political views.
Selassie continues to be revered as the titular head of the Rastafarian religion, even though he was never photographed with any hairstyle that remotely resembled dreadlocks. The Rastafarian rationale for locking ones hair comes from another biblical story – Samson and Delilah.
Tags: bald, dreadlocks, Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, Jamaica, Marcus Garvey, Pan-Africanist, Rastafarians, traction alopecia
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Hair replacement surgery is a medical procedure that involves the transplantation of living, healthy hair to areas of your scalp that need supplementation. The hair that remains on the scalp (usually at the back and along the sides) will be used to fill in bare or thinning areas of the scalp. Therefore, if you are already completely bald, hair replacement surgery is not an option. If your hair loss is genetic, hair replacement surgery will not stop the progressive hair loss that eventually becomes total baldness. However, it will allow you to rearrange your existing hair to improve your overall appearance.
During an initial consultation with a hair replacement surgeon, potential patients are given a choice of surgical methods that fit their type of hair loss, their age, and their wallet. All of the procedures that are currently available will require a series of visits. Depending on the methods of treatment, the physician’s fees and the degree of hair loss, the cost ranges from $4,000 to $20,000. Since this is elective surgery, you should consult your health insurer about coverage. Hair loss clinics that have a large volume of patients may have lower costs, but the trade off is often less personal attention.
The most common procedure is transplantation. This process entails removing small skin and hair grafts and placing them in on the bald part of the scalp. Micrografts, the smallest size, may only have one or two hairs; it will be inserted into a needle hole. Grafts with three to four hairs each can also be transplanted into previously prepared scalp slits or sites. Minigrafts of both types may contain up to eight hairs each. The standard round or square graft will relocate a small patch of skin that holds nine to eighteen hairs.
Covering an area that is just three square inches will require at least 500 grafts. The total number of grafts you will need depends on the extent of your hair loss. Many patients opt for strategic placement of the hair grafts to reduce the total number of hair transplants. This is a more effective use of the existing hair than attempting to recover the bald part of the scalp completely. The hair that has been relocated usually falls out soon after the transplant, but new growth replaces it when the graft site has healed.
Tags: bald, dermatologists, graft site, growth, hair loss clinics, hair replacement surgeon, hair replacement surgery, hair transplants, micrografts, minigrafts, needle hole, patch, scalp, scarring, slits, supplementation
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
You should not be surprised to find out that a majority of American men may lose all or some of their hair before they leave the planet. Women tend to fare slightly better than men, but only by a few percentage points.
There really is no body of statistics that we can use to assess our nation’s hair loss. The Census Bureau is great at counting people and things. The upcoming census in 2010 will give us a snapshot of the population’s housing, employment, education and more.
For a picture of the condition of the nation’s hair, we will need to make our own calculations. Once the numbers in, you will not have to wait for the 2010 Census to figure out where you stand.
In 2006, the oldest baby boomers, born in 1946, turned 60. The Census Bureau counted 78.2 million boomers at the beginning of 2006. Of this number, 48.2% were males and 50.8% were females.
Boomer Hair Loss
Since 66% of all men become completely or partially bald by age 60, we can project that at least 24.8 million boomer men will experience hair loss in the near future; and some of them are already bald.
The Census projections show that there were 39.7 million boomer women in 2006. The onset of menopause is one of the most common causes of hair loss for women in this age group. The risk of hair loss or thinning hair increases to 50% with menopause.
Therefore, by 2006, at least 19.8 million boomer women could be expected to face hair loss. The incidence of hair loss for women increases steadily after menopause, although women never quite catch up with men.
Interestingly, the Census Bureau projected that 7,918 boomers would reach age 60 each day during 2006. This amounts to 330 new 60-year-olds every hour! The youngest boomers, born in 1964, will reach 60 by 2024. By 2030, the total number of boomers between ages 66 to 84 is projected to be 57.8 million.
Even though the total number of baby boomers will decrease in the future, the hair loss statistics won’t change much. The Census Bureau projects that almost 55% of those still living will be female; roughly 45% will be male. That means that our nation is still looking at a bumper crop of balding boomers in the next 20 years!
Tags: baby boomers, bald, balding boomers, baldness, Census Bureau, hair loss, menopause, statistics
Posted in Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
After taking time off from her movie career for her pregnancy, Halle Berry is getting ready to go back to work. She didn’t have pregnancy–related hair loss that affects many women. Apparently, she isn’t suffering from undue stress of being a new parent. During her pregnancy and after, she’s been just as gorgeous as ever.
So why is Halle going bald? The truth is, she voluntarily decided to cut her hair for her next movie role. The film won’t be released until 2010. This movie is currently called “Nappily Ever After,” according to the Internet Movie Database. The title and the movie are based on a Trisha Thomas’ novel by that name.
Berry’s character is a young single female, Venus Johnston, who has hair problems and relationship issues. Which came first isn’t clear. However, in the movie, Venus is so frustrated by her hair falling out that she preempts Mother Nature and shaves her head.
The rest of the movie explores themes about hair, perceptions of beauty, and cultural norms. This is done by chronicling people’s reactions to Venus and her quest to establish a different foundation for her self-esteem. These themes look directly at the subject that many people politely avoid when confronted with another person’s permanent or temporary hair loss.
The special emphasis that many cultures put on hair make hair loss a painful, traumatic experience. The fact that most people move on or “get over it” doesn’t change the fact that baldness is a blow to your self-esteem. In addition, it does alter other people’s perceptions of your virility, fertility, and more. In polite society, no politically correct person would ever mock or insult a differently abled person who is deaf or physically deformed. Yet baldness, voluntary or involuntary, is still quite a spectator sport. Any slang dictionary has numerous popular expressions that are used without forethought in our culture.
The director, Patricia Cardoso, didn’t ask Berry to shave her head. She could have opted for a bald cap and kept her own tresses untouched. Halle wants to have the complete experience so that she can give moviegoers a better performance. She expects her hair to grow back, at least she hopes it will. If it doesn’t, she will already be prepared for a starring role in a new life without hair. Imagine that!
Tags: bald, baldness, cultural norms, fertility, hair loss, Halle Berry, movie, Nappily Ever After, novel, Patricia Cardoso, pregnancy–related hair loss, self-esteem, temporary hair loss, tresses, Trisha Thomas, undue stress, Venus Johnston, virility
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth, Vitamins | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
The bald brotherhood just keeps gaining ground and getting new members. Actually, this brotherhood includes some women; so perhaps, the politically correct term is bald nation. Many historical figures were bald by the time they took their dirt nap. Some suspect that the wig obsession in Europe might have been less of a fashion statement than a defense against the public humiliation that notables associate with their hair loss. Europe’s poor just sucked it up and went bald with no way to hide.
Fast forward to the twenty first century and you will find that there is a real website named the bald brotherhood. Its members offer support and encouragement to hair loss victims. They may make suggestions about coping with the trauma. Mostly they choose to cope with hair loss by celebrating baldness. This is one way to cope with something that people believe is beyond their control. Surprisingly, some of this website’s members are voluntarily bald! No hair loss involved. At least that’s their story and they are sticking to it.
The popular comedian, Steve Harvey, recently caused a stir when he shaved his head. He has declined to explain if this was a proactive strategy, his defense against what he believed to be inevitable, or just a phase. Rumor has it that Steve had a hair weave for many years. Gossipers also claimed that he dyed his hair, to boot. Oh my!
Baldness, voluntary or otherwise, CAN help a man’s career. Some people are sexier with bald heads. People who hate musicals watched The King and I because of Yul Brynner. Of course, the hottest man on the planet also had a package of triceps, biceps, and plexes that made his chrome dome work for him. Telly Savalas, Lou Gossett, and Mahatma Gandhi all joined the brotherhood and never missed a beat.
Thinking about giving up on hair restoration? If you decide to join the bald brotherhood, you’ll have to pray that your head is suitable for a transition to zero hair. What if your mom didn’t get the memo about massaging your head into a smooth round shape while your bones were still soft?
More people than not want to keep their hair as long as possible. Celebrating baldness is okay, if that’s your only option. Take a page from history, hair is always fashionable, especially when it’s your own!
Tags: bald, bald brotherhood, baldness, hair loss, hair restoration, hair weave, Lou Gossett, Mahatma Gandhi, Steve Harvey, Telly Savalas, wig obsession, Yul Brynner
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth, Vitamins | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Let’s face it; human beings are the only species on the planet that endure extraordinary and even dangerous remedies for hair loss. The rest of the animal kingdom just moves on. Humans have been losing hair since time immemorial. Unfortunately, human beings have tried almost everything under the sun to restore normal hair growth. Despite the fact that these remedies are mainly futile, they live on in folklore, like urban legends. Consider that almost none of the widely used folk remedies have any scientific evidence to support them. More importantly, if any of them worked, why are so many people still bald?
According to folklore, baldness sufferers only need to rub the scalp with an egg yolk and leave it on the affected area for an hour. Wash the hair to remove the egg yolk. Rinse, Repeat, Repeat! Eggs are plentiful and relatively cheap. They are certainly cheaper than hair transplants. So why haven’t the millions of bald people worldwide been able to restore their normal hair growth with this home remedy?
On the other hand, people who use castor oil as a home remedy for hair loss must not only rub the oil into the scalp and hair roots, but they must also wrap their head in newspaper and leave both the oil and newspaper on their head overnight. Folklore dictates that this treatment must be repeated for at least seven nights to see results. It’s likely that even after washing the hair every morning, the accumulation of ink from the newsprint will be enough to give many hair loss sufferers hope, if not more hair.
Red Henna is a dye made from a plant found in parts of Asia and Africa. To use it as a home remedy for hair loss, you must spread it on the affected area of the scalp and leave it on your head for about an hour. Wash, rinse, repeat for at least 10 days. If your hair doesn’t return, at least you’ll have a great new hair color – red! That is sure to make your thinning hair less noticeable.
Tags: bald, castor oil, egg yolk, folk remedies, hair loss, Hair Loss Products, home remedies, Natural Hair Growth, red henna, thinning hair
Posted in Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
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