Hair can be your best – or your worst- asset, your best friend or worst enemy.
And according to scientists at Bonn and Düsseldorf Universities, there’s hope for those who view it as their worst enemy. An important hair-loss gene has been uncovered. The researchers investigated over 500,000 positions in the human genome, and found a gene variant which occurs clearly more frequently in bald men than in control persons.
If you or – if you’re a stylist – your clients, have little need for high-end hair trimming tools like yoko scissors, professional shears, expensive products etc., because they, well, just have very little hair, this could be an answer as to why.
These are the same scientist that characterized the first hair-loss gene as being inherited through the maternal line, and explained why hair-loss in men often reflects that of their maternal grandfathers. This new gene, however, focuses on the gene’s relationship between father and son, and may explain similarities in cranial hair growth betweenthe two. This new study reveals that there is the potention for the son being bald – or exhibiting similar hair loss patterns – if his father is also bald.
This is only the second region of the genome that can definitely be associated with premature hair-loss, and hopefully it leads to a breakthrough in hair growth technology.
“We are now trying to discover the role played by this genomic region in hair-growth”, says Dr. Felix Brockschmidt of Bonn University. “Only then will we know whether we on the right track for new forms of therapy for male hair-loss”.
