Hair Loss Remedies Throughout History

By Martin A. David martin.david@hqpublications.com Pharmavita Columnist September 8, 2004

Look over yonder. What is that bright and shiny object sparkling in the sunshine? Oh, beg your pardon, it’s the top of someone’s head. Well, if your scalp is catching more than its share of the sun’s rays, I’m sure you don’t find baldness at all amusing. Try to take comfort in the fact that you are one of more than an estimated 40 million men who suffer from hair loss and 20 million cases of female hair loss.

What can you do about it? You could try the hair loss treatment the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra put together for her pal Julius Caesar when he showed signs of male pattern baldness. She used bear fat and deer marrow with a mixture of ground horse teeth and burnt house mice.

Unfortunately, Julius ran into a gang of knife-wielding politicians and died before anyone could find out if the queen’s hair loss product worked. The good news is that we’ve come pretty close to finding a real hair loss remedy in the past few decades, and a complete baldness cure can’t be far behind. There are also a growing number of approved methods for medical hair restoration.

Medical researchers have found that baldness in men is often a matter of heredity. The fancy name is androgenetic alopecia and what it means is if your father is bald, you’d better go shopping for a hat. Female hair loss may also run along family lines, but also involves subtle hormone imbalances.

Speaking of hormones, testosterone, the essential male hormone, plays a big role in male pattern baldness. Eunuchs don’t go bald even if they carry the baldness gene. That’s just another reason for bald men to feel better.


About the Author
Martin A. David consults as a Senior Technical Writer for a number of Silicon Valley firms. He is also a translator, specializing in Danish, French and Spanish literary works. He has written numerous feature articles for publications including the Los Angeles Times. He has also published a novel, and a non-fiction book in the area of dance. Martin earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Brooklyn College in his native New York. He currently chairs the Santa Clara Cultural Advisory Commission in Santa Clara, California.