Why Do We Grow Bald? 



Disease and tight hats are not the chief causes. 

 Baldness can be inherited, Uke other traits 



]>y I). Oshorn, Oliio State University 



IT IS popularly supposed that some forms 

 of baldness are caused by the wearing 

 of tight hats. Often the line of baldness 

 seems to coincide with the hat-band, which 

 might show that it is cutting off the supply 

 of nourishment to the scalp. One of the 

 main arguments in support of this 

 theory is that women d 

 become bald. 



In making a study 

 determine whether herediiy 

 is an important factor, I 

 considered only patter^i 

 baldness. By pattern 

 baldness is meant the 

 kind associated with ihiii. 

 normal or he:i\>' hair. 1 1 

 usualh" does not put in its 

 appearance until after the 

 twentieth year. Among 

 the various patterns the 

 most common are com- 

 plete baldness on the top 

 of the head ; that iinolv- 

 ing only the crf)wn: thai 

 giving the appearance of 

 an extremely high fore- 

 head, and that co\-cring 

 the top and back portions of the he.id. 



In one family the father was bald before 

 he was thirty. His only son showed the 

 same baldness pattern at birth, but later 

 grew a normal head of hair, which he 

 retained until the past \-ear. Now at twenty 

 \ears of age the hair is beginning to fail 

 out in the 

 same fashion 

 that his 

 father's did. 

 This indi- 

 cates that the 

 baldness pat- 

 tern may be 

 pl.iiiilydiTuied 

 it birth. 



In Iwofam- 

 ilics which 

 were studied, 

 nr) baldness 

 what e V e r 

 could 1) e 



Obviously the liiii: of baldness here 

 does not coincide with the hat-band 



found. Heavy hair predominated and was 

 retained to an advanced age. Tight hats 

 were worn by the men, but neither the 

 hats nor severe illness had affected the 

 luxuriance of the hair. 



The families wiiich were traced in 

 reference to baldness show clearly 

 t is inherited. Contrar\' to 

 prexalcnt belief, women do 

 )ecome bald. They are mo;e 

 sensitive concerning it, and 

 can more easily conceal it 

 than men. However, 

 there are fewer bald 

 women than bald men, 

 due to the method of 

 inheritance. Pattern bald- 

 ness is called a "sex- 

 limited trait." The char- 

 acteristic is transmitted di- 

 rectly from father to son 

 and may be inheritetl 

 through the mother, 

 though she herself is not 

 tiakl. A bald man may 

 transmit the trait to hi-> 

 d.uighier, who though she 

 does not show it herself 

 t to her children. A woman 

 called a carrier. If a woman 



Till iiuiii on the rin'it is thiily livi ytjis old. The one on 

 left is fifty. The patterns of baldness ore distinctly different 



Sli 



can transmit 

 of this type i.\ 

 inherits the tendency to baldness from both 

 ])arents she herself becomes bald. Inherit- 

 ing the tendency from both parents does 

 not necess.irily mean that both parents 

 must be bald, but that the father is bald 



,iiul themolh- 

 er a carrier. 

 A bald wo- 

 man must in- 

 herit double 

 the tendency 

 that a bald 

 man inherits. 

 Th.it wom- 

 en may be- 

 have as carri- 

 ers of bald- 

 ness explains 

 why it may 

 ski|> genera- 

 tii)ns and ap- 



