Season's Greetings!

So, another Christmas in the bag and if you're anything like me plenty of New Year's resolutions regarding weight loss coming up very shortly. Looking towards next year as far as Hair Loss Heaven is concerned, we feel as though the foundations have been laid and 2007 is the year we really start to build. That's going to be a two pronged strategy with content being developed in-house but also a much greater emphasis than previously on submissions from our members and visitors (after all, you're the experts.) More news on that in the New Year but until then, enjoy the holidays!

Hair Loss Drug Could Mask Prostate Cancer

Worrying news from the States emerged last week when it was announced that Propecia lowers the reading on the PSA prostate cancer screening test. PSA — prostate-specific antigen — is a marker given off by prostate cells and can be an indication of prostate cancer. If you're taking (or considering taking) Propecia do a search on Google News for more information, there's fairly widespread coverage at the moment.

Hair loss frown-and-smileys

One of the things that really irritate me when I research hair loss is all those “before and after” pictures that the cynical admen use to get us to buy their products. I like to call them frown-and-smileys because they feature side-by-side portrait pictures of a man or woman in which the “before” picture shows the subject bald and frowning, and the “after” picture depicts the subject sporting a full head of hair and smiling like they’re high on nitrous oxide or something. The subliminal message being sent out to all prospective buyers is that hair equals glad and bald equals sad, deliberately lowering self-esteem and creating a desire to purchase. Chances of this particular marketing strategy changing anytime soon? Next to nothing. But sometimes just pointing out that the king is wearing no clothes is enough to dispel the illusion.

Scots TV presenter winning battle with hair loss

Great to hear that Gail Porter is winning the fight against alopecia. Here's an extract from a local newspaper:

SHE has fought anorexia, post-natal depression and the break-up of her marriage, and now Gail Porter seems to be winning the greatest battle she has faced so far.

Yesterday, the 35-year-old TV presenter from Portobello in Edinburgh confirmed that a year after she went bald due to alopecia, her hair is growing back.

"It's been coming back for about four months," she told The Scotsman. "I was in Africa a few weeks ago with a charity, and when I got back about 70 per cent of my hair had grown back. Now, I've got literally 80 per cent of it back, and just four bald spots, that's it. It's the best it's ever been."

I watched a programme about Gail a few months back and thought she was amazing - good on you girl!

New guides in development

A number of new guides to hair loss treatments will shortly be available at Hair Loss Heaven, starting with information on DHT inhibitors scheduled for the middle of next month. I hope visitors will find the new info useful, keep an eye on this blog or the HLH newsfeed for further announcements.

It's a miracle!

OK, not exactly a miracle - my hair hasn't grown back - but a brave soul has finally ventured into the forums and decided to tell his hair loss story. "Korny", stand up and take a bow!

Now that the ice has been well and truly broken, why don't you join us too?

LIPH gene may cause inherited hair loss

Scientists have discovered that the LIPH gene may cause some types of inherited hair loss. There are a lot of news outlets covering this story at the moment but here's a link to the CBS story.

Thanks, Ron!

A quick thank you to Ron for providing some additional information and correcting some errors in the "How Hair Transplants Work" article (now updated). If anyone else has any suggestions for improving any other articles, or would like to submit their own, please get in touch. Thanks!

Eyelash transplants

I just finished reading an article in The Sydney Morning Herald about the next big craze in hair restoration - eyelash transplants! Now, apparently they've been around for a while for people who have lost their eyelashes through accident or illness but now it's becoming fashionable to have the procedure. I was a little discouraged by the last few lines, though:

he [the physician] warned that if the hair grew in the wrong direction it could scratch the eyeball and potentially lead to an ulcer and even blindness.

Hmmmmm, OK, lemme think about it...

Worst bald joke ever?

What do you call a bunch of bunnies hopping backwards?

A receding hare line.

EARN $5 FOR POSTING YOUR HAIR LOSS STORY!

I had no idea how difficult people would find it to share their hair loss experiences when I set up the site so I'm going to try a little experiment. If you post at least 300 words to the "Tell Your Story" forum I'll send $5 to your PayPal account as a thank you. I reckon $5 is about the cost of a beer (or whatever you usually drink) which is what I would buy you anyway in person. This offer is limited to the first 20 people to post and open only to those with PayPal accounts. I hope that this will kick start the forums and encourage more people to post in the future (thanks to Jim for suggesting the idea!)

Stranger on a train

The first time I really realised how bald I was happened while visiting the bathroom on a train from London to Newcastle (don't worry, no parental guidance necessary). I'd just closed and locked the door when I happened to notice a very bald man about two feet away in the same cubicle! That was the first shock. The second, even less welcome, came when I realised that due to the positioning of the mirrors in the bathroom what I was really looking at was the back of my own head! For some reason although I'd accepted my baldness from a frontal perspective I'd never realised how bald (or how old) I looked from the rear...

Bald guys make better football players

OK, I admit, it's not strictly scientific, but after Troy Polamalu was stopped by his hair (again) last month I think the conclusion is obvious - bald guys make better football players. USA Today has the full story here but if Bill Cowher's reading this...I'm free most Sundays, just give me a call.

Hair, uh, what is it good for?

In one of those moments you can only really have in the bath, I suddenly wondered the other day why we have hair (which made a change from my usual worrying about why I don't). A quick search on Google provided the following answer:

"At one time, it was believed that body and scalp hair is a useless evolutionary leftover from our primate past. At most, it was believed, hair may have some peripheral functions such as insulating our bodies from extremes of temperature. As our understanding of the human body increased-especially by applications of molecular biology that sees body functions in fine detail-we learned that the hair follicle plays a role in many processes involving the skin. We learned that the hair follicle is a source of stem cells that can be active in wound repair as well as in hair growth and regrowth. We learned that hair follicles can be a source of some types of skin tumors, and may be implicated in diseases of uncertain cause such as alopecia areata. And, of course, we learned how hair follicle function is intimately associated with whole-body systems such as genetic control of androgenic hormone production, thyroid gland responses to internal and external environments, and nutritional status. Hair follicle function is highly integrated with molecular signals to and from these whole-body systems."

Wow! Apparently hair is pretty useful...I'm starting to wish I hadn't asked.

Going bald and feeling ugly

I know a lot of us feel less attractive when we start losing our hair but I was wondering the other day exactly why that is. I mean, I know we're culturally conditioned to think of hair loss as a negative thing but where did that come from in the first place? Is it an unwelcome reminder of our mortality we'd rather do without? Is it something in our genes from the dawn of human civilization which equates lack of hair with something to be afraid of? Answers on a postcard to the forum!

Top 10 Hair Loss Myths

Well, it took me a while to put it together but I've added a new article called "Top 10 Hair Loss Myths" which can be found here. If anyone has any more myths which they think should be added just let me know (post something to the forums, perhaps). I think the next thing I might put together is something about hair transplants, maybe "10 Things You Should Know About Hair Transplants"?

Welcome to the Hair Loss Heaven blog!

I've been working hard over the past few weeks getting the Hair Loss Heaven website in order but I also thought it might be nice to start a blog as a less formal way of keeping everyone up to date with what's going on. I'll update the blog as often as possible and try to share my thoughts on how the site is growing. See you in the forums!