• Question: why do men lose their hair

    Asked by coolscientist to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 22 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Sophie Holles

      Sophie Holles answered on 22 Mar 2013:

      I don’t think its completely known but its linked to having high testosterone levels and its inherited!

    • Photo: Hayley Evers-King

      Hayley Evers-King answered on 22 Mar 2013:

      I think my Dad would like to know this! I think it has quite a lot to do with genetics – some people are more prone to it than others. But baldness can also be caused by the way you treat your hair – having tight ponytails and brushing your hair too much. There’s also a lot of diseases that cause hair loss and treatment for cancer causes hair loss a lot. Stress, bad nutrition and lots of other things can influence this too.

      In older men in particular the loss of hair (caused by changes in the genes which produce hormones like testosterone) might have some evolutionary routes. It could be that men with less hair are seen as older, stronger, more mature, so maybe being bald younger was an advantage if this was what women were looking for in a mate!

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