The bald facts men will have to face (From The Oxford Times)

The bald facts men will have to face

4:41pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in IMAGO / Intuition

He earns £90,000 a week, was once the youngest goalscorer for the Premier League and has become one of the most recognisable faces in the world. For Wayne Rooney though, it is not just the face the world recognises — it is the receding hairline, too.

Although Rooney's locks might be ebbing too quickly for any hairstyle apart from a buzz cut to look good, what he's going through is all too common.

In fact, male-pattern baldness is a condition that affects two out of three men in the UK, with research finding that one out of those three will be bald by the age of 45.

So for most men, the question isn't if they will go bald, but when.

And luckily for those curious enough to put a date to it, a ‘baldness calculator’ has been established to answer that very question.

Dr Adolf Klenk created the baldness calculator — www.baldness-calculator.co.uk — as part of a German research team.

He says: "Hereditary hair loss appears to be a large problem, particularly because more and more men value full hair.

"As a result, we developed the baldness calculator to raise awareness among men, as they should deal with the problem as soon as possible to be able to take preventative measures."

The calculator had half a million hts within ten days of launching in Germany, where one out of two men suffer from baldness.

A surprising hit among younger men aged 15 to 30, the calculator asks the user a series of questions, such as his age, his genetic make-up and how many hairs he loses a day. It has been touted as the first reliable prediction of hair loss anywhere in the world.

And while you might think that there is no point in predicting just when it will happen — as 80 per cent of cases are hereditary - you would be wrong to do nothing about it, says Dr Klenk.

"People normally lose around 30 to 50 hairs a day, either in the shower, in their comb, on their pillow or just out and about," he explains.

"But if you're losing around 80 to 90 or even 100 hairs a day, then you have a high risk of premature balding. And once you lose those hairs, they can never grow back."

While the calculator can't stop you from going bald, what it can do is give you the projected time necessary to try and nip baldness in the bud.

"The point of the calculator is to stop or reduce the hair loss, which either means that you can contain it where it is, or postpone the baldness until a later age,"

said Dr Klenk.

"It depends on the individual and how they treat it."

Male-pattern baldness relates to a super sensitivity of the hair roots to the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The testosterone cuts off the energy needed for the hair to grow, causing the hair roots to die prematurely.

It is a problem common even to members of the primate family, and has been referred to anthropologically as a sign of "social maturity" that might have aided the human species evolutionarily.

Although a shiny pate on men is a common sight these days - and moreaccepted by women - most men are using the calculator to find a mate, says Dr Klenk.

"Consequently they have been using the calculator to help them discover a solution to keep the hairs they still have."

Micro-tattooing, toupees and comb-overs have been solutions of the past.

But new research has found that caffeine, applied externally, can protect the hair roots from testosterone attack and will provide the necessary energy for growth. Dr Klenk's research team has formulated a coffee-based shampoo (Alpecin Caffeine Shampoo C1, £4.99) which works to stimulate hair growth and has seen very good results.

"We won't promise you your hair will grow back, because that would cause too much expectation," he said.

"But the local application of the caffeine through the shampoo is the best way to stimulate hair growth and to keep the hairs that are already on your head."

We tend to associate hairless heads with men, but women can suffer from baldness too.

The fairer sex is more likely to suffer from thinning hair than full baldness, however, and this is a common side effect of the menopause.

"The hair root suffers from a lack of energy due to the influence of testosterone after the menopause, which results in a thinning of the hair usually around the centre of the head," explained Dr Klenk.

Women are also more likely to suffer from Alopecia Areata, a condition thought to be an auto-immune disorder in which the body attacks its own hair follicles. Characterised by bald patches alopecia has also been linked to both hereditary causes and stress.

In 50 per cent of cases, the condition is only temporary.

TOP TIPS TO KEEP YOUR HAIR ON

1. DON'T STRESS "Stress can lead to an increase of hair loss because the hair root is one of the most active tissues in the body," said Dr Klenk (pictured).

"If you took all the hair on your scalp to make one long continuous hair, it would grow at about 1.6 metres per hour, so keep yourself as stress-free as possible to keep those hairs growing."

2. EAT WELL "Any lack of energy or lack of nutrients will affect your hair growth," said Dr Klenk. "We see a lot of hair loss particularly in men who eat fast food because it is lacking in energy and vitamins necessary for follicle stimulation."

3. DON'T DRINK TOO MUCH COFFEE "Men have asked me, 'I drink five or six cups of coffee a day, will that stimulate my hair growth’ ?“ said Dr Klenk. "The answer is no. A topical application to the follicle of the hair helps it grow. But that doesn't mean that you should apply coffee grounds to your head — that will cause irritation — or drink extra coffee, as the amount you would need to drink would be toxic to your system to stimulate follicle growth."

4. GET FIT Studies show that people who are active promote free testosterone, which helps prevent baldness.

5. AVOID CRAZY HAIRSTYLES Men favouring ponytails and cornrows are more likely to develop Traction Alopecia, a form of baldness caused by pulling on their hair with excessive force.

■ Alpecin Caffeine Shampoo C1 costs £4.99 and is stocked in Boots, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Costco, as well as independent pharmacies.

For more information see www.alpecin.co.uk