The real reason we lose our hair

There’s this myth that has been going around I’m assuming for a long time now that says that wearing hats is the reason why men lose their hair. I have a lot of uncles and cousins who wear hats and over the years they have lost their hair. I’m wondering If I’m up next since I wear hats very often. With that being said Is there an actual correlation between wearing hats and hair loss or is it just a myth.

I did some research on the topic and was able to find out that wearing hats isn’t a cause of hair loss. According to this really cool article written by Angel Haupt of the U.S. News that focuses on myths on hair loss. She debunks the myth of wearing hats and losing hair. It does say that the most common types of hair loss and baldness patterns are in reality due to damaged hair-making progenitor cells. In this same article it says that wearing hats doesn’t cause hair loss but it does mention that you shouldn’t wear the same hat frequently because wearing hats that are dirty can cause infections to your scalp and in turn speed up hair loss.

I searched around some more and here I was able to find more information on hair loss. There is a condition called Androgenetic Alopecia which is thinning of hair hair due to hereditary by androgens in genetically susceptible individuals Male or female. It is found that thinning of hair begins within the ages of 12 and 40 years old and about half of the population suffers from this by the age of 50.

So we now know that there is some correlation between hats and hair loss but hats of themselves don’t cause hair loss. There are other factors that cause hair loss and even a condition that causes thinning of hair. At the end of the day you can wear hats and not fear that it will cause your hair to fall out; but make sure you don’t wear dirty hats because that can speed up the process!

Sites: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/mens-health/articles/2011/02/22/what-causes-hair-loss-9-myths-about-baldness

Rushton, D. H., et al. “Causes of hair loss and the developments in hair rejuvenation.” International journal of cosmetic science 24.1 (2002): 17-23.

Image: http://images.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/1324328988_hair-loss-stats-every-man-should-know_6.jpg

2 thoughts on “The real reason we lose our hair

  1. Grace Ellen Leibow

    Jessy, I really liked your post content. I never thought about the effect of hats on hair loss, in fact, it seems to me that the kids who often wear hats have the healthiest, longest hair. However, the effects must be brutal. I actually used to swim, and often was told about the perils of swimming when it comes to hair loss. Apparently, with the combination of constantly chlorine-soaked hair and tight swim caps, swimming causes some of the most damage to hair. This could add an interesting component to your blog post, if you wanted to broaden your claim. You can find this research in this New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/health/09real.html?_r=0
    It does a great job at answering the claim, and coming to a researched conclusion that the chlorine from swimming can damage hair, but not necessarily cause you to lose it.

  2. Justin Passaro

    Jessy, interesting post. I also was always under the impression that frequently wearing hats would help cause hair loss. I was under the impression that it would not only cause hair loss, but that it would cause premature hair loss. Premature to the average age that is. The article you included definitely makes me feel a little bit better about wearing hats. But I also really liked the point you including that wearing the same hat over and over can help cause hair loss because of the hygiene issues that arise from wearing the same dirty hat on a consistent basis. I also found a link that debunks the wearing hats cause hair loss myth. http://www.viviscal.com/blog/does-wearing-hat-cause-hair-loss/

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