About Hair Loss
From Hippocrates to high-tech surgery
For as long as people have been losing their hair, people have been offering would-be solutions to the problem. Hair loss invariably leaves the sufferer feeling demoralised and dejected – ideal prey for the over-zealous ‘expert’ offering a ‘miracle cure’.
Potential remedies have been around for thousands of years. Around 4000 BC, an Egyptian document was written containing a ‘magic’ formula for hair loss composed of sea crab bile, blood from the horn of a black cow, burned ass hoof, bitch vulva, and dog claws!
Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician and philosopher, prescribed a mixture of cumin, pigeon droppings, horseradish and beetroot or nettles as far back as 400 BC. Unbelievably, some of these ingredients find their way in alleged ‘cures’ today! He was also the first to notice that eunuchs (men castrated before puberty) did not go bald.
Julius Caesar famously suffered from a badly receding hairline -something he devoted a lot of time trying to cover up. Initially he tried to hide it by combing his hair forward, but as most men know, that only works for a short time. He then started wearing a wig, but soon enough became dissatisfied with it, so he pressured the Roman senate to pass a law that allowed him to wear his famous laurel wreath all the time.
Aristotle noted that eunuchs and women did not grow much body hair. The common link in both observations is the lack of the male hormone testosterone. In 1889, Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard, a French physiologist, concocted a ‘rejuvenating therapy for the body and mind’. His bizarre elixir was a liquid extract made from the testicles of guinea pigs and dogs. Brown-Sequard claimed his juicy liquide testiculair increased his physical strength and intellectual prowess! However, it wasn’t until the 20th century that testoterone was fully discovered and its effects documented.
In more modern times, various treatment myths appeared including rubbing curry paste on the bald patch or having it licked by a cow! Thankfully, technology has advanced in the intervening centuries and whilst there are still plenty of alleged ‘treatments’ on the market, new medicines and surgical techniques offer effective help for hair loss sufferers.
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