The bald facts: Hairloss is hard to beat

MR CHRISTIAN Jessen is the kind of man who knows all about embarrassment. The presenter of Channel 4's Embarrassing Bodies, he has dealt with every condition from anal fissures to zits.

But it turns out he has been suffering from his own shameful condition. It was revealed this month he had undergone a hair transplant to thicken his barnet and bring forward his high hairline. The procedure involved taking hair from the back of the head and re-planting strands one by one in the front.

"I had a local anaesthetic and then everyone operating peers at your head for seven hours. It's not painful but it is uncomfortable."

Footballer Ryan Giggs, too, is reported to have spent 6,000 on laser treatment to encourage his follicles to regrow, while rugby player Austin Healey and cricketer Shane Warne are also said to have had the treatment.

And while Jessen insists his hairline wasn't receding, he simply wanted to alter its shape, men all over the country are embarrassed by their own thinning locks. But how to combat this most universal of complaints?

OLD WIVES' TALES

It's not just men who suffer from hair loss. Queen Victoria apparently glugged back silver birch wine made from the sap of the tree, believing it would cure her increasing baldness. There is no record of how successful this particular recipe was for the monarch.

Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan claims it's washing his hair in Guinness that keeps his so lush and healthy. "They sell all those lotions to cure you of baldness… they don't work. There is only one way to cure baldness – you pour Guinness over your head, collect it in a bucket and drink it in the morning," he says. "It's proven to work."

MEDICAL SOLUTIONS

The US's Food and Drug Administration has approved two treatments: Rogaine (also known as Minoxidil) and Propecia (also known as Finasteride). The former was initially used to treat blood pressure, but was found to promote hair growth as a side-effect. It is sold over the counter, applied to the scalp twice a day and can take up to four months to work. Around two-thirds of those who use it report some regrowth. The latter is taken in pill form and is only available on private prescription from your doctor. It is successful in around 80 per cent of cases, but it can take six months before there is any visible signs of improvement. The benefits of both only continue for as long as you use the product.

NATURAL REMEDIES

Massaging coconut milk or almond oil – or a combination of the two – into the scalp twice a week is said to be an effective solution. Others claim positive results from using lime seeds powdered with pepper and mixed with milk. The pepper is supposed to irritate the skin, causing histamines to be released, which can encourage the production of follicles.

Boiling rosemary and sage together and using it as a rinse after shampooing is claimed to end long resting stages in the cycle of hair growth, while aloe vera balances the scalp's pH and helps activate the enzymes responsible for natural hair growth.

Or you could always rub an onion on your bonce – the high sulphur content stimulates circulation, apparently.

LASER COMB

Proven by medical research to be an effective treatment for male pattern baldness, the HairMax LaserComb helps increase blood flow and circulation in the scalp, causing the weakened follicles to strengthen and produce healthy hair, as well as preventing further hair loss.

An FDA-supervised study included men

aged between 30 and 60 who had been experiencing active hair loss within the last year. Their progress was measured over 26 weeks, after which time they had significantly increased hair density compared with those in the control group, and none experienced any side-effects.

The comb costs around 300. Find out more at www.hairmax.com.

HYPNOSIS

Some people swear by hypnosis as a cure for hair loss, but it remains controversial among its critics.

A study of 28 people with alopecia found that, following treatment, all had much lower levels of stress and depression, while 12 experienced hair regrowth of between 75 and 100 per cent after three to eight sessions. Complete regrowth was recorded in nine of those, while five experienced a significant relapse after the research project.

However, because this was a small study with no placebo group to measure results against, the jury is still out on how effective it really is.

THE FUTURE

Research into hair cloning could signal hope for those plagued by baldness. Where transplants transfer single follicles from one place to another, this method would allow scientists to harvest stem cells from a healthy hair follicle, causing it to multiply. The new cells could then be re-implanted into a follicle in a bald patch to grow new hair.

The ethical debate on stem cell research is still raging, however, and the procedure is being studied carefully, so while at one time experts thought it might be available by this year, it could now be another decade.

Gene therapy, meanwhile, could eventually identify the genes responsible for hair loss in the first place, then modify them to stop them in their tracks. Just don't expect to see this treatment available at your local GP any time soon

• This article was first published in The Scotland On Sunday, May 30, 2010