Curtis's Cure for Baldness

Men have feared losing their hair for all of recorded history, it seems, and other men have happily played to this fear by selling products meant to prevent this "terrible" fate. One such product was Curtis's Cure for Baldness, an ad for which ran (amongst other places) in the January 6th, 1860 edition of the Providence Daily Post. Some excerpts:

To be bald, or not to be bald!
That's the question.
Curtis's Cure for Baldness.
The late Great and Reliable Remedy.

And the only article which restores the hair to bald heads and stops its falling off, and which has merited the certificates of reliable men in our midst; containing no oil, sulphur or lead.
Read the following testimony...

One piece of testimony came from J.Q. Brigham:

About a year since my hair began falling off badly; to prevent which, I tried various preparations without success. Believing I should otherwise lose my hair entirely, I was about to submit to the shaving of my head, when a friend, who had been using Curtis' Cure successfully, advised me first to give it a trial.

Despite all the flim-flam, there's something charming about the style of these ads - probably something of a misplaced nostalgia. Anyway, the ad concludes:

Notice the size of the bottles, which contain one pint of the fluid.
For sale by all wholesale and retail druggists everywhere.
J.M. Curtis, Proprietor, Providence. R.I.

Baldness, race, and feminism collide

CristenConger, writing on Bitch magazine's website, offers up an interesting article about baldness, head-shaving, race, and culture titled "Isn't He Lovely: The Body Politics of Male Balding".

I realize that a common male fear of balding isn't news. But here's a finding that grabbed my attention: For people struggling with body dysmorphic disorder (especially men), hair is one of the most affected physical features.

It's a well-written and interesting piece, definitely worth a read. Check it out.

Hair loss research

The Independent has a story about new discoveries regarding the genetic causes of natural hair loss (specifically, they've found a crucial gene on the X-chromosone, meaning we inherit a significant factor in baldness from our mothers). While it's interesting stuff from a scientific perspective, I also found this bit at the end interesting.

Three-quarters of men who have started losing their hair suffer self-esteem problems and two-thirds of them feel insecure as a result of hair loss, the Gallup survey of 1,500 men in five European countries indicated.

Men in southern Europe were more relaxed about hair loss and more comfortable about getting treatment. Half of British men opted for shaving their heads or keeping their hair very short to make any follicular deficiency less obvious.

To me, the greatest problem with hair loss is not that it happens, but that people feel insecure about it. Hair loss is a completely natural affair, and nothing to fear or be ashamed of, but the social stigma remains. Unfortunately, unhealthy attitudes about things like hair loss, weight, wrinkles, and similar things are far too prevalent among many people.

The article also includes some hair loss myths, like the ideas that combing, blow-drying, or washing your hair too much will cause your hair to fall out.