A Clever Spell

Male pattern baldness (Androgenic alopecia) is common with men aged from as young as 16 years old upwards. However common, it’s no less excruciating for the person. Androgenic alopecia is usually an early sign the individual is ageing, and can happen as soon as your late teens, giving rise to depression and social anxiety. While people tend to view going bald as perfectly normal, it’s not a laughing matter when it’s you who is suffering from going bald.

Androgenic alopecia affects individuals in contrasting ways. Some guys do not experience any form of baldness until later on in life. Others experience the normal male pattern : a gradual losing of hair around the temples. Other patterns include the crown area first of all, or a quick thinning out of all hair.

If every man went bald at the same rate in the same pattern, it could be said that we wouldn’t see it as so agonising. However, it’s the variety of balding patterns and speed in how they happen that makes many individuals feel very depressed and simply unfortunate if they experience particularly rapid forms of balding.

Look online and you might be forgiven for thinking there’s a variety of simple remedies to going bald. Just take X tablets and/or apply Y spray topically, and you will get a full head of hair. Sure, there are lotions that thicken the hair, and medications that can slow down the process of balding somewhat, but there’s no established cure to baldness - no marvelous lotion that men can take to utterly guarantee hair growth, or even the prevention of hair loss.

However, there are toupees, or hair systems that men can wear to camoflague their baldness. These toupees can be prepared matching their natural hair colour and type of baldness. Scrutinising such a toupee being worn, it’s often difficult to understand that there is indeed a hairpiece fitted. If wearing a toupee makes you feel confident when you would have otherwise been anxious, then it’s advisable to wear one.