Scalp Treatment

This morning I noticed that Autumn was finally in the air. That is to say that I felt a cool breeze rushing past my ears on my ride into work. This was accentuated by the lack of hair on my head, and the aerodynamically designed vents on the top of my helmet. I was not afforded the same comfort that other fur-bearing mammals enjoy. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the news item that read: "New Genetic Links to Baldness Discovered."
For years I have lived with the obvious truth to the question as to whether you can be genetically predisposed to hair loss, either from your mother's side of the family or your father's. The answer is simple: It doesn't matter. I had plenty of people telling me in my youth that you get your hairline from your mother's father. To be sure, I never actually met my mother's father, but all the photos I have seen show a very healthy crop of hair on the top of his skull. No, I found myself sporting the forehead-advantaged look of my father pretty early on in my youth. Genetic researcher Felix F. Brockschmidt has recently determined a connection to hair loss in men and women."The first gene known until now is on the X chromosome," Brockschmidt said. "It is the most important for alopecia [hair loss]. We are sure that this new locus we found is the second most important." He continues, "Screening for the X chromosome locus and also for this new one can possibly show the risk of male pattern baldness."
And now I've reached the end of my patience with Herr Brockshmidt. I have been follically challenged for most of my life, but I never really thought about it being a "risk." I find this a little like suggesting that one might be "at risk" for growing up with green eyes. What is the point, with the possible exception of providing postdoctoral students with a relatively harmless subject to while away their hours, of determining the genetic cause of baldness? Brockschmidt stressed that any preventive treatment is far in the future. "As soon as we know the gene and how it functions, we can do something," he said. "Right now, we have identified the locus but not the gene." Nice work, doc. Call me when you isolate that unibrow chromosome.