Hair now & gone the next? Here’s the bald truth

INDORE

: If you have stepped into your twenties and are petrified of turning bald by the next decade, your best bet is to be a meat-eating, non-smoking kisan. Apparently, the poorer you are, the richer you are on top.


A survey conducted by a group of hair restoration doctors in Indore has thrown up some interesting — or hair-raising — findings. God save your hair, for instance, if you are a doctor.

The experts studied 2,000 Indoreans from various professions, age groups and income strata and found that a whopping 30% of those who had gone bald are doctors. The next most hair-losing profession is apparently politics — over 16% netas sport a shiny crown. Business also leaves you hanging by a hair — 14% of them are likely to lose it, and genes apparently have not much to do about it.


Being a chartered accountant or company secretary or holding down a private job despite tearing out your hair on targets and deadlines isn’t too bad — only 10% are at risk of losing their top.

Stress, bad eating habits increase risk of baldness

But if you really want to show off your mane, farming is the thing to do. Only 7% ever get bald. Or manual labour. Heaving bricks on the head all day only puts you at 5% risk of losing the natural cushioning.

Dr Anil Garg, who led the survey, said their intention was to split hairs and see in which profession people lose more of it. They asked people about their diet, smoking habits, age and what ticks them off. Worryingly, they found, over a third of the bald ones were under 25 years of age. A whopping 51% are in the age group of 25 to 40 years. And just 14% people had started losing hair after 40. According to the doctors, people who are under high stress and do not take proper diet are at high risk of losing their hair. “Most of the bald people are doctors, politicians or businessmen. Usually they are more stressed due to work and money issues,” said Dr Garg.

Dr Anil Dashore, who is part of the team, said: “Non-vegetarians have good hair growth as they get

protein

from chicken. Of course, we won’t advise people to start eating chicken if they don’t. Vegetarians can drink milk, eat more dairy products and fruits, especially

banana

, for protein and other nutrients necessary for hair growth.”

Dr Garg warned youngsters that fast food is a sure way of losing hair fast. “Nowadays, youngsters have more fast food instead of green vegetables due to which more of them are going bald early. During the survey, we also found that when someone detects slight hairfall, he panics and starts taking various tonics and medicines and applies all sorts of oil. These medicines and oils have side effects and increase hairfall instead of controlling it,” he said, adding: “We advise people to stop taking alcohol and quit smoking, as these habits lead to more hairfall.” Baldness is not always genetic, he said. “It’s more due to vitamin and nutrient deficiency these days. If people take a balanced diet from childhood, it is possible that they will be able to control hairfall,” Dr Dashore told TOI.


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