Hats and baldness

[Jerekson]

I was recently having a discussion with someone about hats, and this point came up;

If someone wore a hat nearly every day from a young age until their senior years, would they have a better set of hair than others?

I've no idea if this is true or not, and I also know that much of baldness has to do with genetics - but would I like to think so? Certainly.

It's not like it doesn't make any sense...think about it. If the top of your head is shielded constantly from the sun and other elements, don't you think it would be kept in better condition? Why wouldn't it?

Most people that I see who have balded still have thier sideburns and back. It's just the top, where the sun hits.

What do you guys think?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Most baldness is supposedly genetic, but I think a lot of guys went bald because they simply didn't wash their hair very often and slathered all sorts of waxes and oils on their heads which I think would have a tendency to clog up the hair folicles.

 

[bolthead]

not true....

Most baldness is supposedly genetic, but I think a lot of guys went bald because they simply didn't wash their hair very often and slathered all sorts of waxes and oils on their heads which I think would have a tendency to clog up the hair folicles.

it's more genetics than anything else.
When I was young I had hair down to my shoulders, it was my pride and joy and I used to wash it not once but most of the time, twice a day. In the morning before school and at night before I went out. I started losing my hair when I was a junior in high school, I was devastated.
Nowadays, these crazy kids are shaving their heads and have a full thick head of hair......go figure. :eusa_doh:

 

[1911 Man]

I was always told wearing hats will rub your hair out and make you bald, but I've learned that isn't true either. It's genetics, you'll either go bald or you won't. I do believe if you haven't started balding by 30, you wont go bald.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

It's not just genetics, but also tied to your age. I once read that the percentage of baldness is almost the same as your age. 20% of 20 year olds have some degree of hair loss, 30% of 30 year olds, 40% of 40 year olds and so on.

 

[GWD]

Genetics for me, I started loosing my hair at around 23 years of age. I just recently started wearing hat. My brother went bald at 21.

 

[kowalskt63]

I was always told wearing hats will rub your hair out and make you bald, but I've learned that isn't true either. It's genetics, you'll either go bald or you won't. I do believe if you haven't started balding by 30, you wont go bald.

I've been a firm believer in that train of thought myself for years. I was in Air Force for 20 years, and it just seems like that damn flight cap rubbed all my hair away. Sure sure, genetics is probably the real deal, but my gut feeling tells me otherwise.

 

[brylcreem boy]

Most baldness is supposedly genetic, but I think a lot of guys went bald because they simply didn't wash their hair very often and slathered all sorts of waxes and oils on their heads which I think would have a tendency to clog up the hair folicles.

I think it is mostly genetics, but I am inclined to think waxes and oils can clog up the hair folicles. Being a guy who has worn a pompadour off and on for a few years, I have noticed the hair up front is somewhat thinner-probably from all that Murrays I used to use, what didn't get clogged got pulled out.
But then I'm also in my early 40's now and have recession in front- I'm just now starting to wear a hat to keep from burning my head so often...

 

[suitedcboy]

I have heard the saying, "grass don't grow in the shade" applied to bald gents who wear hats. I don't put much stock in it though. I have worn hats since I was just beyond a toddler and my hair is pretty dern thin on top and has been since early twenties. All the more reason to have a variety of hats on hand and to wear them daily!

 

[Edward]

Kid that went to school with my brother had a very pronounced bald spot - a full-on 'egg in the nest' as it were - at the age of 16. [huh]

My mother always said that if you wore a hat in the house, you'd go bald - no idea where that comes from, but I suspect it's more a superstition than anything. Genetics are the big factor, though other things can affect it. I'm sure in my case stress was a big factor (oddly enough, academics do seem to go bald younger on average, at least here in the UK), though having fine hair to begin with probably meant it was always going to be more pronounced much earlier. According to a report I read but of which can't recall the details (it was reproted in the broadsheets here several years ago), those of us in Generation X are, on average, losing our hair up to ten years earlier than our parents generation tended to.

 

[Ace Fedora]

Definitely genetics. My father had thinning hair at a young age. I started losing my thin hair at 13 -- long before I started wearing hats.

Now my son is in the same boat -- he's only three but his hair is already looking thin. Poor kid... at least he'll grow up knowing how to look sharp in a hat.

fftopic: I shaved my head ten years back, ironically to cover up my baldness. My parents still ask when I'm going to grow it back, because I "had such a nice head of hair." Apparently it's been so long they've forgotten...

 

[Roadrunner]

Unless you're talking about getting a chemical burn, having chemo or something similar, baldness is pure genetics. You either have the gene and express it or you don't. It may seem as if some other factor is at work (i.e. "I used a certain hair gel for 20 years and now all of my hair is falling out!") but the truth is that your body has reached the point at which it's genetic code is saying to stop growing hair and the fact you have used that hair gel is pure coincidence. Correlation does not equal causation. A great example is that as ice cream sales rise, so do drowning deaths. One does not cause the other, their numbers are only linked by the effects of rising temperatures in the summer. When it gets warm, more people buy ice cream and use swimming pools, increasing both ice cream sales and drownings.

 

[Lefty]

Applying it to hats is more fun!

Each time you wear your panama, think about the child you're drowning.

(or the ice cream sales you're helping)

 

[Stan]

Hi,

Well, the chemo baldness is only temporary. My wife went quite bald on chemo (what a mess, as it all came out at once, in the shower, and talk about a hair clog) and it came back like it was before.

It's genetics. My family has no hair trouble, and eveyone keeps their full head of hair until they die.

I cut mine in a crewcut. I'm always wearing a helmet, and it's hot and short hair means easy wetdown for cooling and then it dries almost instantly. I started this at age 10, and I'm 47 now, so I've been doing it a long time.

This is why I've always worn hats. You can get a heck of a sunburn with a crew cut. Then, too, it's very chilly in the winter. 80% of body heat leaves via the head. So, the answer is obvious!

Ballcaps work somewhat, but don't offer enough cooling in the summer nor hold enough heat in the winter. So, I wear a straw hat in summer and a felt one in winter.

None of my hair has fallen out from the wearing of hats. In fact - and you bald guys will hate this next part - I sorta wish it would go away so I would not have to go to the barber! My penchant for wearing headgear has meant that my hair has been rather a bother all these years.....

Sorry about that. You know, if I could give my hair to someone that would really like it, I would......

Here's an odd thing, though. Greying. In my generation there's forty some-odd of us. We all started greying at the same time. I'm at the tail end, some 30 years younger than the leading edge, and we all started greying at the same time. When I was 16 I had noticable grey hair already that was just like my (at the time) almost 50 year old oldest cousin. Now, that's *really* an odd thing!

Later!

Stan

 

[FATS88]

STRESS!!

I agree with Edward; STRESS!, so in my case, my baldness
are my battle scars, my eyebrows too!
and my nice clothes and accessories are my campaign ribbons.
I've heard most of the above reasons, and all are probably valid.
Seems to me the individual person would factor in the most;
genetics, eviroment, diet etc.
Have you heard eating too much meat, due to the growth hormones?
I heard that a few years back.
Can we all agree that; once it's gone.. you aren't getting it back
with any elixers, tonics, shock treatments etc.

I say that, because guys like Nick Cage, Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson,
MILLIONAIRES, with the resources, and contacts, would be
the first in line.


Just buy more hats
Fats

 

[memphislawyer]

true? hats cause hair loss?

Told my dad that I am wearing hats now due to thinin g hair on top. He said it causes hair loss to wear hats. True?

 

[seabass]

Nah, been wearin hats for over 30 years, I have hair & i get a hair cut almost every week...

 

[Tomasso]

true? hats cause hair loss?

Yep, that's why Kennedy killed the hat.........

 

[DAJE]

It's an urban myth that most of us hat-wearers have heard before, but think about it - in the days when every man wore a hat every day, did they all go bald? Did more men go bald 50+ years ago than today? No and no.

Your DNA is what predisposes you to hair loss. Other factors (illness, etc) can influence it, but wearing (or not wearing) hats has absolutely zero effect on it.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

It's an urban myth that most of us hat-wearers have heard before, but think about it - in the days when every man wore a hat every day, did they all go bald? Did more men go bald 50+ years ago than today? No and no.

Your DNA is what predisposes you to hair loss. Other factors (illness, etc) can influence it, but wearing (or not wearing) hats has absolutely zero effect on it.

I tend to agree with you. There was at one time a saying that wearing tight hat with a leather sweatband would cut the blood flow to the scalp and could case unhealthy hair causing hair loss. There may be some loss that way, I just don't know it for a fact, but the "genes" I do know are to be the major creation of hair loss. Within some study of theory at the lest, I would say maybe some one doing a study on men that are extensive in seeking and owning and wearing a Fedora, may have that "urge" to do so, due to the "genes" of a person, too.