Hair today, still there tomorrow

Men who struggle with going bald have now more choices to alter their appearance, John Hearne reports.

BLAME it all on prostaglandin D2. This is the renegade enzyme which research suggests is responsible for instructing follicles to halt the production of hair. Fingered as the culprit in a research paper published in a US science journal earlier this year, the race is now on to turn the science into dollars.

Dr George Cotsarelis is head of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading light in the pursuit of his particular version of the philosopher’s stone — that semi-mythic material that can transform bald domes into heads of thick, wavy hair. Right now, he’s in discussions with pharmaceutical companies to develop a drug which would block the damaging enzyme.