Nothing to do with books, but many of the visitors to TPV are male.
From The Wall Street Journal:
JAMIE CONNORS’S hairline started betraying him in his mid-20s. Though the Brooklyn video editor, now 36, had flirted with the idea of getting a hair transplant, his follicle fallout never seemed bad enough to warrant such measures. And, besides, how could he take enough time off work to recover away from colleagues’ prying eyes?
That all changed during the pandemic. In early 2021, a photo of Mr. Connors made him realize his scalp situation was getting dire. And with no socializing on the books and WFH in full force, he could recuperate covertly on his sofa without wasting sick days. He booked a consultation with Dr. Benjamin Paul, a Manhattan hair surgeon, who recommended Follicular unit extraction (FUE), a procedure that involves harvesting individual follicles from the back of the head and painstakingly replanting them in the front or the crown. It takes between four and eight hours and costs $11,000-15,000. “I figured I am going to do this right,” said Mr. Connors, who got his new hair several weeks after his initial consultation.
He is among a wave of men who capitalized on Covid-era downtime to acquire fresh shags. Hair transplants—perhaps the male equivalent of women’s pandemic face-lifts—are enjoying a healthy growth spurt. Upon returning to the office, you might find that your colleague has replaced his unconvincing comb-over with a mane that would make Jason Momoa jealous.
“We have seen a big increase in men seeking transplants in the last two years or so,” said Dr. Gary Linkov, a New York plastic surgeon. And many men, he added, are jetting off to medical-tourism spots like Turkey, Portugal and Panama for bushier new ’dos. According to market researcher Fortune Business Insights, the global hair-transplant market is predicted to reach $43.13 billion by 2026, up from 5.94 billion in 2018, a sevenfold surge.
Thinning locks have triggered male anxiety for eons. The Ancient Egyptians painted sparse crowns with a paste concocted from dates, donkey hooves and dog paws in a (charmingly doomed) effort to boost growth. In the 1990s, drugs such as Finasteride and Rogaine started providing hope; more recently, trendy startups like Hims and Nutrafol have launched pills and sprays with purported follicle-enhancing powers.
. . . .
Although transplants have been performed commercially since the ’50s, they were generally considered too extreme by most men. Various factors are shifting that perception. The pandemic was unkind to hairlines: According to the American Academy of Dermatology, Covid—and pandemic-related stress—caused hair shedding in some folks. And any thinning was magnified by the new Zoom routine: It’s harder to ignore those naked temples when you’re staring at yourself all day, said Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, a New York cosmetic dermatologist.
The stigma associated with transplants—and other cosmetic procedures for men—is also lessening, said Dr. Frank. In 2020, actor Cheyenne Jackson documented his transplant journey on Instagram; designer Marc Jacobs has also discussed his reinvigorated thatch in recent years. But not everyone is happy to open up. Some transplant recipients would only speak to us anonymously. And Dr. Frank referenced A-listers who have seemingly enjoyed miraculous hair recoveries lately but have offered no explanation. Nonetheless, he said, regular guys are becoming inspired by “the results these celebrities are getting.”
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal
Biden had a transplant around 2005-7, and appeared in public soon after. There hadn’t been sufficient time for the hair to grow in and even out. Rush Limbaugh called him Plugs for the next fifteen years.
I had a hair transplant in my fictional novel, _Marguerite_. When my son had radiation for his cancer it burned away part of his hair and that hair did not come back. However, after several years of hunting I found a guy who was tops in the profession and willing to try to fix him. The doctor’s daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer and he knew that if she needed a transplant he’d do it, so he was willing to try on others. It worked well. I stuck the experience in the book since the book included children with cancer.
A LOT of the people I contacted originally would not even talk to me after my opening question. And when the doc who did the FUE, as above, wanted to share at a big convention for hair transplant doctors, the organizers were not interested. I still find that curious.
Thanks for your comment, Jaane. The response to your son’s hair loss from many doctors sounds very strange. To my non-medical mind, I would think a transplant would be a logical response to your son’s problem.
Off the cuff: it might depend where the transplant comes from. Hair grows at different rates and densities in different areas. The transplanted tissue might have required so added “inducement” and that might be the bone of contention. I vaguely remember estrogen can impact hair growth.
Bing chat summarized it:
“That’s an interesting question. According to some sources, estrogen is associated with healthy hair growth in men and women. It can protect against hair loss by reducing DHT conversion, stimulating new hair and slowing the growing phase. However, it’s not just the amount of estrogen that matters, but also the ratio between testosterone and estrogen levels. A hormonal imbalance can cause hair loss in both sexes. Estrogen also needs to stay in balance with testosterone to help control sex drive, erection and sperm production. Therefore, increasing estrogen levels in men may not necessarily regrow hair, and it may have some unwanted side effects.”
The query was: estrogen hair growth men.