HAIR loss is very close to my heart. My dad’s hairline is receding. Ditto with my brothers’. Looking at my three boys, I surmise my youngest will suffer the same fate.

But the condition is not isolated to men. I have seen many older women who have extremely thin hair and, every time I see this, I remember that my hair is not that thick and that every year it seems only to get thinner.

FACT 1. Balding is not caused by massive amounts of hair falling off but rather by “miniaturization,” which is hair getting replaced by finer hair.

FACT 2. Hair loss is not only inherited from the mother’s gene but may also come from the father.

FACT 3. Hair loss doesn’t stop the older one gets. It tends to progress, and the earlier it starts the greater the likelihood to end up bald.

FACT 4. It is not true that high levels of testosterone  cause hair loss.

FACT 5. Decreased blood flow to the scalp is due to decrease of hair, not the other way around.

FACT 6. Using a cap doesn’t affect the thinning of hair.

FACT 7. Clogged pores cause acne, not hair loss.

FACT 8. The main cause of hair loss is genetic, and shampooing hair doesn’t affect it.

FACT 9. Not only men suffer from hair loss. Some 40 percent of women suffer significant thinning in their lifetime.

FACT 10. Medications like Rogaine and Propecia will not induce hair growth but rather slow down hair loss.

I just came from the Aivee Institute at Fort Bonifacio and was very impressed with its new machine called Artas (there are only 144 units of it around the world). Arta is the  highly regarded robotic hair transplant system; it eliminates human error, is painless and has no downtime.

I watched the machine work with precision on a dummy. Later I listened to testimonials of men such as Inno Sotto and Edu Manzano who have tried it. Not only are they happy with the results (new hair started growing after a week) but the treatment left them with no scar.

Truth is, when transplant is done manually you are left with a scar; you also suffer throbbing pain for at least two weeks and get a swollen face.

            Yes, hair loss is primarily a man’s problem, but there are a lot of women who suffer from this, too, and unlike men who can walk around bald, women are more conscious about how their hair looks. That’s why Artas is heaven-sent.