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Comment by adrianN | Hacker News Reader

There is medication that can prevent baldness. It has very rare, but very scary side-effects though. Eventually we might have something that fixes the genes responsible for baldness.

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I've been taking finasteride for nearly a decade. No side effects for me and costs $40 a year. Haven't lost an inch of hairline since I started. My hairline is frozen at mild temple recession that looks "age appropriate" now that I'm older.

Yes I do have to keep taking it but I'm fine with that. Can't even imagine being completely bald at 30 which I would be if I hadn't started it young

It also, as far as I know, requires taking indefinitely. Once you stop, if you were going bald before, that process will continue.

I don't feel like baldness is something that needs to be fixed. To me that sounds the same as saying the genes for blonde hair can be "fixed".

Then you’re out of touch. Almost all men are very unhappy about losing hair, but very few mind being blond. Some even like it!

Blond hair is easy to fix. Hair dye has been around for years. Why shouldn’t bald people be afforded the same freedom, in an era where we literally fly through the air on titanium wings just to take vacations?

It's the term "fix" that I don't like. It assumes the opposite state is broken.

A person with normal hair growth can choose to be bald. Someone with alopecia cannot choose the reverse. If baldness were to appear only by choice rather than as a result of low IGF-1 expression in hair follicles, I would imagine it would be more respectable, not less.

It would be helpful. After losing my hair, the sun became the enemy. Easy to forget to bring a hat.

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