Hair's the thing - But not just for him

Picture Rapunzel, her golden tresses cascading from the tower - a fairytale emblem of beauty, femininity, and worth. Now ask yourself: what if those locks began to thin?

- DR SHALINI MALHOTRA

Would her story still enchant us? For men, a bald pate might earn a nod of rugged charm—think Jason Statham or The Rock—but for women, isn't the script different? Isn't the pressure greater, the judgment harsher, the beauty standard a tighter noose?

In our society, hair is a woman's crown, and losing it isn't just a personal loss—it's a public failing. While male pattern baldness has long been dissected, debated, and doused with remedies, female pattern baldness is surging, especially in India, yet it lingers in the margins. This isn't just a cosmetic shift; it's a cultural reckoning, backed by data that demands we rewrite the narrative. The evidence is striking.

A 2023 study in the Asian Journal of Research in Dermatological Science, titled Epidemiology and Treatment Aspects of Hair Loss in India examined 24,595 patients and found female pattern hair loss (FPHL) at 22.09% of cases—second to telogen effluvium (40.70%), while male pattern hair loss (MPHL) lagged at 7.49%.