Hair today, gone tomorrow

Since the birth of vanity, men have tried endless lotions, potions and quackery, with little success.

Ancient Egyptians reportedly rubbed their shiny pates with a mixture of lion, hippopotamus, crocodile, cat, snake, and ibex fat. One of Cleopatra's cures - a paste of ground horses' teeth and deer marrow - was tried on Julius Caesar.
 
Hippocrates wisely observed that castrated eunuchs resist hair loss but few men were lining up. Instead, he recommended a mixture of cumin, pigeon droppings, horseradish and beetroot to restore mangy manes.
 

In 1874 Dr Chase's Recipes suggested: "Take common box, four handfuls of stems and leaves; boil in three pints of water for a quarter of an hour and let stand for ten hours or more; strain and add an ounce and a half of eau de cologne or lavender water.

The head should be washed with this solution every morning."
 Some try folk remedies like flaxseed and sawpalmetto berry.
 

Two modern treatments are known to have an effect, and while they help prevent hair loss they do not generate new hair. The first, introduced in 1988, was the drug minoxidil, marketed as Rogaine.

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