Is balding an indicator of more rapid aging and a shorter life span?

No evidence of a link between hair loss and premature death was found in a large and well-known Danish study published in 1998 in The Journals of Gerontology.

Perhaps surprisingly, other signs of aging like wrinkles and gray hair were not linked to early deaths, either.

The study, involving a random sample of 20,000 men and women in the Copenhagen City Heart Study, recorded the extent of baldness, gray hair, wrinkles and a ring around the cornea, called arcus senilis, that often occurs in old age.

The group was followed for 16 years.

The authors concluded: “We found no correlation between the mortality and the extent of graying of the hair or baldness or facial wrinkles in either of the sexes, irrespective of age.

A single exception was observed in a small subgroup of men with no gray hair.”

Those lucky men had a slightly lower mortality rate, but the difference was statistically significant.

Arcus senilis was significantly correlated with a shorter life span in women.