We have just seen some very interesting research in the Archives of Dermatology which suggests that the amount of cigarettes that a man smokes can influence the extent to which he will go bald. Male pattern baldness is influenced by genetic and hormonal factors but some research by scientists in Taiwan has concluded that there was a definitive link between men who were moderately to severely bald and the number of cigarettes that they smoked.
It is not clear how the cigarettes influence baldness but if there is a link then it is likely that it emphasises an already pre-existing predisposition to go bald. It has been suggested that smoking destroys hair follicles but surely this would be the case with female smokers as well. Whilst this research is interesting, further work needs to be done to determine if such a link does indeed exist, how it actually operates.