BALDNESS BY ANY OTHER NAME

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12823, 18 August 1939, Page 6

BALDNESS BY ANY OTHER NAME

“The only treatment I know for baldness —is to give it another name,” said a Sydney doctor on hearing that a woman hair specialist has offered to cover with its natural adornment the bald scalp of the Lord Mayor (Sir Norman Nock). “I presume that the many doctors who are bald or grey would not remain so if they knew of a cure,” said the doctor. “The temporary baldness which follows fevers and parasitic infections dan often be cured and, of course, one hears of various stimulating treatments — massage, electricity, lotions—sometimes encouraging the hair to grow.” What is needed is a scientist who could emulate the agricultural expert, who makes two blades grow where only one grew, before. ' Possibly in the effort to make baldness more tolerable by changing its name, medical science offers a rich glossary of disguises. For a general name, there is “alopecia” (though this was anciently applied to a kind of mange in foxes). If you are only partially bald, you can call it “alopecia circumscripta,” or “a. orbicularis,” or “a. localis.” If it’s in patches, it sounds better as “alopecia areata.” For baldness "of nervous origin, “alopecia neuritica” is recommended. Nobody cares to call it “alopecia "senilis.”

Some may prefer “lapsus capillorum,” or “defluxio capilloram.” Sir Norman Nock’s baldness is almost certainly a rare variety ' “alopecia mayoralis” (or better, “alopecia magisterialis”). “Baldness is hereditary in some ■families,” said the doctor. “The best chance of a cure seems to be in further research on the ductless glands. A Swedish surgeon last year restored the scalp hair in several bald patients by grafting the pituitary glands of newly-killed calves.”