Why the horseshoe pattern?

[bodysnatcher]

I have not yet heard a reason for this.

my uneducated guess is that it may be somethging to do with blood flow,
notice that muscles in the horsehoe pattern contact and relax when you exagurate the chewing action.

If male pattern baldness is due to DHT binding to receptors why only on the top?

Thickness of scalp? Why would that matter?

Heat? Is it hotter therefore more prone to irritation on the top of your head?

Any reply's much appreciated

 

[Aplunk1]

Over time,

I believe we will have to add to the Norwood Scale-

Norwood 8, 9, and 10 being complete baldness on the scalp.

 

[iamnaked]

Because we have had our heads trodden on by the devil, who left his imprint.

 

[The Gardener]

Because the nerve endings in the vertex and frontal area of the scalp are tied directly to those of the penis. When you masturbate too much, these nerves send photonic ripples up the chain to the nerves on the head, and they subsequently fry your hair.

 

[bodysnatcher]

I can't belive you guys are being so flippant about this.

Doesn't anyone else find this question thought provoking?

 

[wookster]

I can't belive you guys are being so flippant about this.

Doesn't anyone else find this question thought provoking?

 

[Bet24]

man, that is like asking why the eyebrows only grows above the eyes and not below......

get it?

 

[Solo]

No, it is not.


The eyebrows are where they are for a reason, think about it.


I do find interesting the question, and I´ve asked myself many times.


You can answer is because of androgen receptors distribution, but why are them distributed in a way that macroscopically derives in the horseshoe pattern??


Why aren´t they placed differently??


I think that between the macroscopic phenomena is where we should look.

The androgen receptor answer is bullshit, because it isn´t really an answer to the question.

 

[becksfan1986]

I have an idea and I already gave it a few weeks ago. I've noticed that many of the earlier male pattern baldness horse-shoe pattern have got a very special shape of forehead. 2 bumps in the middle and twol lines wich are going to the temples than reach the occipital area... It's quite strange that I find this shape on 5 of the 7men who are balding in my course. Maybe we should fill this lines with some fat...

 

[bodysnatcher]

Eyebrows are to stop rain going in your eyes when your chasing food Anthropologically (is that a word?)

 

[Bet24]

another myth beck.... man, the shape of the head have nothing to do with hairloss, Im balding and my head shape is far from that.....

 

[iamnaked]

Androgen receptors or something similar is the most plausible thing I've heard on the matter. If your skin can be thicker and thinner in various places, why can't it also have patches that vary in their sensitivity to DHT?

 

[Solo]

Yes, of course androgen receptors cause the thinning, but why the hell are they disposed in the horseshoe pattern???


The androgen receptors theory it´s like answering "Who killed Kennedy?" saying "a bullet".


Then, after this, some one is going to say "I got it: genetics!!".


Yea, of course are genetics, if not, all men will equally bald or not.

...but no, again same problem. It´s just going a step further the deduction line.

What is causing the genetic code to store a pattern of androgen receptors in the scalp follicle that causes its degeneration as a functional organ when reached maturity??.


Now we are into the real question. We can look for evolutionary advantages, that is what it´s commonly accepted as the main factor for a gene to stay or disappear.

But what the f*** is that advantage??.

Some people say that baldness is a response to the use of clothes, so the body has more skin area exposed to be able to synthetize (sp?) the vitamins that are created in the skin, now ocluded for the clothes.

But then... why does the sides and back remain??. There would be even more skin exposed. It doesn´t work.

Other reason could be a "random pattern" explanation. Some individuals developed a totally aleatory pattern of hair loss in their bloody genome. It didn´t provoke nor benefits nor disadvantages to the individuals, so it remains as a characteristic, like a big nose, or something like that, and spreads through the gene pool of the specie. But "why the hell everyone has this exact pattern?". Why not a variety of funny patterns like no hair just above the ears, or stripped or something like that, why just horseshoes all around the world??.

Then, there should be another reason. And I´m out of hypothesis for now...

 

[bodysnatcher]

I imagine that you loose more heat from the top of your head that the sides, this fact could enter into an explination.

 

[iamnaked]

Yes, of course androgen receptors cause the thinning, but why the hell are they disposed in the horseshoe pattern???

The androgen receptors theory it´s like answering "Who killed Kennedy?" saying "a bullet".

The fact that cells somehow 'know' how to differentiate/release certain chemicals at different times is a well known phenomenon to me. I'll agree that how they know how to do this is a really interesting problem that is likely to be very complicated.

But I don't believe that all of our features have to have some kind of evolutionary significance that's just waiting to be discovered. I think some are like albinism - random mutations of our genetic code which lead to humans which are different, albeit viable ones. I'd lump hairloss in that category.

And the fact that every human being has very similar patterns of male pattern baldness should probably lead one to think that even if we arrive at the reason for why androgen-sensitive hair cells are laid down around the body as they are, it's unlikely to lead to a cure to hairloss for humanity, far less a cure for an individual person, because to change this is to be fiddling with the fundamentals of what makes us not just individuals or humans, but living creatures.

 

[bodysnatcher]

People talk about evolution as if there is some kind of divinity to it.

Evolution works on survival of the fittest, random genetic things happen that cause that creature to be more successful that it's counterparts, genes don't just decide to do things.

 

[wookster]

http://employees.csbsju.edu/lmealey/hot ... pter07.htm

Balding is not a uniquely human phenomenon. Several other species of primates also bald and, as in humans, it is more common in adult males than among females or the young. Shown above are the Chimp, Man, Uakari monkey, Stump-tailed macaque, and the Orang.

:freaked: :freaked:

 

[Solo]

But I don't believe that all of our features have to have some kind of evolutionary significance that's just waiting to be discovered.

Of course all of our features have an evolutionary significance, from the spinal cord to the eyebrows, even attitudes, like being afraid of the dark. Everything.

I think some are like albinism - random mutations of our genetic code which lead to humans which are different, albeit viable ones. I'd lump hairloss in that category.

Ok, that´s what I was trying to state. But if it was a random variation, why the f*** has this prevalence and uniformity in his external aspect (fenotype)??. Hairloss is widespread everywhere, and everybody has exactly the same pattern.

And why aren´t equally widespread another hair related diseases such as those guys that have hair all over his body, or "alopecia universalis"??. They could be defined as "random but viable", but they are very rare.

Come on, randomness is very easy to apply to everything. But I find sexual pleasure into causal-effect relations.

The "normal" human body as we know it, can be also defined as a "random variation" of a sea worm. But I can find a couple of reasons for the success of his "perpetuation" as a life form in Nature.

Hair loss, to me, has got too much of a success amongst human conditions to be a "random variation" of the genetic code.

And the fact that every human being has very similar patterns of male pattern baldness should probably lead one to think that even if we arrive at the reason for why androgen-sensitive hair cells are laid down around the body as they are, it's unlikely to lead to a cure to hairloss for humanity

Well, first let´s discover the reason and then, we´ll be sure if it can lead to a cure or not.

far less a cure for an individual person, because to change this is to be fiddling with the fundamentals of what makes us not just individuals or humans, but living creatures.

Oh, don´t be boring and let´s play God, it´s kind of funny to solve the unresolved problems he left in His Creation.


Come on, doesn´t anyone has a thrilling hypothesis to throw???.


I bet there´s a reason for hair-loss in humans.


Temperature regulation does not seem an option to me. Why women don´t thin like us in the horseshoe pattern, then??.


It has something to do with gender, via the hormones.

It has something to do with the mature phase of the body.

...

 

[Solo]

People talk about evolution as if there is some kind of divinity to it.

Evolution works on survival of the fittest, random genetic things happen that cause that creature to be more successful that it's counterparts, genes don't just decide to do things.

Ok, sure. I understand genes are no more than some strings of inanimated chemical sh*t.

But his expression is what lead them to keep replicating themselves again and again, or dissapear miserably. Darwin´s theory states that this happens because of competition, and the survival of the fittest. Some other´s say between cooperation of the whole planet and his life forms, and some others says it don´t really matter, it´s just randomness...

I personally feel very interested in Lovelock´s theory about cooperation between life forms and the Earth itself.

Don´t just give the cathegory of dogma to a theory, please.



What is wrong with saying that there´s divinity not just in evolution, but in everything?.

I understand divinity as the existence of a higher level. As rational animals we have the chance to take a peek at this higher level and his wonderful organization, and change some things there, but that doesn´t mean there is not even more than what we can see and measure.


And, does it mean that the comprehension, and predictability, of a phenomenom leads to its cathegory downgrade from "divine"??.

I know how sausages are done (and it´s not good to know it, believe me:lol but still, they taste good to me.

Knowing things happen for a reason doesn´t mean they are not wonderful. Parts of a wonderful and highly complex and subtle creation.

 

[Aplunk1]

If we understand the simple causes of baldness...

it's true. We might not find a cure for androgen-sensitive hair cells...


But, in my honest belief, hair multiplication should be considered a "cure."