During his trip to New Zealand, Prince William has got a lot of positive coverage. Newspapers around the world have published pictures of him cooking steak during a barbeque with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key as well as the future king exchanging the traditional nose-to-nose greeting with the head of a Maori tribe.
There has also been a fair bit of attention paid to a less statemanly aspect of his trip – photos that show the Prince is not just struggling with a receeding hairline but is clearly experiencing fairly severe male-pattern hairloss.
Local journalists were overhead discussing his exposed pate, with one female reporter quoted by the Daily Mail as saying to a colleague, “Oh my god, he looks really bald. But he is still handsome.”
William has clearly inherited a condition predominant in his family, male-pattern baldness. Often sons are more likely to see their hairline receed if their father also experienced the same thing. Prince Charles’ hair started thinning when he was aged 28 (Prince William is 27) while Prince Edward started losing his hair aged 21.
Male-pattern hair loss is caused by hormonal changes where the hormone testosterone is converted into another hormone called dihydrotestosterone. The hair follicles become more sensitive to this hormone and it causes the hair follicles on the head to shrink.
There are some treatments to halt the progress of male pattern baldness, such as Propecia or Regaine. Some men even resort to hair transplants. It all really depends on how the man in question feels about the hairloss.
The Maori women certainly weren’t put off by the glimpses of pink pate showing through – one women yelled, ‘We love you William!’ as he exchanged greetings with a group of Maori elders.