If you are, then maybe you are anemic or swallowing your mouthwash or have been dieting or knocked your head or have a fungal infection OR PERHAPS you are on steroids or marijuana or have bad teeth or take too many aspirins or wear your ponytail too tightly or you have had a fever or eat too many nuts or your tonsils are infected or you have syphilis OR POSSIBLY you are pulling your own hair out or you have had an operation or you are zinc deficient or someone close has died or you have just separated from your partner or you are a diabetic UNLESS PERHAPS you have a bird in the house or you suffer malabsorption or you have been exposed to X-rays or you have a thyroid imbalance ASSUMING OF COURSE that your hair loss is not normal.

Loss of hair does worry people and when you realise that any of the aforementioned factors can be responsible for hair loss, you can appreciate that it is important and right that you should worry.

The first thing we have to say is that even though you want a fabulous physique don't take steroids if you want to keep your hair. Both male hormones such as testosterone or hormones such as cortisone can trigger or aggravate genetic hair loss, the most common type of hair loss experienced by men. Genetic hair loss is characterised by either recession at the temples, thinning in the crown area or both. Eventually it can lead to baldness on the top and front of the scalp. It is "genetic" because you must inherit the genes for baldness from either your dad or mum to be affected by the baldness yourself. If your dad carries the genes, he will show the baldness and your chances, then, of inheriting the baldness genes from him are at least 50%. If your mum carries the genes, she will not show the baldness because her male hormones are at too low a level. The bottom line is that just because your dad is bald doesn't mean you will be, and just because both your parent have wonderful hair doesn't mean that you won't go bald. However, it still pays to chose your parents carefully.

On a positive note, if you still have a good head of hair at the age of 30, you probably always will have. And for those who do suffer genetic baldness and want to do something about it, it is worth trying Propecia (a prescription medication that reduces one of the male hormones) or rubbing in Regaine 5%, available from the chemist, to see if they help. If either one helps, you will have to continue the therapy for life or until you are married, when you'll be loved, hair or no hair. Other alternatives are hairpieces or hair transplants. "Single hair" transplants can look excellent. Hair can even be transplanted from your body to your scalp, but pubic hair tends to look out of place on the scalp.

For those of you who suspect your partner is trying to poison you, analysis of the hair is the best way to measure such minerals as arsenic, aluminium, cadmium, lead and mercury. It can even be determined which month you were poisoned, when you died, and whether your partner was found guilty. Hair is sent to a laboratory where it is analysed by atomic absorption spectroscopy or emission spectroscopy. In the case of Napoleon, who died from arsenic poisoning, his partner was never caught.

What about drinking and smoking? Do they cause genetic hair loss? Fortunately not, but they can aggravate such problems as alopecia areata that normally exhibits as circular patches of baldness. Marijuana and/or excessive alcohol intake can cause a general loss of hair through their effects on the liver and blood sugar levels. Excess alcohol intake also increases your female hormones that, in turn, should reduce the genetic balding process in those predisposed.