Why Do We Go Bald?

If you've been looking at your hair and wondering why, WHY ME? Why do some of us go bald as we get older? 

Well, here's the answer: It turns into skin.

Yup, this sounds obvious but for the first time, researchers have pinpointed a mechanism that turns age-damaged stem cells in hair follicles into skin.

As expected, as you get older this happens more and more which means, eventually, you have no hair follicles left in certain areas on your head.

Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University took some mice, and looked at their follicle stem cell growth cycles. They found that the age-related DNA damage starts a chain of events in terms of protein. Collagen 17A1 begins to break down and is eventually destructed. This is then transformed into 'epidermal keratinocytes' (aka skin).

They then tested this research on humans and found that people aged over 55 also had smaller follicles and had less Collagen 17A1.

Source.