# Baldness - Your mother's side **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 3, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328 "2004-10-03T15:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/1 "2004-10-03T15:37:35Z")
Is baldness really only passed on by the mother? ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/2 "2004-10-03T16:00:10Z")
No. This is a myth. The men in my mother’s family all had full heads of hair well into their 80s. My mostly vanished hairline, on the other hand, looks exactly like my father’s, which looked exactly like _his_ father’s. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/3 "2004-10-03T16:38:38Z")
I think that baldness is much more complicated than being as simple as inherited just from the mother’s side. My mother’s side of the family has thin hair and lots of baldness in it. I have the thick, dark hair from my father’s side and no signs of baldness. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/4 "2004-10-03T16:56:32Z")
I thought the gene for male-pattern baldness was on the Y chromosome, which would mean 100 percent inherited from the father. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/5 "2004-10-03T17:05:57Z")
Male pattern baldness has a number of genetic inheritance patterns, some of which do come thru the mother’s side. But others can be inherited in the male line, and still others can come via either side. In addition, the age of onset and severity of the baldness are multi-factorial, muddying the waters further. Here’s a helpful general link: [http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article\_detaillb.cfm?article\_ID=ZZZ6Q72SWAC&sub\_cat=300](http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ6Q72SWAC&sub_cat=300) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/6 "2004-10-03T17:08:09Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I thought the gene for male-pattern baldness was on the Y chromosome, which would mean 100 percent inherited from the father. It had been thought to be on the X chromosome, not the Y. Because there is only one copy of this chromosome in males, only one copy is needed to pass on the trait. A male’s X chromosome is inherited from his mother (who has two). The genetics of baldness is now thought to be more complex: [Question: Is male-pattern baldness inherited through the mother?](http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/living/science/9736168.htm) > [@](#): > > Answer: It was long thought that inheritance of male-pattern baldness was a fairly simple matter involving a single unidentified dominant gene, and many assumed it was passed on by the mother on the X chromosome. A copy of the form of the gene that predisposes to baldness was thought to mean that a man would lose hair in the typical pattern. The gene was thought to have reduced effects or to be recessive in women, who needed two copies for baldness. > > However, this view was based on a relatively small study of 22 families done in 1916, and more recent research suggests a more complex situation, one involving multiple genes, not necessarily passed on in the maternal line, and one with an additive effect with each gene involved. > > A larger Australian study reported in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology did not identify a candidate gene as the cause. It found no clear pattern of inheritance but said that there was a relatively strong correspondence between baldness tendencies in fathers and sons. > > However, baldness in the men on either the mother’s side or the father’s side of the family is associated with a higher chance of developing baldness. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/7 "2004-10-03T17:08:43Z")
What is becoming clear is that male baldness is in fact a polygenetic trait (caused by more than one set of genes) and that the genes that cause baldness are inherited from both parents. These genes then interact with other genes and environmental effects to produce more or less baldness. You can read more about this here: [http://personalhealthzone.healthology.com/personalhealthzone/15787.htm](http://personalhealthzone.healthology.com/personalhealthzone/15787.htm) Sorry that I don’t know how to produce a link directly, so just copy the address and paste into your browser’s appropriate address box. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/8 "2004-10-03T17:11:58Z")
Hey!.. this software is smarter than me! It automatically produced the link for me from the address I posted. Cool. And you youngsters…No snickering…give some respect to an old guy who often has bit holes in his computer savieness…and is pretty bald too! ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/9 "2004-10-03T19:05:41Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > No. This is a myth. The men in my mother’s family all had full heads of hair well into their 80s. My mostly vanished hairline, on the other hand, looks exactly like my father’s, which looked exactly like _his_ father’s. It’s not a myth, otherwise your sisters (if you have any) would be bald, too. But it is more than a simple sex-linked gene. Hairlines do seem to be straightforward autosomal dominant/recessives. My son has his father’s “widow’s peak”. Just out of curiosity, is your skull shape also like your father’s? However, your mother could have passed to you her g[sup]N[/sup]grandmother’s father’s baldness gene (going back who knows how many generations; no, it’s not probable, but it’s possible, and apparently what happened to you - ask any geneticist). Your mother, and each of her female-line ancestors, carried two of those genes. 😛 And in your case it’s probable that you simply got a recessive that had been carried for a bunch of generations. Your father passed the gene for his hairline to you, but not the baldness gene he got from his mother; that, plus the baldness gene your mother gave you produced the scalp “map” you’ve got. Aren’t you lucky? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/10 "2004-10-03T19:16:34Z")
Yeesh, while I was writing, previewing, revising (rinse & repeat), umpteen other posts came in. :eek: I’m so glad that what I said didn’t violently contradict what others said. 🆒 Quite a few years ago, I was “up to snuff” on canine color genetics, which is as dirty a multifactorial as you’ll find. Then I began thinking about human hair distribution - there seemed to be some similarities in how it all worked. After all, it appears that we have a different gene (or set) for each place that hair appears (or doesn’t, depending on ethnicity) on the human body, just as dogs have a bunch of different sites that affect the color(s) you see on its coat. Think about the differences between hair/no hair/hair pattern between humans and the great apes. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/11 "2004-10-03T21:39:39Z")
> [@tygerbryght](#): > > It’s not a myth… The belief that baldness is _only_ passed down through the maternal side is, indeed, a myth. ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/12 "2004-10-04T07:36:04Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > The belief that baldness is _only_ passed down through the maternal side is, indeed, a myth. Are your sisters bald?? You’re making me wonder how closely you read my first post. Also, I don’t think you understand what “sex-linked” means. It means that only one sex is affected (in the vast-to-overwhelming majority of cases). Baldness has something in common with red/green color-blindness. They aren’t seen in females - only in males (again, with _ **VERY** _ rare exceptions).[sup]1[/sup] That’s the definition of sex-linked, my friend. Another genetic issue that’s also sex-linked that comes to mind is one of the bad kinds of muscular dystrophy. I suppose I could google and offer more examples, but it ain’t worth it, not when you’re so sure you’re right. I guess we’ll have to wait until the genes which determine it are isolated. This \*\*will \*\* happen because there’s so much money in baldness treatments. My stakes are on “necessary but not always sufficient.” Too many of my cousins went bald as they hit middle age, and none of their fathers ever went bald, not even in their 70s and 80s. Care to place a bet? [sup]1[/sup]\ The vast majority of women who show “male pattern baldness” are regular and devout worshippers at the shrine of the beauty salon, where their hair and scalp are anointed with sundry noxious substances which are known to have deletrious effects on the skin: indeed, the containers for permanent and dye mixtures carry warning labels detailing the chemicals, which should scare anyone into stopping. I am strongly of the opinion that women who begin to lose their hair should, if they wish to stop losing hair, quit having Stuff done to their hair and scalp. If they quit quickly enough, the effects should reverse (again, totally different from what happens with men). Of course, at some point the hair follicles have given up in disgust, so it really matters whether a woman waits until the whole world can see the hair is going before admitting there’s a problem.\ ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/13 "2004-10-04T07:41:54Z")
AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. You’d think with forty-leven edits, I’d catch all typos. I DO know how to spell deleterious! :o ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/14 "2004-10-04T11:51:47Z")
> [@tygerbryght](#): > > You’re making me wonder how closely you read my first post. You’re making _me_ wonder whether you read the OP. Just to recap: > [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#): > > Is baldness really only passed on by the mother? Are you trying to tell us that baldness _is_ only passed on by the mother? I didn’t think so. Therefore, the answer to the OP’s question is, “No, baldness is _not_ only passed on by the mother.” How baldness gets passed on, of course, is more complicated than a simple “it comes from your father” or “it comes from your mother.” But that’s not what the OP asked, is it? If you still don’t get it, I give up. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/15 "2004-10-04T13:59:12Z")
While I don’t doubt that female baldness can result from the chemical tortures found in hair salons, female baldness happens naturally, too. Let us not wag an accusing finger at women whose hair is thinning. Often, it’s not their fault. > **[Female pattern baldness: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia](https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001173.htm)** > > Female pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss in women. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/16 "2004-10-04T14:37:47Z")
Just to make it clear, there are many women who are balding…however, many of them do either hide the balding with wigs, etc, or in some cases may be using drugs that are also used to treat baldness in males. It would be helpful if the links that have been posted were read. They do contain information relevant to the OP; those of us who included links went to the effort to find information that we hope might be used to fight ignorance. Not to be snarky, but… ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/17 "2004-10-05T08:58:26Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > You’re making _me_ wonder whether you read the OP. Just to recap:Are you trying to tell us that baldness _is_ only passed on by the mother? I didn’t think so. Therefore, the answer to the OP’s question is, “No, baldness is _not_ only passed on by the mother.” > > How baldness gets passed on, of course, is more complicated than a simple “it comes from your father” or “it comes from your mother.” But that’s not what the OP asked, is it? > > If you still don’t get it, I give up. It appears we have a different understanding of the OP’s question. And it depends on his parents’ genetics. If his father doesn’t go bald, then if he goes bald, it can only have come via his mother. And in that case, the answer to his question is “yes”. Of course, if his father is bald, then his case **may be** similar to yours. However, I have now done the googling I should have done in the first place. My information was out of date (but I’m not the only one that’s out of date; see [The Classroom @ The Coop](http://www.the-coop.org/wwwboard/discus/messages/15/5034.html)), frex. Problem is, I didn’t find any two sites that said exactly the same thing. So it’s not a problem for which we have indubitable answers yet. The original understanding was based on a (now very) old study. A more recent large study done in Australia appears to be the basis for Here is a links which shows why mom is important, i.e., that it is sex-limited (aplies to all, with sex determining expression): [sex-linkage](http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/fancher/GenProb3.htm): > [@](#): > > One rather notorious trait is often blamed on a sex linked gene, but is actually sex influenced. The allele for Pattern Baldness is highly affected by hormones. In the presence of high levels of testosterone, this allele has a very powerful effect, and behaves like a dominant allele. If testosterone levels are low, the same allele is very weak in its effect, and behaves like a recessive. So in males, whose testosterone levels are constantly high once they pass puberty, baldness is dominant; in females, whose testosterone levels are always low, baldness is recessive. Even a homozygous bald woman may only experience a bit of thinning on top, about in the area where many men develop a bald spot. And one which claims that she’s not. [Wayne’s Word](http://waynesword.palomar.edu/colorbl1.htm): > [@](#): > > Pattern baldness in men is a sex-influenced trait. It is not an X-linked trait like color blindness and hemophilia. Baldness is an autosomal trait and is apparently influenced by sex hormones after people reach 30 years of age or older. This condition is inherited as a simple Mendelian trait, although the biochemical mechanism is complex. It ain’t over until they’ve found all the loci which affect this expression, and identified at least the most common alleles. I’m still betting that there is at least one combination which always produces baldness in males and never in females, with a simple dominant/recessive pair. Why? One reason is the variety of actual patterns in “male pattern baldness”. Think about how many different patterns you’ve seen. [ul] [li]The one where the baldness begins at the forehead and goes straight back, leaving a variable width of hair on the sides.[/li][li]The one where a “forelock” is left.[/li][li]The one which produces a bald spot at the crown, with the front unaffected (resembles a monk’s tonsure).[/li][li]et cetera[/li][/ul] Hair, its locations, and their expressions, both common and uncommon, is a genetic issue that I predict will prove to be one of the most frustrating problems for geneticists to unravel. I expect there to be a different locus/set of loci for each of the regions of the body where hair/fur is found. Further, I claim that some of these sites are ancient. Have you never noticed that some dogs, as they age, will get gray eyebrows? And what about those which get gray on their muzzles (analog to men’s beards)? And that those dogs don’t necessarily or usually go gray in any other site? This is a topic of considerably greater complexity than is yet appreciated, of that I am convinced. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baldness-your-mothers-side/267328/18 "2004-10-05T15:21:15Z")
> [@tygerbryght](#): > > [ul] > [li]The one where the baldness begins at the forehead and goes straight back, leaving a variable width of hair on the sides.[/li][li]The one where a “forelock” is left.[/li][li]The one which produces a bald spot at the crown, with the front unaffected (resembles a monk’s tonsure).[/li][li]et cetera[/li][/ul] Going bald from the front is a sign of a man that thinks. Going bald from the center is a sign of a man that’s sexy. When the two patches meet, it’s a sign of a man that only thinks he’s sexy. - **Colibri** , whose two bald patches are rapidly converging. :eek: