Men: Are your index and ring fingers the same length on your right hand? New research shows that you may be more sensitive to testosterone, which increases your likelihood of experiencing male pattern hair loss.
Genes and sex steroids such as testosterone often influence sex dependent traits, such as male pattern hair loss. John Manning at the University of Central Lancashire is studying finger length as a way of predicting how much testosterone a male was exposed to in the womb.
Dr. Manning, author of The Finger Book, found that the ratio of the length of the index finger to the ring finger was a good predictor of pre-natal testosterone exposure. He observed that when these two fingers were the same length, or very close in length, the man was more sensitive to testosterone, and thus more likely to lose hair as an adult.
“It is always interesting to see correlations that cause hair loss,” said Dr. Larry Shapiro, an expert in hair replacement surgery. “One interesting correlation is that men with male pattern baldness on the crown have higher incidence of heart disease. But correlation are not actual predictors of outcome so we should always take them with a grain of salt.”