PAIR OF GENES THAT MAY HELP TO CURE BALDNESS

But now they have found two genetic variants on chromosome 20 that are linked to baldness. These,  when found in someone who also has the X chromosome variant, increase the chance of baldness.

Dr Tim Spector of King’s College, London, who worked on the DNA study of more than 1,125 men, said it could help identify people at risk of hair loss before it even began, and offer them treatments.

“Early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late stage hair loss,” he said.

He said he was surprised at how many men carry the hair-loss gene combination.

“If you have both the risk variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the unrelated known variant on the X chromosome, your risk of becoming bald increases sevenfold,” he said. “What’s startling is that one in seven men has both of those risk variants. That’s 14 per cent of the total population.”

His colleague Dr Brent Richards of McGill University in Montreal,  Canada, said: “The first step in finding a way to treat most conditions  is to first identify the cause.”

The research, published this week in the journal Nature Genetics, only applies to male baldness.