Would you risk a breakdown to cure baldness?

By John Phipps

Ben’s barber was the first person to notice he was losing his hair. After that it wasn’t long until everyone else noticed too. He was a postgraduate student in his 20s, tall and attractive in an equine way. But soon his receding hairline became an obsession. It was the last thing he thought about when he went to bed, and the first thing he thought about in the morning, when he would wake to find dark hairs scattered on his pillow.

Like a growing number of American men, he decided to treat his hair loss. First, he tried minoxidil, an over-the-counter scalp treatment sometimes sold as Rogaine or Regaine. It didn’t work. He lost more hair and grew more obsessed.