Why are bald heads so shiny, when the skin elsewhere on your body isn’t?

Asked by: Dave Jefferies, Barrow-In-Furness

Most of the skin on your body is actually covered with tiny hairs called vellus hairs that give your skin a slightly velvety, peach-fuzz look. With male pattern baldness, the hair follicles shrink and turn into skin cells, so there are no hairs at all – not even vellus hairs.

But the scalp is particularly shiny because of the sebaceous glands. These secrete oil and are found all over our skin, but the scalp has a lot more and this oil coats the skin and provides a more uniform reflective surface. What’s more, studies suggest that more active sebaceous glands could actually play a role in early hair loss.

Read more:

• Why are some people so hairy?
• Do any other animals get male pattern baldness?

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