H13: ‘Baldness of the fanfares’: the historical link between music and hair loss

S.F.H. Shah

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

The aetiology and treatment of hair loss have long captured the interest of physicians. The end of the nineteenth century saw fierce debate regarding the pathogenesis of hair loss, with notable theories including infectious, neurotrophic and toxoid hypotheses. Alongside biological models, popular theories based on occupational and class distinctions also emerged. In 1896, Scientific American reported ‘remarkable’ findings by an English statistician who sought to quantify the prevalence of hair loss in various professions (Music and baldness. Sci Am 1896; 75: 185). The statistician found that hair retention in instrumentalists was strongly dependent on the instrument played: whereas the piano and violin appeared to arrest hair loss, brass instruments were noted as having a ‘fatal influence’ on hair growth. The trombone, in particular, was reported to depilate one’s scalp within 5 years – a phenomenon termed ‘baldness of the fanfares’. These findings spread rapidly around the English-speaking world, with reports printed in other scientific journals and newspapers from England to New Zealand. However, no more was published on the matter until 1904, when Mrs Amelia Holbrook presented a paper at the Actors’ Home, Staten Island, New York, with results that echoed those of the previous study. Again, the findings were widely publicized across Western news outlets before the topic was set aside. However, the link between music and hair loss reappeared some 17 years later, when a series of newspapers in 1913 published statements made by Henri de Parville, a prominent scientific editor and writer from France. Alongside reaffirming previous conclusions regarding instrument choice and hair loss, de Parville proposed that listening to music influenced hair physiology by exerting manifest actions on the nervous system and the nutrition of bodily tissues. Consequently, the ‘pianola treatment’ and ‘patent musical shampoo’ were put forward as novel therapies for hair loss in which patients’ scalps were enfolded in musical tracks thought to stimulate hair growth. With the development of novel research methods in the ensuing period, it is perhaps unsurprising that the musical theory of hair loss has since fallen out of scientific favour. Yet the idea is not completely forgotten: in 2010, the late singer Prince was asked how he had managed to keep his full head of hair, to which he replied that playing the electric guitar his whole life was his secret to preventing hair loss.