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According to South Korean experts, North Korea under Kim Jong Un has seen a strange increase in the number of people suffering from thinning hair or complete baldness.
The experts spoke to Radio Free Asia (RFA) and discussed how the phenomenon appears to be due to a number of causes, including infections that caused hair loss as a secondary effect and the use of soap and detergents containing “harsh” chemical ingredients .
Choi Jeong Hoon, a North Korean doctor who fled south and now works as a senior researcher at Korea University’s Public Policy Research Institute in Seoul, said it was “not easy” for North Koreans to find “mild” chemical products .
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A hair salon in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 11, 2018. (Francois Lochon/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Ordinary residents can’t afford to worry about hair loss,” he told RFA, adding that the cost of the treatment is too high for the average person – and it’s often not very effective.
Treatments are based on either pharmaceutical or cosmetic treatments, both of which can also help accelerate hair loss. The ingredients that are often assumed to have a positive effect on hair or skin actually have no proven evidence of effectiveness due to the unclear regulatory situation in the country.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a wreath-laying ceremony at a World War II memorial in the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok on April 26, 2019. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Ahn Kyung Soo, director of DPRKHealth.org – a blog about health issues in the Hermit Kingdom – wrote that many treatments are more like “oriental medicines,” which are topical tonics based on medicinal herbs that are likely to have minimal effects. Such treatments include dipping a needle-shaped hairbrush into a glass bottle and then rubbing it on the scalp to stimulate it.
Another expert argued that the military caps could also damage hair due to a lack of ventilation, leading to bacteria buildup and clogged pores, which in turn could lead to thinning hair. As a rule, all able-bodied men must serve in the armed forces for 10 years.
A man is treated for hair loss at a cosmetics factory in Sinuiju on November 30, 2018. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Hair loss isn’t just a North Korean problem: South Korea has also experienced sudden and widespread hair loss in recent years, proving such a problem that it played a role in last year’s presidential election.
Candidate Lee Jae-myung, who is bald, won voters’ support after suggesting that the government should pay for hair loss treatments.
The poster shows the hairstyles permitted at the Agricultural University in South Hamgyong Province in Hamhung, North Korea, on September 11, 2012. (Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Online communities for people with baldness exploded with support for Lee because South Korea only covered treatments for baldness caused by certain diseases. According to reports, one in five South Koreans suffers from hair loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.