£200 DNA test reveals whether you’ll be bald by 40

A new gene test costing £195 is said to warn younger guys if they are likely to lose their hair.

Men who are found to have a certain genetic marker have a 70 per cent chance of being ‘significantly bald’ by the time they turn 40, say manufacturers of the test.

Those whose results are negative will almost certainly keep their hair well into old age.

However, the test allows those whose results are positive to take preventative action to slow down the process or counteract it completely.

The test is being offered by hair transplant surgeon Dr Bessam Farjo, whose celebrity clients include the Dragons’ Den judge Duncan Bannatyne.

Dr Bessam Farjo

In the test, a sample of saliva is taken from inside the cheek and sent to a specialist laboratory in the US to be checked for the genetic marker.

If it is present, hair follicles are likely to react to a hormone in the body and gradually stop growing.

The test is not conclusive and cannot predict how fast or at what age hair will disappear.

Test results are available after 10 days.

Although scientists discovered the genetic variation several years ago, this is the first commercial test that reveals whether or not men have inherited it.