[Super Hans (OP)]

This is a statement I pulled from Yahoo answers, is it true?

"The gene for baldness is on the X chromosome. As a guy, you inherited your Y from your dad and your X from your mom. But she inherited one X from her mom and one from her dad. If you got the X that she got from your maternal grandfather, then you will have his pattern of baldness."

Now my maternal grandfather isn't bald, but my dad is. I look a lot like my dad I'm just hoping I didn't inherit his bald gene.

Is the statement true?

[damocles]

It is certainly true that the original questioner is hoping that he didn't inherit his father's bald gene! []

The rest of the answer is certainly also true, provided that the father's baldness is genetic in origin. There is a proviso for other causes of baldness, e.g. psoriasis, which might have a completely different genetic pattern.

http://www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/science-of-psoriasis

[CliffordK]

It sounds like the baldness hereditary is complicated, and likely involves several genes.

There is a strong link to generation skipping on the maternal line (X Chromosome).  So, if your maternal grandfather was bald, your mother would carry the bald gene, and you would get a 50/50 chance of inheriting it.

However, notes indicate that a person also has a 2.5x greater chance of going bald if the father is bald, and perhaps also the paternal grandfather.  I'm not seeing the exact numbers.

I'm not sure how X-Chromosome inactivation affects the baldness genes in women.

[Super Hans (OP)]

Thanks for your replies. My Dad's brother isn't as bald as my dad, so I'm holding out some hope he was just a bit unlucky!

[CliffordK]

What about your paternal grandfather?
Or your maternal grandfather?

[imatfaal]

Have to say that i have the same pattern of shiny-headedness as my maternal uncles and maternal grandfather!  My father (and paternal grandfather whislt he was alive) has far more hair than I or one of my elder brothers