Pull the hat off a man aged 18 to 29 and you’ll find there’s a one in four chance his hair is receding.

For some young men, male pattern baldness – the most common kind of hair loss – can be quite advanced (hello, Prince William).

Male pattern baldness is where the tide has gone all the way out and the hair has gone missing from the top or crown of the head, leaving behind a horseshoe pattern – and a well of anxiety or plucky self-belief.

It gets most men in the end

It’s always been the case that the rate of male pattern hair loss (MPHL) climbs steadily and ruthlessly over time – the older you get, the greater the chance you’ll be pulling locks from your comb.

But research has found that the “incidence of MPHL continues to increase while the age of onset for MPHL continues to decrease”.

In other words, there are more older men going bald, and the age of suffering the first signs of baldness has dropped.

A 1998 study found that MPHL affected more than half of all men by the age of 49.

The American Hair Loss Association reckons that today nearly two-thirds of men will be bemoaning some degree of hair loss by the age of 35.

Genetics is said to play a big role

But research also shows that poor diet, stress and medical conditions can accelerate the rate of hair falling from your follicles.

A new study points the finger at soft drinks, energy drinks and overly-sweetened coffee and tea.

The study evaluated 1020 participants across 31 different provinces in China within the age range of 18 to 45 years.

More than half the participants (592) reported male pattern hair loss.

The study found that participants with MPHL consumed significantly more sugar-sweetened beverages than “normal” (hairy) participants.

The numbers are startling. The participants with MPHL consumed an average 4.293 litres of sugar-sweetened beverages a week.

“Normal” participants (those with a full head of hair) consumed an average 2.513 litres of sugary drinks – which doesn’t seem that healthy.

The authors describe male pattern hair loss as a “global public health problem”.

Surely, though, it’s just one more symptom of an unhealthy diet overloaded with simple carbohydrates, including sugars.