New Delhi - Nov 2006

Job aspirants beware! Your receding hairline can erode your prospects of landing plum posts in the BPO industry.

A survey of patients visiting a prominent hair-care clinic show that only 27 per cent of balding men were called for interviews in the BPO sector.

"Hair disorder primarily stems from stress. The comparatively higher rate of lifestyle change, less sleep, unhealthy food and odd working schedules of employees in the BPO sector leads to increased stress which in turn leads to hair loss," Mukesh Batra, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic, told PTI.

In Bangalore, it was observed that 70 per cent of total patients visiting the clinic had signed on for hair loss treatment, of which 27 per cent were from the BPO sector, he said.

Other non-BPO service industry professionals constituted about 20 to 25 per cent of patients, but the highest number were from the call centre industry, Batra said.

Batra also said it was normal for a person to lose between 50 to 70 strands of hair a day, but if it went above 150 strands a day, immediate treatment was needed to avoid further hair loss.

Allopecia is a condition which causes a person to lose hair in small, round patches.

The above observations were made during treating the patients, Batra said.