A crash diet at age 19 left Richard Simmons bald, says the fitness guru. Which is, in essence, why he has such crazy, curly hair today. Sound strange? It is.

Simmons said he had 4,000 hair follicles transplanted after his unfortunate hair loss 41 years ago. The result? That massive head of hair he has today.

Simmons' story comes up as part of a larger story featured in USA Today about hair transplants that require the transplantation of only 120 follicles, and not the current standard of 2,000. Hair regeneration therapy is the name of this hairy breakthrough, and Intercytex is the company trying to market it. Studies show 11 of 19 men who have tried the procedure have successfully grown hair six months after treatment.

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If you're looking around the family table at your balding father your long-ago bald grandfather and wondering if you're going to follow suit, scientists have a quick and easy way for you to predict the future of your hairline -- the 60-second hair count.

During a recent study, 60 men without current evidence of balding. The men washed their hair for three consecutive days using Neutrogena T/Sal shampoo. On the fourth day they were instructed to comb their hair over a towel. Participants then counted the hairs that were lost. They repeated the comb-and-count procedure for two more days. The whole routine was repeated six months later.

So if you want to gauge your hair loss, try your own 60-second hair count study once a month. Record the data and discuss it with your dermatologist if you're seeing an increase in hair loss.

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As if losing your hair wasn't punishment enough for a guy, it turns out that it may signal additional health risks.

Research from the Harvard Medical School revealed that men with frontal baldness have a nine percent greater chance of developing heart disease than their full-follicled friends (or foes, if you're Lex Luthor). What's more, the study also suggests that men whose crowns are completely bald have a 36 percent greater risk. Researchers posit that this baldness/heart disease link is due to the greater amount of androgen receptors the follicularly challenged possesses, contributing to the collection of fatty deposits in the arteries.

Fortunately, much of this risk can be cut by following a sensible diet and performing at least three, 30-minute workouts per week. As for dealing with your hair loss ... well, bald is very in these days.

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Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts is bald, thanks to breast cancer and chemotherapy. She's done a bang-up job of covering up since she shaved her head in preparation of the big fallout -- her wig is a perfect match for the hair that once sprouted from her scalp -- but she recently decided to bare her shiny scalp. She did it to challenge her comfort zone, she says.

What started as a dare had Roberts braving the catwalk the other day as part of Isaac Mizrahi's runway show, live from New York Fashion Week. All of her friends and fans knew she was doing the show -- they just didn't know she'd do it bald.

"This is who I am," Roberts said about her decision to ditch the wig.

When Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer last July, the last thing she felt was beautiful. When the folks at Good Morning America dared her to be model, she seized the opportunity. It was a perfect way to push herself outside a certain comfort zone.

To transform herself into a supermodel, Roberts worked with Tyra Banks on walking the runway, Mizrahi on finding the perfect gown, and model Nikki Taylor on photo shoots -- a special layout will appear in an upcoming Redbook magazine.

Check out Roberts here in this video where you'll see a courageous woman make a bold statement as she fights to regain her health. Now that's what I call a model -- a role model.

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The relationship we all have with our own hair is the ultimate in love/hate for most of us, and although you may be blaming those bad hair days on harsh winter weather, humidity, or styling products gone wrong, have you considered that it may be your health that's really the problem? You can't have healthy hair if you don't have a healthy body, so if you're dealing with hair that's dull, dry, frizzy, flaky, or falling out, it's worth a closer look to make sure it's not due to something bigger than just using the wrong shampoo. From genetics to your current nutritional state, learning to read your hair can tell you a lot about your overall health.

Here are some common hair issues and what they could possibly mean:

Going gray
Going gray is a genetic issue, so you're pretty much stuck with whatever you get in that department. Some people start noticing stray grays as early as their 20s while other lucky ducks keep all their color until retirement.

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Two months ago, the New York Post featured a survey, commissioned by the Hair Sciences Center of Colorado, shedding light on people's perceptions of bald men.

The results clearly demonstrated a link between perceptions of success and the state of men's pate. If the responses of this survey sample truly are representative of the entire country, then two-thirds of Americans think that men with full heads of hair are more successful than bald men.

Moreover, almost half of the respondents felt that men with full coifs are smarter than men sporting a hairless dome.

But, it was also made clear by the survey that people believe bald men can achieve success, though it is contingent upon their feelings toward their own baldness, as shyness and embarrassment may project a lack of self-confidence.

When you're stressed out, do you feel like ripping your hair out? Well, you can save yourself the trouble -- stress can cause your hair to fall out naturally. And it's falling out in record numbers, according to this article from Daily Mail. Researchers are saying that stress and poor diet are giving many women bald spots, and modern life is to blame.

In fact, one in three women suffers partial or total hair loss during her lifetime -- and it can happen anytime in life, even puberty. So if you won't do it for yourself, do it for your hair: slow down, relax, take a breather and give all-consuming stress the boot from your life.

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I don't think that anyone would be particularly happy to notice that their hair is thinning. It's got to be upsetting for men, but since it's a more common occurrence among that sex, I think that it would be even harder for a women who is losing her hair.

If you've found that your mane isn't as thick as it used to be, is patchy or even starting to show bald spots, you might want to check out this gallery, which offers 20 tips on how to deal with thinning hair. The first, and probably most important tip is to head to your doctor. There may be a reason why you're losing hair and a physician can help you find a remedy.

Additional advice includes improving your diet and taking vitamins to improve hair quality, experimenting with a new hair style that will disguise patches and trying out volumizing or other specialty products to improve the look of your hair. To see the rest of the tips, take a look here.

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The HairMax LaserComb is a means of at-home hair loss treatment, and it's designed to help restore hair growth by delivering a very specific wavelength of light to the scalp that will stimulate the hair follicles. That's all well and good but what makes me laugh is the fact that it's marketed to people who "don't want to pay for hair restoration surgery but who also don't have high expectations."

Ha! Who is that going to be? The HairMax LaserComb costs $545 -- who is going to spend that kind of money and not have high expectations?

On the bright side, though, it is nice to see some work being done as far as home treatment options for hair thinning and hair loss. The technology has to start somewhere!

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If there's one thing that the bloggers here at That's Fit have discovered, it's that few things get our readers' backs up as much as a blog about smoking. Whether we're commenting on a report about the cons, or very rarely the pros, of smoking, the responses that we get both from readers who smoke and those who don't can get pretty passionate.

As a result, I'm pretty curious to see what people have to say about this report that claims smoking wrecks your hair. Apparently, the doctor who created the study did so after he noticed that his cigarette-smoking patients tended to look older, have more grey hair or less hair in general than non-smoking patients. This observation led to the study and the results supported the observation. Both female and male participants of all ages who smoke had a higher instance of premature grey hair, while male participants who smoke also had a greater incidence of premature balding.

Sure, declining hair quality isn't exactly as big a motivator to quit as something deadly like cancer or emphysema, but it may not be welcome news for smokers out there who take pride in their mane. So what do all of you cigarette-lovers and-haters out there think about the report? Do you believe it makes sense or do you feel it's all a bunch of hooey?

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Balding is pretty much exclusively thought of as a man's problem, so much so that the phrase "pattern baldness" doesn't seem to sound right without the word "male" in front of it. But women can suffer from it also due to age-related issues, genetics, or even hormonal changes. Many of the treatments often used for men can also be adapted to work for women very well, such as prescriptions to restore hair growth (like minoxidil), hair transplants and/or hair plugs, hair pieces and weaves, or simply a new hairstyle (no comb-overs, please).

Although it's not as common for women, it's not a completely uncommon issue either. Talk to your doctor and pursue treatment options if you notice excessive hair thinning and loss, there are things you can do!

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There have been skin applications and other medicines and cures for baldness from the earliest days of most countries to the high-tech implants used in medical clinics today.

Will there ever be a cure that causes hair to completely grow from scratch, though? There are many people that are certain to be excited about new research that demonstrated hair regeneration in mice -- and the emergence of a technique that may be applicable to humans as well.

This new research states that mammals possess greater regenerative abilities than commonly believed. After reading this entire article, it's quite exciting to see that baldness the world over could become a thing of the past. When is another question.

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