Hair Fall in Men–Fact or Fiction?
The moment that a man discovers he is losing his hair he is a different person. First of all, he is shocked that he is losing hair–no matter when it happens, whether he is young, middle-aged, or a little older. It’s a shock because you think it’s normal for other people, but it’s just not going to happen to you. Now it’s probably less of a shock if you have your dad balding earlier. But regardless, we have this youthful image that we’re younger than we really appear to be, so that’s just not on our mind.
Most men find losing their hair to be very disturbing because they associate it with old age. This is especially true because usually they’re not old when they start losing their hair. Statistics show that 50% of men experience hair thinning by the time they’re 30. What’s worse is that a quarter of those men losing their hair because of heredity (which is a very high percentage–95% of male pattern baldness)–a quarter of them actually wind up losing it before they turn 21. So as you can see, hair fall in men can be especially shocking the earlier one finds out that he is losing his hair.
After overcoming the initial shock of hair fall discovery, you then jump right online because you realize that everything that’s in the drugstore is online. Plus there are loads of health food stores and review sites and information available, a veritable treasure trove of information about hair fall in men out there. You may even find that you want to go to your primary care physician for an exam just to make sure it’s not due to stress like a death or a layoff or anything traumatic like that, or perhaps even a hormonal imbalance. But typically, as I said before, it is just due to heredity.
So this hair fall discovery in men–especially when they’re young–leads to seeking help from a lot of different treatments. Not all of these treatments work. Every body is different, and the response to each treatment may also be different. Some may be allergic to ingredients that others are not. Others may not have the same hair fall condition. It could be stress such as a sudden death in the family or job loss. But most of the time it is hereditary.
Now what about this heredity, that you inherited this hair fall? What exactly did you inherit? Does your hair just start falling out for no reason? No. There is actually a cause, a physiological cause triggered by a chemical reaction in the brain. And what that is, is that you were actually born with a genetic sensitivity to a certain hormone called dihydrotestosterone or DHT for short. And what the brain does is it reads that hormone as being something that is toxic to your hair follicles. In reality dihydrotestosterone is not toxic. You are just sensitive to it much as if you were sensitive to dust or pollen or pet dander. Those things really are not toxic to you, but your brain just reads it that way.
So what does the brain tell that hair follicle to do in response to this sensitivity? Well, it tells the follicle to shrink, to actually close up, in order to protect itself so that it does not come in contact with this hormone, dihydrotestosterone.
So what’s going on here is two things. First, you’ve got hair that’s not staying in as long, so it’s shorter when it falls out. It’s thinner and more brittle when it falls out. And it’s duller. Second, you’ve got the fact that you’re losing hair more quickly. This is a continuous cycle until the bald spot or spots (depending on your male pattern baldness) to which you were predisposed are achieved. But the good news is that this hair fall is not irreversible.
So a good way to remedy hair fall is actually to block the chemical DHT for your brain so that it doesn’t tell the hair follicle to shrink. And that’s why a lot of people look for DHT-blocking treatments or pills. Minoxidil is FDA-approved as an ingredient that does in 80 percent of users, block DHT, and in time allow them to regrow hair.
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