Male Pattern Baldness
Male pattern baldness, or androgenic alopecia, is the most common type of hair loss in men
What Is Male Pattern Baldness?
Androgenic alopecia, commonly known as male pattern baldness, is a condition that afflicts over 50% of males over the age of 50 and 60% of males worldwide.
It can occur at any point after a man reaches puberty. The effects of going bald can not only cause an undesired physical appearance but result in tremendous emotional distress.
Male Pattern Baldness Causes
In general, if your family has a history of male pattern baldness, you are likely to experience it over your lifetime.
A majority of male pattern baldness cases are caused by genetics, with your genes determining how your hair follicles respond to the hormone DHT.
DHT shrinks hair follicles, leading to thinner and shorter hair and therefore weakening its growth cycle.
As the hair follicles get smaller over time and it begins to take longer for hair to grow back, this process continues until eventually no new hair grows back, leading to male pattern baldness.
What Does Male Pattern baldness Look Like?
Typically, male pattern baldness begins as a receding hairline or hair thinning on the crown.
While hereditary male pattern baldness tends to have no other side effects beyond hair loss, sometimes baldness can have medical causes, including inflammatory skin conditions, cancers, thyroid disorder, and certain medications.
You should always book to see your doctor if you experience hair loss after starting a new medication or if accompanied by other changes in your health.
Male Pattern Baldness Diagnosis
Male pattern baldness is diagnosed by the pattern of your hair loss, with it generally at the front of a receding hairline.
Family history and your own medical history will also be reviewed in order to establish a diagnosis.
While there is no cure for male pattern baldness, it generally progresses slowly, and the appearance of hair thinning can be managed with a number of hair loss treatments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Treatments
for Male pattern Baldness
Though male pattern baldness is a highly common condition affecting men across the UK, hair loss can often impact a person’s self-esteem and daily life.
Exploring treatment for male pattern baldness is therefore entirely understandable, with the variety of surgical and non-surgical hair loss treatments available now, meaning that men are able to achieve thicker, natural-looking hair in a variety of effective ways.
Non-surgical treatments offer men the chance to maintain and regrow their hair for more years than they would otherwise be able to, while surgical treatments like FUE hair transplants provide a more permanent solution for hair restoration.
For the most effective results when treating male pattern baldness, clients are advised to first slow their hair loss through the use of clinically proven medications and/or hair serums. This allows users to reduce further loss of hair and prevent further bald patches.
