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.

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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.

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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.

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Can Male Pattern Hair Loss Be Cured?

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

Androgenic alopecia is a progressive disease that can never be completely eliminated. However, due to the invention of various different medicinal products and continuous advancements in the technology surrounding surgical procedures, we are able to slow down the disease to a point where those suffering will be able to keep their hair for years, if not decades, to come.
Baldness is a blanket term that can occur due to a number of factors including stress, medical conditions and hormonal changes. In terms of androgenic alopecia, the thinning and eventual loss of hair is mainly caused by a hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a sexual hormone derived from testosterone which is needed for the development of key male characteristics during puberty. Testosterone converts to dihydrotestosterone through an enzyme called 5 alpha-reductase which then travels through the bloodstream, binding and eventually shrinking a hair follicle until the point where a hair is no longer visible.
After a certain point, it becomes exceptionally difficult for a bald man to regrow hair through the use of medication such as finasteride and minoxidil. Essentially, this is because the balding has progressed to a point where the hair follicles are too far gone. Assuming they have sufficient donor hair, a person that is completely ‘slick’ bald may have to resort to surgical transplants to achieve a reasonable head of hair.
By the age of 30, around a quarter of men experience some form of hair loss. Regardless of this fact, androgenic alopecia can happen at any age after puberty has occurred in a male. A look at an individual’s family history of balding may give some insight into the future potential, however, this is not always the case.

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.

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