Skin & Hair Care

Skin & Hair Care

Coping with male hair loss

Coping with male hair loss Can excessive hair loss, the kind associated with male pattern baldness, be prevented - that is, reduced to acceptable levels? That depends on who you ask. And ultimately, who you are?

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As most people know, everyone loses hair. It's normal. Because every hair follicle on your head goes through a growing phase, called the anlagen phase, and a resting period, called the deluge phase.

In a person with a healthy, full head of hair, hair loss of up to 50 hairs a day is deemed normal. People who are suffering from the onset of male pattern baldness lose up to 250 hairs a day.

Why?

In male pattern baldness sufferers, the hair follicles enter their resting phase more frequently, and for longer periods of time. When the hair follicles do produce hair again, it is smaller in size and lighter in color, and as the cycle repeats, the hair become so small and so absent of pigment that it is called lanugos-type hair, also known as peach fuzz. As time progresses, the follicle will cease to produce hair entirely and baldness results.

Medical science knows the cause of male pattern baldness is due to hormonal activity that is genetic in origin: Testosterone in the scalp breaks down and one of its by-products, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), interferes with the hair follicle, causing it to atrophy (resulting in smaller hairs of less pigment), and finally, to whither and die, when it will produce no hair at all.

What medical science doesn't know is exactly why some men with high testosterone levels (marked by heavy beards, an excess of body hair and deepness of voice) do not succumb to male pattern baldness, while others, often with lower testosterone levels, do. Nor is it understood why male pattern baldness affects the hair follicles on top of the head and not those on the back and sides. In other words, medical science understands the "hows" of the process; they just don’t understand the "whys." And that has hampered attempts to stop excessive hair loss.

How?

Someone who is searching for absolute truth in determining which singular substance can reduce excessive hair loss may well end up being very disappointed, because no one ingredient has proven effective for all individuals, all the time. What is probably more correct is that individuals respond to different treatments in different ways. What may work for one person may be ineffective in another, and so on. What is encouraging is that today there exist alternatives, some of which have proven effective for some people, some of the time.

Facts Pertaining to Hair Loss

If the drainage hole of your bathroom is clogged with your hair whenever you take a shower, well, don't lose sleep over it. And if you are alarmed over losing up to 50 to 100 strands of hair a day, don't worry about it at all, it's perfectly normal! As you get older, you only tend to lose more hair, progressively.

Hormonal changes in your body brought on by the ageing process, along with the heredity factor, means that some people lose more hair than others as they age. In men, this type of hair loss, is called "male-pattern balding", and results in a receding hairline, and/or thinning of hair at the top of the head.

Similarly, some women experience mild "female pattern balding". That normally entails a thinning of hair over the top of the scalp. Women with female pattern balding, typically, start losing hair between the ages of 25 and 30. However, hair loss in women is less prominent than in men.

We could lose hair after certain types of fevers, major surgery and/or infection. Women on diet or those who have a heavy menstrual flow, may also suffer severe hair loss due to the lack of protein, iron and zinc in their bodies.

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