More than 70 percent of men face hair loss in their lives at some point. The question is why hair loss is so common, particularly in men? Well, women also suffer from some degree of hair loss, but they’re lucky that baldness isn’t their word; instead, they suffer from hair loss spread evenly across their whole scalp. Let’s take a look at the reasons that men face balding.
Hair loss
1. Hair loss Because of Balding Genetics is by far the biggest cause of hair thinning, particularly in men. Most men have in their DNA a balding gene which determines when and how they are going to lose hair. In fact, more than 70 percent of all people who suffer hair loss face the problem because of their good genes. If you see many bald heads in your neighborhood, there’s a high chance you’ll end up hairless in your old age as well. Yet inheritance hair loss doesn’t wait until you turn 50, it starts catching up person latest by mid-30s and as early as their late teens. Medically, hereditary baldness is called Androgenic alopecia.
Now a million-dollar question is, how is it decided that a particular person’s hair loss is heredity? In most cases, by simply looking at the hair pattern, a doctor can easily distinguish inherited hair loss from those of others. A common pattern follows. That is why it is commonly referred to as baldness in the male pattern. Men often exhibit inherited hair loss in a specific pattern and that too, but they have a slightly different pattern known as baldness in the female form. There is a system of “Norwood classifications” for evaluating the baldness of trends in males and females.
2. Consistent hair loss Most men and many women experience a consistent thinning of hair across all head regions. Compared with male and female pattern baldness, it’s typically difficult to detect. The normal hair growth cycle is divided into three stages: Anagen: The growth period that lasts for about three years and the hair grows at an average rate of half an inch per month.
Catogen: The second stage where hair prepares to reach the process of rest. A hair strand undergoes chemical changes during this stage, and falls out.
Telogen: The hair soothing process. It vanishes for two to five months. At any given time, about 10 per cent of your hair is in the Telogen phase.
That’s the reason for shedding up to 100 hairs a day is considered quite normal. But in people with uniform hair loss more than normal hairs are beginning to undergo resting phase.
3. Hormonal Hair Loss The main culprit of baldness in men is the hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This is a derivative of male hormones of Androgenic origin. For men suffering from hormonal hair loss, a certain amount of male reproductive hormone testosterone starts to transform through a chemical process into DHT. Some medicinal products inhibit this conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. While these medications show good results in preventing hormonal hair loss and restoring hair quality, there is no permanent cure, and the symptoms begin to come back as soon as you stop taking the medication. The only way to restore a thicker head permanently is with hair transplant surgery.
4. Diet-Nutritional deficiency Sometimes it can also cause hair thinning. Your body needs several nutrients for healthy hair growth, such as protein, iron, vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin B complex, and vitamin E), and omega-3 fatty acids, etc. Some minerals also have a part to play in keeping your hair healthy and strong. The minerals that are significant include Iron, Selenium, Silica, Zinc, Copper and Iodine. Lack of any nutrient or mineral may have adverse health effects on your hair and severe deficiency may also cause hair fall. Start consuming balanced diet to reverse nutritional hair loss making sure you take enough of the above listed nutrients and minerals. When you think diet alone may not help you cope with the deficiencies, you can always take supplements.
5. Stress Stress is not only bad for your overall health but also bad for your hair and skin. People who have experienced some physical or emotional trauma show signs of hair loss a few months after the incident. So, if you’re losing your locks for no apparent reason, take a look back at your life if you’ve had a traumatic experience in the last few months or not. Luckily, the hair thinning caused by stress and anxiety is mostly reversible and as soon as the patient handles stress, most of the hair lost begins to grow back again.
6. Smoking Smoking can also help speed hair thinning up. The chemicals in cigarette smoke hamper protein production which makes the hair.
7. Climate and pollution It can also cause and exacerbate hair thinning. Some environmental pollutants which contribute to the hair loss are described below.
Selenium: The rising pollutant in our food is selenium. It can trigger hair loss if present in greater quantities.
Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Aluminum, Iron, and Copper: Some of these minerals are essential for healthy hairs-but in only a small amount. Excess of any of these minerals will affect your physical health with certain negative effects like hair loss.
What are the treatments out there?
There are many products out there for hair growth. Female and male medications are sold over the counter as well as by Prescription doctor. The whole hair shortage epidemic is one billion dollar industry, so you need to get good advice.
You may get different surgical procedures to remove hair from thickly grown areas of the scalp into thinning hair areas. This is something you just want to look at as a last resort, you need to use due diligence again before you take these extreme measures.
Although I am not qualified to give advice in this field, I would certainly look first at less drastic measures to see if you can find a good hair loss solution before trying some surgical response.