Going Bald? This Could Be Why...

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Transcript

This is Jimmy. Jimmy seems to have it all – a thriving business, a great bunch of friends and a loving family. But there’s one thing that Jimmy is losing – his hair. He knew this was coming – his dad went bald in his 30s and his younger brother is already starting to shed. Now Jimmy needs to make a decision – he can either embrace his baldness or he can fight it.

In this video, I’m going to spell out exactly what causes men to go bald. So strap yourself in, because things are gonna get hairy.

Male balding has a characteristic pattern to it.

In the beginning we start off with a full head of hair. In most men, the first sign of balding appears at the temples with slow but steady regression of the hair line. Then at some point, hair on the crown starts to thin. Slowly the bald patches from the temple and crown meet in the middle leading to baldness at the top of the scalp, with a rim of hair around the ears and back of the head.

There is one variation of this pattern. In this pattern, the hair retreats backwards from forehead all the way towards the crown.

This type of hair loss is called androgenetic alopecia, and it is the most common form of hair loss in men.

Alopecia is the medical name for hair loss and androgenetic refers to hormones like testosterone. There are other forms of hair loss but they have very different patterns. For example, iron deficiency can lead to general thinning of hair all over the scalp (telogen effluvium) and another type of hair loss only affects one specific part of the scalp (alopecia areata). A family doctor or dermatologist can work out the right diagnosis by looking carefully at the pattern of hair loss.

Alright so let’s talk about what causes this type of hair loss. Male pattern balding is essentially a genetic condition. One study compared identical and non-identical twins and found that 81% of male pattern hair loss is attributable to genetics. [1] Multiple genes on both the mother and father’s side can contribute to hair loss, so we can’t blame either side completely. [2]

So what does this hair loss actually look like at a microscopic level? Well hair growth goes through specific phases. The first is the growth phase where our hair follicles create chains of a hard protein called keratin. This growth phase normally lasts anywhere between 2 to 6 years and produces thick hair. Once the hair has matured, it goes through a brief transition to the resting phase where the hair just hangs around for about 3 months or so. At the end of the resting phase, the hair falls out and the growth cycle begins again.

For people who have a genetic tendency for male pattern hair loss, the hair follicles are overly sensitive to a cousin of testosterone called DHT. In balding men, DHT shortens the growth phase of certain hair follicles. Because of this shortened growth phase, hairs that were once long and thick, become shorter and thinner because they have less time to grow. This sensitivity to DHT seems to affect some parts of the scalp more than others, resulting in that classic hair loss pattern that we looked at earlier.

One of the most common myths is that balding men have more testosterone than other men and that’s why they lose their hair. A related myth is that having sex can lead to hair loss. Neither of these are true.
In reality, both balding and non-balding men have similar testosterone levels. [3] It’s just that balding men tend to convert more of their testosterone to DHT and their hair follicles are more sensitive to DHT than non-balding men. [4,5]

But in saying that, we do know that performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids and testosterone absolutely increase the risk of hair loss. [6] This is because they artificially boost androgen hormones in our body.

Male pattern balding is very common.

About 1 in 2 adult men in their 40s have noticeable levels of balding and most men will have some level of baldness during their lifetime. [7] But there is huge variation in how fast this hair loss happens. Some men can start losing hair in their early 20s, while other men can keep their hair well into their 60s. Interestingly, male pattern balding only becomes noticeable once half of hair follicles have already been affected. [8] So if you think you’re starting to go bald, you may already be halfway there.

But remember that male pattern baldness is just a normal part of getting older. Some men easily embrace their new fuss free hair routine. But some of us can feel incredibly embarrassed and self-conscious. Hair loss can have massive psychological consequences from feelings of unattractiveness to outright depression. Fortunately for those who are bothered by their hair loss, there are treatments to help and the earlier treatment is started, the more likely we are to keep our hair.

There’s a ton of info to cover when talking about hair loss treatment options. So if you want me to make a video on hair loss treatment, make sure you hit that like button and let me know in the comments which treatments you’d like me to talk about. As always, thanks for watching, and I’ll catch you in the next one.

References:

[1] https://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(15)30544-3/fulltext
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14694
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1832108/
[4] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199909233411307
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11739436/
[6] https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/steroids/
[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9865198/
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25128118/

Medicine ExplainedAnkit Gupta28 February 2021hair loss, balding, male