Men Hair Loss – Top Health Today

Everybody has experienced hair in the drain of the shower or the occasional stray on our pillow. This is normal and not a cause for alarm. However, there are forms of alopecia, the scientific name for what is more widely known as hair loss, that strike fear in the hears of men everywhere.

Androgenic Alopecia

The unmistakable receding hairline and hair thinning that is a trademark of male pattern baldness affects 66% of men by the age of 35. Also known as androgenic alopecia, male pattern baldness is a genetic condition which can also affect women and is the most common cause of hair loss.

Androgenic alopecia can start for some men as early as their 20s. If you don’t suffer from male pattern baldness, you could be forgiven for thinking that the hair just falls out and doesn’t grow again. Indeed, this is a common misconception. If you have experienced it first hand, you likely know that the hair becomes thinner first then eventually falls out and doesn’t grow back.

For men who don’t suffer from male pattern baldness, if a hair naturally falls out it is likely replaced by an identical hair which grows in its place. However, for sufferers of male pattern baldness, when that hair naturally falls out it is replaced by a thinner and weaker hair. This continues until finally the follicle dies and ceases to produce new hairs.

Alopecia Areata

Alopecia Areata is characterized by circular spots of baldness on the scalp. It may be a single circular shape of baldness or it could be several. Some men experience on a level which results in a complete loss of hair and can therefore be mistaken as male pattern baldness.

T cells, also known as lymphocytes, surround a hair follicle and attack mistakenly believing the follicle to be a threat to the body. There are two types of alopecia areata: scarring alopecia, which results in a loss of the hair follicle and is therefore irreversible, and nonscarring alopecia in which the follicle is preserved and hair can begin to grow again.

Like androgenic alopecia, it is believed that alopecia areata is a genetic disease. Though there are treatment options, a doctor will like recommend a period of observation before prescribing a treatment because the hair loss can often suddenly stop after which the hair grows back.

Telogen Effluvium

Telogen Effluvium is not considered alopecia because it is not hair loss though it can look and feel like it. To understand this condition, you must first understand the three phases of hair growth: anagen or active hair growth, catagen or transitional hair growth, and telogen, a resting phase after which the hair falls out and anagen begins again.

Because any of the hairs on our heads can be in the three phases at any time, telogen effluvium occurs when there are more hairs on your head that are in the telogen phase than there are hairs in the anagen phase. These hairs will have either stopped growing or are falling out. It is temporary and can result from stress or a hormonal imbalance.

Hair loss has been a matter of concern for many decades, regardless of whether the victim of hair loss is a male or a female. We have heard many ladies say that they are anxious about losing their precious strands. They say that they cannot afford to lose their tresses, that their hair is a symbol of who they are. Women aren't the only ones who feel that way, men may not show it but, they feel just as anxious about going bald. Rightly so since men are more likely to go bald than women. n fact, most men find it really disheartening. They feel that this will shrink their self-confidence to face the world.

Now, what is it that makes men go bald more frequently than women? Recent studies have come up with a few answers as to why male pattern baldness is so much more common than women's. First lets take a look at same reasons men and women can go bald.

Reasons for hair loss in men and women:

Hair loss is a common problem for both men and women, in a nutshell, which is called as androgenetic alopecia or baldness. It is quite different from hair shedding and can emerge on everyone at a point when the body goes through the phase of trauma. It can also appear due to:

Hectic schedules which leads to an increase in stress and the stress hormone cortisol, that inhibits hair growth.
Wrong food habits, and malnutrition.
Irregular and sedentary lifestyle.

This issue seems bigger when the hair loss shows it permanent effects 70 percent of men and 40 percent of women during there entire life cycle.

Hair is prone to damage and every now and then a lock may fall out. However, in healthy men and women, the new follicles are generated and they continue the virtuous cycle of hair re-growth process, unlike in people who suffer from balding.

According to experts, the most common problem that women and men face in the context of hair fall is androgenetic alopecia. The main reason for this syndrome is genetic but there can be other reasons as well. Some experts have associated this male or female pattern baldness to unavoidable environmental circumstances as well.

Hormones play a major role in Male Balding:

Male human bodies excrete enzymes that are capable of converting the testosterone hormone into dihydrotestosterone. Now this hormone has the amazing power of making the growth of your hair stunted as well as weak. As a man ages this horomone is amplified which is why man have a higher tendency to loose there hair as they age, compared to their female counterparts.

According to studies, Asian men are diagnosed with less of the dihydrotestosterone hormone in their follicles, which makes them able to retain hair for a longer time than their Caucasian counterparts. On the other hand, women do not face such terrible consequences because of the fact that they do not have this hormone running in their follicles.

Why is it different in the case of women?

As for women, thinning of hairline only begins to show up after their menopause gets started. Because it is then that the estrogen hormone stops secreting and the testosterone already present in the follicles starts playing their part.

Types of Hair Loss in Men