Hair loss, why is it most common to men?

I have a personal interest on the topic. Every male in my husbands’ family had hair loss problem. My husband was experiencing hair loss even when he was just in his mid 20’s, although comparing to his brothers his hair line is a lot better. His siblings kept on asking him on what his secret might be and we just laugh about it. Now that we have a kid of our own, I wonder if it will pass on. We haven’t had a baby boy yet but I just can’t stop thinking about it especially now that I have seen this topic in the weekly HubMob.

Why is hair loss common to men?

Hair shedding is just a normal thing. We usually shed up to 100 hairs a day, so you should not panic if you see a lot of hair in the sink, in the floor, or in your brush. The hair that sheds is just the 10% of our hair. Actually this 10% rest for a couple of months before you actually seen it shed. So it’s a continuous process, 90% keeps on growing while the 10% rests for a few months then shed as the end of the resting stage. When we see that the hair that sheds is pretty abnormal then at that point we may say that we might have an excessive hair loss. Some of the women experience this problem too but it is most common to men because of the effects of the male hormone which is the dihydrotestosterone (DHT) on hereditarily prone scalp hair follicles. DHT shorten the growth of hair causing it to decrease in size then totally disappears as the time goes by. Hair Loss can be inherited from both parent, can be from one of them or both but the ones from maternal side matter most. (Hmm now I worry less.) Now this is what you call the androgenetic hair loss. To sum it up the Androgenetic hair loss is affected by three mutually supporting aspects; the genes, hormones, and age.

The effect of hair loss to a certain individual varies, but mostly it has a negative effect especially on psychological aspect. Many can’t just accept it that easy; it usually resulted to low self-esteem or worst it may even lead to depression, anxiety and social phobia.

Accepted, now what to do?

Some who accept it wholeheartedly bare their heads totally. Why not!?! A lot of girls think bald guys are sexy. My husband let his head shaved especially during summer season. If you don’t want to go bald then you can do the “comb over” thing wherein you can cover your thinning hair with some of your extra hair somewhere. Or maybe you can wear hats just like my husband always does. A wig will do as well or a hair piece.

If you want something permanent then here are some of the medications or medical treatments that your doctor may prescribe: (source: wikipedia)

• Minoxidil
• Antiandrogens such as Finasteride, Dutasteride, and Ketoconazole
• Copper peptides
• Spin labels
• Hair transplant
• Hair multiplication
• Scalp Massage
• Low lever laser therapy
• Unsaturated fatty acids
• Hedgehog agonists
• Plant remedies such as caffeine, black cohosh, saw palmetto
• Daily, vigorous aerobic exercise (as opposed to short workout periods designed to raise androgen levels and build muscle, or more sporadic exercise) and a diet which is adequate yet more moderate in terms of fat and total calorie intake have been shown to reduce baseline insulin levels as well as baseline total and free testosterone.