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Male
Pattern Baldness
Male pattern baldness is a common problem affecting millions of men worldwide. Perhaps you know the feeling: old photos of happy moments now seem bittersweet. Maybe you used to poke fun at yourself in those old pictures because of a goofy smile or a strange sweater. But you don’t care about the goofy look in the picture anymore. You just look at the way your hair used to be.
As you
stand in the bathroom, staring at yourself in the mirror, you ask yourself:
Why is this happening to me? How could this be?
Male pattern baldness is a largely misunderstood condition. Many people who could do something about it decide not to because they fear becoming a laughing stock after visible hair plugs or shifty toupees and therefore continue to struggle with negative self-perceptions of their own appearance, sexuality or youth.
Let’s understand what this condition is exactly. Male pattern baldness is triggered by a chemical reaction between certain hormones. Specific inherited genetic information can cause hair follicles to weaken when exposed to the hormone DHT, or dihydro-testosterone, the latter being chemically altered when it reacts with the skin enzyme 5-alpha reductase.
Male pattern baldness is a genetic trait which men inherit from their maternal genetic pattern (so if your mother's father was bald, and you're a man, you will inherit his hair pattern).
An important distinction to make is that male pattern baldness is not triggered by normal, everyday hair loss. On any given day, approximately 100 hairs fall from the scalp. This is a completely routine phenomenon. Similarly, dead skin cells simply fall away, to be replaced by newer layers that grow underneath. Hair follicles--tiny micro-organs that grow strands of hair--continually grow new hair to replace fallen hair. However, in the case of male pattern baldness, hair follicles become weakened by exposure to DHT, and no longer produce new hair.
As follicles stop growing new hair, the actual density or thickness of hair diminishes. Generally, this thinning of hair begins in the frontal area, above the forehead, and may simultaneously occur on the crown region, resulting in the familiar "bald spot." Given enough time, there is no new hair to replace the fallen hair, and baldness sets in.