What Causes Male Pattern Hair Loss?

Hair loss is a common health and cosmetic problem and there are many factors that cause hair loss. Male pattern hair loss makes its first appearance at the boundary line between head and forehead. Hair starts receding from that point, thereby broadening the forehead. Hair continues to grow back, as hair loss increases, finally making the head and forehead a single continuous ocean. It is an irreversible condition for many. Still, in some cases it responds to hair loss treatment if done early enough, by the time the early stages of hair loss starts making its appearance.

Inherited traits are considered to be the biggest deciding factor in male pattern hair loss. DHT or Dihydrotestosterone is a sex hormone that plays an important role in hair growth and it is this hormone that is considered to trigger off male pattern hair loss in men. While hair loss and resultant baldness is always more conspicuous in men, as far an individual considered, the genes from both parents can be responsible in equal measure for his male pattern hair loss.

Hormonal fluctuations can be directly responsible for hair loss in men. Or they may have a catalytic role to play in hair loss. The losing of hair as a part of aging is almost completely the result of the changing activity pattern of the hormone testosterone. The result of testosterone interaction with the enzymes in the scalp area affects the health of the hair follicles negatively. The enzymes and hormone neutralize each other, thereby making the hair unhealthy. This leads to thinning of hair and loss of hair, leading to partial or full baldness.

Though every male pattern hair loss is not reversible, many are. Further, every hair loss is not due to genetic reasons. Quite often an infection, or a nutrition deficiency, can lead to hair loss. A hair loss due to deficiency or infection can be differentiated from the slowly advancing male pattern hair loss. In the former, hair loss could be fast and sudden, and hair would be lost in clumps. Such a hair loss condition can be reversed by timely hair loss treatment.

Modern medicine has come out with certain hair loss solutions for those suffering from male pattern hair loss or hair loss due to any other problems. Alternative systems of medicines also offer some hair loss remedies. Knowing the root cause of hair loss is necessary in every case to decide the type of hair loss treatment to opt for, and also to understand something about hair loss prevention. With the type of hair care and hair loss remedies that are available, thick and glossy hair is not an impossible dream for men suffering from hair loss.

Stress as a Reason for Hair Loss

Causes of hair loss are myriad. Hair loss could be due to genetic factors, infections, or it could be a natural corollary of aging. However, an equally strong cause of hair loss is stress. Consider a case where a person has a hair loss problem, and there is no family history for the condition, and there was no recent bout of illnesses, or possibility of an infection. Then there is every possibility that his cause of hair loss is mental stress. Stress can lead to many physical problems, and hair loss is just one of it. Knowing the cause of hair loss is important to be able to find a remedy to it.

Reasons for stress are also myriad. Stress could result from difficulties in workplace like problems with colleagues or unsatisfactory job performance. Stress could also result from financial problems or family problems. Where stress is persistent, it tends to change the overall equation of the human body. It would start affecting many bodily functions negatively and hair loss would be one of them.

When there is more stress than the human system can take, it results in hormonal imbalance. Extra hormone is produced to cope with mind’s tensions and some of these escape to the scalp as well. These extra hormones interfere with the normal cycle of hair growth and leads to hair loss. Hair loss resulting from stress does not become obvious immediately. It will take about three or four months to find the results of hair loss in the form of thinned hair, or bald patches.

Hair loss due to stress can be remedied by removal of the cause of stress. Hair loss problem due to stress at the workplace would be solved once the workplace imbroglio disentangles itself in the normal course of events. And hair loss solution for stress due to family and financial problems are solving those problems to the extent that they are solvable. Hormones would then find its normal level and the scalp would then receive its necessary quota of nutrients and repair itself.

The best hair loss solution for hair loss due to stress is relaxation. A little unwinding is necessary for people in every walk of life and every profession. Try to keep apart a little time for it every day. Other forms of relaxation that will contribute to reversing a hair loss problem are meditation, certain yoga exercise, breathing exercises etc.

If your diet was not a balanced one, you can try changing that. This will correct body’s imbalances and would rectify the hair loss problem. If the problem that is causing stress is of a more serious nature, you will have to seek counseling or help from support groups to ensure that it does not lead to serious physical concerns including hair loss.

If a person has hair loss problems, when other reasons are ruled out, stress can be decided with reasonably surety to be his cause of hair loss. However, if a person is under enough of emotional problems of the type which is likely to make stress his constant companion, he should preferably first rule out stress as a cause of hair loss before considering the possibility of anything else as a reason for hair loss.

Some Causes of Hair Loss in Women

Female pattern hair loss is not be as prevalent as male pattern hair loss, but there are women who do suffer from hair loss. And the psychological impact of female hair loss is generally more than that of male pattern hair loss because hair, for a woman, is almost a gender identity, and something that could make her desirous for a partner. The apparent lesser prevalence of hair loss problem among women is also due to better concealment of it.

One of the main reasons for hair loss among women is hormonal imbalance. Estrogen, the primary female hormone controls quite a lot of women’s body activities. When estrogen production depletes, due to age or other problems, if affects other organs, including the scalp and hair follicles. This contributes to hair loss and is found to be a very common cause of hair loss among women.

Inheritance factors are another cause of hair loss among women. The same way genes transmit many of the parental characters to children, a tendency related to hair thinning is also believed to be carried down by genes through generations. Where the tendency for hair loss is genetically transmitted, it is less obvious when children are young. But when the body ages, and protein deficiencies become more manifest, hair loss problem also gets aggravated.

Nutritional imbalance is another cause of hair loss in women, even though this can be the basis of male pattern hair loss as well. A diet that is not properly balanced, even one with too much of protein in it, can promote hair loss. Then certain bouts of illnesses, like a jaundice or typhoid, which may result in a running fever, or confine her to bed in other ways, is enough to result in a bout of hair loss in women, though in most of these cases the hair loss problem would be reversed sooner or later. Relocation to another place, where the bath water could be more chlorinated, or may belong to a source different from the one her hair has been used to, is enough to trigger a hair loss situation in women.

Some of the present day hair styling like hair coloring or setting are said to promote hair loss in women. However, these are not fully substantiated, since these affect only the outer hair itself, and not the points of its origin. At the most, it may cause hair care to be less effective, but are unlikely to lead to hair loss.

There are lots of hair loss treatments available for women who have a hair loss problem. There are herbs for hair loss, which can be used on the scalp, with or without carrier oils. There are hair loss treatment clinics, which deal exclusively with hair loss problems. Most alternative systems of medicine have unique hair loss remedies. Above all, there are solidarity groups of women with hair loss problems, where the problem of hair loss is analyzed in depth, and hair loss remedies sought, based on the cause of hair loss in individual cases.

Hair Loss – Alopecia

Hair loss affects men and women alike.

The problem of hair loss by alopecia is probably more prevalent in the Western society, since the incidence is found to be about 1.7%. There are reportedly more than five million people in USA suffering from hair loss due to this medical condition. Alopecia is not debilitating or painful, but quite often psychologically damaging to the individual, especially to women. Hair is cosmetically important to women, and loss of hair can result in an inferiority complex.

Luxurious hair is a woman’s pride and her friend’s envy. Perfumed, open hair is an aphrodisiac. Beauty parlors cater round the clock to women’s hair beautification requirements. So, how can a woman reconcile with loss of hair? There are hair loss treatments for all types of hair loss problems, and these hair loss treatments are very effective in some cases of alopecia. However, certain percentage of cases of hair loss by alopecia, does not respond well to hair loss treatments.

The prejudice, or sometimes the ignorance, about hair loss by alopecia, is what aggravates the problem for those who suffer from loss of hair due to alopecia. The problem often appears first as a bare patch of hairless area, and some people remain under the erroneous impression that it is a communicable disease. In fact alopecia, though it results in devastating hair loss, is not a contagious disease at all.

Alopecia is basically an auto-immune disease. In such a situation, body erroneously identifies certain body parts – in this case hair follicles – as foreign particles and tries to destroy as much of it. That is one of the reasons why hair loss treatments sometimes become ineffective in the case of alopecia. When the hair grows again in response to hair loss treatments, these are again attacked by the white blood cells.

Alopecia can be alopecia totalis, where there is complete hair loss on the scalp, making a person bald. Or it can be alopecia universalis where there is loss of hair on scalp as well as the entire body including eyelashes, eyebrows, underarms and public area. When hair loss is in patches, it is often referred to as alopecia areata. For most, hair loss begins as patches, and gradually increases to cover more areas.

As hair loss is irreversible for lots of people suffering from alopecia, it is psychologically damaging to them. It is more so for women, because a tonsured head does not appear to be entirely out of fashion for men. Yul Brynner hairdo is not totally unpalatable for many and even today there are stage and media personalities who continue to be heartthrobs even after what appears to be a complete loss of hair. As a last resort, wigs are available for those who find it impossible to reconcile with loss of hair.

There several good products that can be used to prevent hair loss and promote hair growth – so anyone can have beaitiful hair they desire.

Hair Loss as a Corollary to Age

Hair on the scalp is continuously lost in human beings. When we are young, we do not suffer hair loss, because the lost hair is continuously replaced by the new hair that sprouts up. As everything slows down during old age, the lost hair is not replaced at a proportionate rate, making loss of hair an insignia of old age. This reduced production of new hair is what leads to hair loss at all ages, especially in male pattern hair loss.

However, the low rate of hair replacement is not the only cause of hair loss. Hair loss can happen by the loss of pigment from the hair as well. If you compare the hair of a younger person with that of an older person, you will see that the older person’s hair strands are much thinner because it contains no pigment. As such, the overall thickness of hair is lost in old age and this is translated as loss of hair.

This latter type of loss of hair is more common in women whereas the male pattern hair loss results more from the failure of the hair follicles to replace the lost hairs. In men hair loss generally starts with a receding hairline, with hair climbing back from the forehead. Hair loss in men can be due to action of hormones, or sometimes a reaction to certain medicines taken during an illness. Male pattern hair loss is very often an inherited trait. However, thinning of hair also contributes to hair loss in men as they age.

A certain amount of hair loss is expected as a person ages. It is not possible to completely reverse that trait of hair loss. Hormones, proteins, pigments, all play their part in this loss of hair. However, a certain amount of hair loss prevention also can be managed by increasing the amount of protein in the diet and also by taking some nutritional supplements that contain vitamins for hair loss.

There are various treatments that can be used to prevent hair loss and promote hair growth.