How to Combat Male Pattern Baldness and Feel Yourself Again

Male pattern baldness is a genetic condition that causes thinning at the hairline and top of the crown. It’s more common than you might think – more than half of men over 40 experience it. While it can’t be prevented because you inherit it, medical treatments are available.

This can help manage and reduce hair loss while promoting hair growth. Many companies may claim to have a “miracle cure,” but you should be careful of unregulated therapies that make big promises while being ineffective and expensive.

In this article, we’ll discuss what male pattern baldness is, how to combat it and regain your confidence, and what Hairy Hair can do to help you.

What is Male Pattern Baldness?

Male pattern baldness (also known as androgenetic alopecia) is a gradual progression of hair loss over time. Hair loss tends to start with a receding hairline and can be followed by a bald spot at the top or crown of the head, creating a horseshoe-shaped pattern on the scalp.

Hair follicles go through a growth cycle as part of normal hair growth. As part of a normal growth cycle, hair goes through growth, rest, and shedding phases. According to the Journal of Clinical Medicine, most hair is in the anagen or growth phase at any one time, lasting around 2-8 years. Hair then gets ready to detach from the follicle in a resting phase, then cuts off from the blood supply to shed.

When the balance of hair follicles shifts from anagen to telogen (resting) prematurely and in high quantities, then hair loss becomes noticeable. For people with male pattern baldness, hair follicles are more sensitive to certain androgens (male hormones). Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is an androgen that causes hair follicles to shrink through a process of miniaturisation.

Hair follicles go through a shorter growth phase, meaning they fall out faster than they should. Fewer hairs grow from the follicles, while those that grow are shorter and finer. This causes patches of hair thinning and baldness.

What are the Signs of Male Pattern Baldness?

Androgenetic alopecia usually begins after puberty through a gradual process. This is because DHT is required during puberty for your body’s development, including pubic and facial hair growth. After puberty, though, your body doesn’t need DHT anymore, and it can bind to your hair follicles, causing hair loss. 

The pattern of hair loss means that this condition can be recognised by certain signs. These include:

• Thinning at the temples
• Receding hairline
• Thinning crown
• Bald patch at the top of the head
• Horseshoe pattern of hair growth

While there isn’t a test available at the moment to predict whether you will have male pattern baldness, if you have a family history of it, then you’re likely to go through it. Plus, it gets more common as you get older, so it’s good to be on the lookout for the signs.

For men, it starts out as around 1 in 5 males in their 20s, rising to 1 in 3 men in their 30s and over half of males in their 40s, according to Dermatological Surgery. Caucasian males are more likely to be affected compared to other population groups, like Japanese and Chinese men. 

When Should You See a Doctor?

It is common to lose hair. We lose approximately 50-100 hairs on a daily basis naturally, but we can’t notice it since there are new hairs that will re-grow to replace the lost ones. If you’re losing more than that, then professional help is the way to go. This can be in the form of more hair on your brush, on your pillowcase when you wake up, or when you shower, you can see a clog in your drain.

Other types of hair loss can exacerbate your pattern baldness, requiring you to see a doctor. These include: 

• Hormone fluctuations
• Traction alopecia (repetitive hair follicle strain)
• Autoimmune conditions
• Telogen effluvium (stress-related hair loss)
• Medication/treatment side effects (eg radiation therapy)
• Fungal infections

How is Male Pattern Baldness Diagnosed?

Diagnosing the condition usually involves several different examinations. These consist of a basic questionnaire from your doctor about your health and family medical history, along with a physical scalp examination around areas of thinning or baldness.

In most cases, you won’t need any in-depth tests to determine male pattern baldness, but if what you have might be another issue, you may be referred to a dermatologist or trichologist. They’ll do a scalp biopsy so that they can eliminate another issue or take blood tests to check your hormone and nutritional levels.

How Can You Treat Male Pattern Baldness?

Treatment usually tries to prevent or stop baldness, but can potentially induce new hair growth on bald spots. What therapies you can choose or are prescribed will depend on the severity of your baldness, personal choice, risk of undesirable side effects and expense.

Talking to your doctor about what you can expect from each treatment option and any risks that they pose is important. Photographs can also help you monitor your progress because hair growth changes are generally slow and perhaps hard to notice within a limited period of time.

Minoxidil

Minoxidil is a blood vessel dilator that is used to widen blood vessels on your scalp. It helps bring more nutrients to your hair follicles so that they receive an adequate supply of oxygen and vitamins for healthy growth. Increasing the circulation of your blood vessels with minoxidil spray can help give your hair strands a better chance to grow strong and healthy.

Finasteride

Finasteride is an inhibitor of DHT, which men suffering from pattern baldness take. It prevents testosterone from getting converted into DHT to stop hair follicles from shrinking. DHT is among the most prevalent reasons for losing hair, and if hair follicles continue to shrink, it results in permanent hair loss. According to the Journal of Dermatology, 87% of men saw effective treatment using finasteride.

Hair Transplant Surgery

This method involves taking healthy donor hairs (usually from the back of your head) and planting them into bald or thinning areas. It can produce dramatic and long-term results, but it does require having enough hair to do so and is usually expensive. Surgery may not be suitable for everybody, and it takes time to arrange and recover from.

Laser Therapy

Low-level laser light therapy (LLLT) is a surgery-free form of treatment that induces stimulation of hair follicles using low frequencies of red light. Increased activity of follicles can stimulate dormant follicles, but it won’t bring as dramatic an improvement as with drug treatments. It typically doesn’t come with any adverse side effects, however.

PRP Injections

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is a medical treatment that uses your blood to boost your follicles’ nutrients. Beneficial plasma is isolated from your blood using a centrifuge before being injected into thinning or balding areas. While it is a natural alternative to medications or surgeries, it requires semi-regular sessions to maintain the results.  

How Can Hairy Hair Help with my Hair Loss?

Male pattern baldness is a common condition that impacts millions of men worldwide. It may make people less confident because of thinning hair, a receding hairline, and patches of baldness. Androgenetic alopecia miniaturises hair follicles, leading to shorter and thinner hair strands sprouting and eventually permanent hair loss.

Learning the causes and effects of male pattern baldness is essential to find the right treatment to combat the condition. Heredity, hormones, and environment control hair growth, but if you do not treat the underlying reason for your shedding, you will not be able to effectively decelerate, halt, and prevent thinning as well as stimulate new hair growth.

Contact Hairy Hair if you want to take control of your hair loss. Our hair loss treatment contains a powerful combination of ingredients that are intended to directly tackle the primary causes of hair loss simultaneously. The treatment acts as a vasodilator while aiming to block DHT production to provide a well-rounded approach to hair loss.

When ready to start, just fill in our short online questionnaire. One of our Australian GPs who is an expert in hair loss will review your information and create a bespoke treatment plan based on your needs. They’ll give you a call to explain the details and answer your questions before your personalised treatment is ready to be delivered straight to your door.