When Do Men Start Losing Hair?
When Do Men Start Losing Hair? Teenage boys and young men may often find that their hair is getting thinner or even losing their hair. Male baldness pattern is the most common cause of hair loss among teenagers and young men. In fact, this is the most common cause of hair loss among teenagers, so if you have it, you’re not alone. Let’s read together to learn more about it.
What Causes This Kind of Hair Loss?
The medical term for the male baldness pattern is androgenetic alopecia. This type of hair loss is led by the combination of androgens (hormones) and genetics (features that you have inherited). Androgens function in boys to enhance male sexual characteristics such as penis formation, muscle development, and hair growth. Your genes are what decide the physical characteristics passed on to you by your biological parents. These physical characteristics can include your height, eye color, hair color, and whether or not you have a hair loss. Several different factors can affect hair loss, including:
- Hormones
- Genetics
- Diet
- Illness
- Stress
The Role of Hormones in the Loss of Hair
Another way to look at this is to ask the question; why is adult hair loss a problem? Why don’t we see children running around with bald spots?
The solution lies in the hormones responsible for puberty and our transition to adulthood. Male type baldness is due to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is an androgen and a byproduct of a male hormone called testosterone. DHT is formed by the 5a-reductase enzyme, which transforms a certain percentage of your testosterone to DHT in tissues such as your liver, prostate, skin, and hair follicles. The more testosterone your body makes, the more DHT you end up with. In boys, puberty is associated with an accumulation of hormones, including testosterone. Thus, puberty causes a silent countdown in those with a hereditary susceptibility to male pattern baldness. How soon the symptoms of hair loss begin to occur and how rapidly they progress depends to a large degree on genetics.
Genetics and Lack of Hair
You may have heard the notion that if your mom’s grandfather went bald, you’re going to go bald, too. Well, it’s not that easy, since genetics has a big role to play when it comes to hair loss. Yeah, it’s true that the variation of your X chromosome, inherited from your mother, is primarily responsible for early-onset MPB – a variety of studies have shown this. However, other studies have also shown that 29 different variants across six different chromosomes may be used to predict MPB, so the impact of genes on hair loss is much more complex than it sometimes appears.
How Your Diet Could Affect Your Hair?
It’s well known that your diet can have an effect on your body, but did you know that it can also affect your hair?
Research has shown that there is a correlation between diet and the health of the hair. For example, vitamins are important when it comes to maintaining your overall hair health – either Zinc or Iron deficiency can be very harmful to your hair’s development.
Illness and Loss of Hair
When we talk about hair loss, we are more often than not referring to male baldness patterns. But there are actually other health problems that can lead to hair loss, not linked to MPB. Thyroid disease, alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease that can also affect facial hair growth) and scalp infections such as ringworm can all cause hair loss.
Stress and Loss of Hair
You’ve always heard of people ‘putting their hair out,’ and you may be unfortunate enough to have had those moments on your own. However, it’s not only pulling your hair out that can induce hair loss – that much is evident – that will also hurt your hair follicles, which can also adversely impact your hair’s re-growth. In fact, this behavior is so severe that it is regarded as a health condition of the Social media platforms, known as Trichotillomania, or a hair-pulling condition.
Why is This Called Male Pattern Baldness?
Male pattern baldness gets its name because the hair in most boys falls out of the scalp in the same pattern. Typically, this pattern follows:
- Hair thinning or loss on your temple part
- Receding the line of hair. This means that the hairline around the edge of your scalp and your face moves back.
- Hair deficiency at the top of your head
- Hair loss in your occipital area – this is the section at the back of your head, just above your ear.
If you’re having hair loss and you don’t follow this trend, you may have a different type of hair loss. When girls or women lose their hair, it’s called “female pattern hair loss” since their hair falls out of a different “pattern” than a guy does.
Is the Male Baldness Trend Common?
Yes, yes! Around 16 percent of boys aged 15-17 have a male pattern of baldness. A research study found that 30 percent of Caucasian (white) males had symptoms of male baldness trends by 30 years of age, 50 percent by 50 years of age, and about 80 percent of males had hair loss by 70 years of age. Male pattern baldness is less common among Asian and African American men than among Caucasian men.
When do Guys Usually Start to Lose Their Hair?
We’re asked a lot about the average age at which men usually start to lose their hair. Let’s be clear – there’s such a thing as a typical age when men begin to lose their hair. Each man is different, and there are a lot of factors in play. Please encourage us to look at this in more detail.
First of all, male pattern baldness or Androgen Alopecia will start at almost any age and develop at various rates. The question of when a person will begin to lose his hair seems to be hereditary. But it’s more than that.
The problem of male pattern baldness typically begins when a man is in his 35s or 40s. But while extremely rare, this problem can also occur after puberty or during adolescence. Guys also say that they find that their hair loss “comes and goes” means that at times they know that their hair is getting thin and at other times they do not find hair loss for a while.
I’m Losing My Weight, am I Going to See My Health Care Provider?
Yes! If you’re losing your fur, it’s a smart idea to hold a meeting with your health care professional to find it out. Often hair loss can occur due to medical conditions such as low thyroid levels. It can also occur as a side effect of the use of some drugs, such as anabolic steroids. Your health care provider could order laboratory tests or even refer you to a skin/hair specialist, a dermatologist.
I heard you’re just going to lose your hair if someone on your mom’s side of the family has lost his hair. Is that real, huh?
No, this is a story. Male trait baldness may be inherited from either side of your biological family, moms, or dads.
What am I going to do with my hair loss?
When you have a male history of hair loss, you have choices to explore after seeing your health care provider. You can’t do anything at all, shave your head, or use medications that make your hair grow. When Do Men Start Losing Hair?