Hair loss in men, causes, symptoms, treatment.

Do not think that beautiful thick hair is a matter of pride only for women. Men as well as the weaker sex, want to have gorgeous hair, but their desires do not always coincide with reality.

Progressive hair loss in men is no longer a new problem, but not only is it not losing its relevance, but on the contrary, it is taking on new proportions. More and more young people suffer from the fact that their appearance is distorted by early baldness.

Although men are not as reverent about their appearance as women are, baldness at an early age is often a serious psychological trauma, although it is not common to talk about it publicly.

Baldness has a negative effect on the appearance of the body, and this is especially true for women. For men, the fear of baldness is in second place after the fear of impotence. It is worth paying attention to the claims of psychologists that people suffering from baldness often have complexes about their appearance, their self-esteem drops, which naturally affects their life and especially their relationships with the opposite sex.

Causes of male pattern baldness

If a person loses 100 hairs a day, there is not much to worry about. But more active hair loss, especially young and growing hair, cannot be regarded as a normal condition. This is already a problem that always has certain causes, which must necessarily be sorted out, because without this it is impossible to treat the disease effectively. Stable result can be achieved only if you fight the cause of the disease and not its consequence.

What factors can provoke active hair loss in men of different ages?

• Hereditary predisposition. If a father, a grandfather, or a great-grandfather on his mother's or father's side had problems with his hair in his youth, it is very likely that the following generations will also have them. The cause of this predisposition is considered to be the baldness gene, which can be found in both men and women.
• Hormonal imbalances. It is wrong to think that such failures are peculiar only to women and are the cause of many women's problems. Hormonal disorders may also occur in men. Scientists have long discovered the relationship between the male sex hormone testosterone and male pattern baldness. Testosterone itself is responsible for the presence of hair on the head and body of men, but its type, dihydrotestosterone, on the contrary, contributes to hair loss.
• Nutritional and metabolic disorders, infectious diseases, taking certain medications, scalp injuries, skin diseases.
• External risk factors for baldness. Use of poor-quality shampoos and detergents not designed for washing the head. Traumatic damage to the scalp and hair. Adverse environmental conditions.

Hair loss in men

Without going into detail, focusing on male pattern baldness as one of the current problems, we can see that the pathology is not limited to the elderly. Statistics say that 50-70% of men face the problem of baldness in middle age (40-50 years). But at the same time just under 30% of representatives of the stronger sex already have these problems at the age of 20-25 years. Moreover, male pattern baldness at a young age is in 80% of cases due to genetic predisposition, which is rare for women.

Male pattern baldness at a young age is usually caused by genetic predisposition and hormonal imbalances, resulting in baldness as early as 20-30 years of age. Although one cannot rule out other factors that may contribute to baldness.

For example, 20% of the population suffers from seborrhea, which begins in adolescence during puberty. At first, the youngster notices that his hair has become greasy, quickly becomes dirty and stick together in bunches, and yellowish, oily scales appear on the scalp. At first, the person is plagued by unaesthetic greasy hair and itchy scalp, then sores appear on the skin, resembling the manifestation of eczema. If the disease is left untreated, moderate hair loss occurs a little later. New hairs are formed in their place, which gradually thin and fall out ahead of time, and a bald spot is formed.

Stresses, medications, unfavorable environmental conditions, irrational nutrition, and head injuries can also leave their mark on a young person's head. And the more of these factors, affecting simultaneously or in turn, the more noticeable this trace will be in the form of thinning hair. If we're talking about cancer treatment, which can affect even children, then chemotherapy and radiation of the body can deprive a person of hair, even in the absence of a hereditary predisposition. But it's a forced measure when you don't have to choose between life and beautiful hair.

Symptoms of male pattern baldness

The influence of various factors on men's health causes the appearance of different types of alopecia, the manifestations of which are also somewhat different. Doctors do not have a unified classification of alopecia, but it is common to distinguish several types of alopecia in men.

While different types of alopecia may have different manifestations, the first sign of alopecia is hair loss above the norm, which can be noticed by an increase in the number of hairs on clothing, combs, when washing the head. Or you can simply not wash your hair for 3-4 days and then lightly pull the hair on your head. If a decent bundle of 5-10 hairs appears in your hand, it is already a reason to examine the risk of alopecia.

The appearance of bald spots at the temples or areas with sparse hairs at the nape of the neck is observed somewhat later. And this allows us to determine the type of alopecia, because the localization of areas of hair loss is also important. However, this is a question for specialists, but we will talk about what types of alopecia in men can be identified by a doctor, what they are associated with and how they manifest themselves.

Androgenic alopecia

The most common type of alopecia in the male population. Androgenetic alopecia is called male pattern baldness, because this type of pathology is characteristic of men. This is just the case when the hair problems are not related to a specific disease. And the reason for this condition is a kind of male hormone - dihydrotestosterone.

Dihydrotestosterone levels are not the same in different men. And it's not even always about the pathological processes that contribute to the increased production of testosterone. The fact that some features of the endocrine system responsible for the production of sex and other hormones are inherited. And it is not surprising that some people inherit thick hair, while others suffer from a lack of hair from a young age.

You have to understand that with androgenic alopecia, the hair on a young man's head does not fall out right away. It is a gradual process. At first there is a change in the appearance of the hair: it becomes thinner and lighter, stops growing, eventually turning into an almost imperceptible fuzz. After such hairs finish their life cycle and fall out, their place remains empty, because dihydrotestosterone does not allow the follicle to accumulate enough nutrients to reproduce a new hair.

Since not all of the hair is affected at the same time, thinning of the hair is noted first, and then a full-fledged bald spot is formed. The process usually starts from the forehead and temples, gradually advancing to the back of the head. These very areas are the most affected by the male sex hormone, so it is not surprising that most men start to have bald spots on the forehead.

Is it possible to stop baldness?

Of course, if a man is just stressed out and loses some hair, it is quite realistic to restore its active growth. But we are talking about a more serious problem of male pattern baldness, in which the hair is thinning and then stops growing altogether. Unfortunately, this process is irreversible and no externally used products are able to stop it. Fortunately, there is a solution to the problem of baldness.

Treatments and remedies for male pattern baldness

There are two main ways to treat male pattern baldness:

• Medication treatment. Conducted by a course, the results are visible after 6-10 months. The course is chosen individually after examination by a specialist trichologist. Injections, masks, massages, medications, laser therapy may be recommended during this therapy. Drug treatment is aimed mainly at maintaining and strengthening the existing hair and hair follicles.

  
  However, with some types of alopecia, hair loss may resume after the end of treatment. Much depends on the drugs used as well. For example, if minoxidil-containing drugs were prescribed during treatment, which are usually recommended for severe forms of alopecia, the hair may begin to fall out immediately after stopping their use. If other drugs are used, strengthened native hair can "last" 1.5-3 years without additional intervention.

  Note that if the hair does not grow for six months or more in the areas of hair loss (areas of complete baldness or thinning), the treatment is unlikely to return the vegetation to these areas - over such a long period, the follicles themselves, from which the hairs should grow, die.



• Hair transplantation. This involves transplanting hair from areas not affected by alopecia (the donor area) into the alopecia area. The procedure is performed by surgical or non-surgical method. The consequences and results of the performed transplantation can differ significantly.

  In particular, the traditional method of hair transplantation FUT is a highly traumatic method, in which under general anesthesia a strip of skin with hair from the back of the patient's head is implanted in microplots into the channels formed by the scalpel. In this flap method of transplantation, a linear scar is formed on the head. The survival rate of FUT is about 50%.

  In the less traumatic FUE method, small bundles of hair and skin (grafts) taken from the donor area are transplanted into microincisions. Such transplantation also produces scars, but not so noticeable and large. As practice shows, after the sutureless method of transplantation up to 80% of hair takes root. Transplantation is carried out under local anesthesia. The procedure takes several hours: during the first stage, doctors select donor material from the back of the patient's head, and during the second stage, they implant hair into the problem area. About 90% of hair takes root. Different methods of hair transplantation have their indications and contraindications, and can be combined.