Male and female baldness

Baldness, hair loss or Alopecia is the problem of losing hairs most of the people experiences hair loss, so let’s see why hair loss occurs and how much you can prevent it.

Baldness in men and women

To find out why you lose hair, it is important to first understand the natural cycle of hair growth and know when it is perfectly normally for hair to fall out.

Hair is made up of two main parts the hair follicle and the hair shaft. The follicle includes the dermal, papilla which supplies blood and nutrients to the bulb where cells divide to grow new hair.

The hair shaft is made from these cells and is pushed out of the follicle that results in the new hair growth, which you can see on your scalp.

The three phase of life cycle in normal hair growth :

The growth phase

This is called “ Anagen” phase, the longer your hair follicles continue in this phase the more hair it will produce and also longer it will grow. This phase tends to last two to six years, that’s why we can end up with such long hairs.

The regression phase

This phase lasting up to two weeks, this is a transitional stage which is called “ Catagen” it is a point where hair detaches from the dermal papilla or blood supply and growth comes to an end.

The follicle shrinks and a bulb of keratin is formed which is acting as a root to keep the hair in the scalp, this is known as a club hair.

The Resting phase

At this phase the follicle lies dormant for around three months and doing nothing with your hair, and hair not growing at this point.

Their is actually a proceeding sub phase to this, referred to as “Exogen” this is the point where the hair actually fall out and the cycle starts again.

Your hair will be at different points in the cycle at different times, that’s why you tend to have a full head of hair at any one time.

However an average adult will lose roughly hundred hair per day, but with around one lakh hairs on your head you are unlikely to notice losing o.1% of them, unless your hairs long enough to clog up drain.

Alopecia, baldness or hair fall

It can be of two types scaring and non-scaring.

Scaring Alopecia

It means complete destruction of roots of hair, therefore outline of skin also appears and the chance fo recovery of hair follicle is very less in this type of apopecia.

Non-scaring Alopecia

In this type temporary hair loss occurs which is just thinning of hairs and not complete loss of roots.

Female pattern hair loss

Unlike in men who have very predictable pattern in which they lose hair, women generally don’t, their hair loss occurs is over a larger area. The upper part of the scalp is more affected compare to back.

When the hairline parts in the scalp because it is easily noticeable, the partition is seen wide, majority of women retain their hairline, because hair in women is not lost like in men.

Factors causing female pattern loss

Genetic

Genetic could be a reason for baldness in women but it is not necessary that baldness is seen in the history of family, there could be a history of autoimmune disease in family which activates in further generation may lead to hair loss.

Hormonal

Oestrogen is one of the hormone in women that have a lot of function in the body and it also regulate menstrual cycle, but oestrogen also have protective effect on the hair.

When the age increases the level of oestrogen decreases, as the level of oestrogen drops the quality of hairs starts to diminishes.

Male pattern baldness

When the number of hairs starts to significantly decreases:

Males are likely to suffering from Androgenic Alopecia which is more commonly known as pattern hair loss or pattern baldness.

Half of the adult male population is affected by male pattern baldness, the risk of balding increases with a age, some individuals experiencing it as early as in their teen years.

This is occurs when the hair follicles slowly shrinks and the growth phase reduces and the resting phase gets longer.

Now the smaller hair follicle produces a thinner and that’s why the follicle continues to gets smaller with each new cycle and becomes less or less well anchored to the scalp making it easier to fall out.

Over a time a reduced growing phase means the hair can not grow long and eventually the growth phase becomes very short that the hair does’nt even have a chance to peek through the surface of the skin.

Loss of hair begins from both of the temples which eventually recede to form a M shaped hairline there is also thinning that occurs at the crown of the head and eventually this will lead to partial or complete baldness.

What causes male pattern baldness.

Hormonal factor

Researchers have found the enzyme called 5 alpha reductase or 5-AR can be responsible for this. Testosterone is secreted in the body and finds it way in to the sebaceous glands under your scalp.

Inside these sebaceous glands where 5-AR resides waiting to cause you a heap of trouble, because here the testosterone is converted in to the Dihydroxytestosterone DHT.

As the level of 5-AR increases more and more of your testosterone will be converted into DHT this in turns stimulates more production of the skin’s natural lubricant Sebum and more hair loss will occurs.

How ever the exact mechanism remains unknown with male pattern baldness, the Anagen phase which is the growing phase for hair is reduced, since the growing phase is shorter the hair length will not be as long and will therefore lead to a longer Telogen phase which is a dormant phase.

That results reduced hair density from increase number of hair shifting into a resting or Telogen phase. Malnutrition, medications, endocrine abnormalities and stress precipitate this shift.

Genetics

Family heritage comes into play, because the best way to identify if your DHT level are likely to be high, is to look back at your family history., for example if your father was bald than you are likely to have higher levels of these substances too and you can be in the same situation as your father.

Autoimmune disorder

Alopecia areata is an auto immune disorder presenting with small bald patches of hair loss on the scalp and sometime on other body parts, loss of all body hair is called alopecia universalise. It can be associated with other autoimmune disorders.

Physical alopecia

Physical alopecia’s resulting from trauma to the hair follicle. This may be the consequence of traction from hair styling practices or due to an impulse control disorder called trichotillomania where the person have compulsion to pull out their hair.

How to prevent baldness

What you can do to your own level to prevent the factors which causing baldness like;

Removing excess oil from scalp

If you know that your hair gets oily or greasy quickly, you most likely have higher production of sebum, so the best thing you can do is to try and manage the amount of oiliness on your scalp by washing your hair regularly.

Otherwise this can lead to issues like blocked pores that can consequently be the reason for slow hair growth. “Some people think that washing hair regularly make them dry” For this excuse you need to understand that-:

Your scalp is skin just like your face and it’s important to keep it clean each day, if you are finding that washing your hair regularly causes your scalp to be dry then you can switch to a more gentle shampoo.

Here styling product should be used in a right way.

Well the hair itself is not a living material, it is made up of dead cells the only living part of the hair is which is inside the follicle that is formed from the living cells to make keratin.

Once it sprouts out, it’s considered dead and as long as you apply your prefered styling gloop to the hair not the scalp, then you just doing coating the strands and then washing it off at the end of the day.

This will not normally cause the hair or the follicle any damage, it is highly recommended to avoid applying or massaging any hair styling product to the scalp itself, as this can irritates and inflame the skin and causing itching or flaking and may affect the hair growth.

Or, if you have a sensitive scalp then you can stay away from styling products that contain a high level of alcohol, as this will just dry and irritates your scalp. You can choose a water based product because it will be easier to rinse out without the need for shampoo.

Tall drying

Some people thinks tall drying cause hair fall. Well, it does but not in a way that some people thinks. Our hair are protected by cuticles each hair strand is made up of fibers and these are covered by a protective outer layer known as cuticles.

When our hair is wet, the strand swells and making the cuticles open or when hair is dry the cuticles close back down. If you rub a towel vigorously across your wet hair when the cuticles are open the protective layer is vulnerable to friction damage and will eventually be eroded away.

And exposing the fibres without the protective outer layer, these fibres are not held together and will fray and break away.

This appears to you that your hair is falling out but the damage is only being done to the hair shaft not in the follicle, so tall drying will not lead to permanent hair loss but makes your hair weak.

What causes Baldness in men and women | Loss of hairs