The real Causes of Hair Loss

All humans are born with a finite number of hair follicles. The diameters of the individual hairs in our follicles increase as we grow from infancy to adulthood. However, no matter what we eat, what our lifestyles may be, or what kinds of vitamins we take, we never grow any more hair follicles.

At puberty, men have a very low hairline that usually recedes to its mature position by the age of 20 to 22 and then stabilizes. In men with a genetic tendency to go bald, this hairline will continue to recede. Severe illness, malnutrition, or vitamin deficiency can speed or exacerbate the natural hair loss process, but many healthy men lose more hair than others do. This natural process is called androgenetic alopecia or common baldness (also known as male pattern baldness). It is only in recent years, with our greater knowledge of genetics and the chemistry of sex hormones, that we have begun to understand the causes. It is important to note that male pattern baldness also occurs in women, but in a slightly different form.

Androgenetic alopecia or male pattern baldness is a process that changes the follicles that produce terminal hairs. Follicles first produce thinner, shorter hairs with weaker shafts. Eventually, these follicles produce only fine, almost invisible, vellus hairs, and they may die out altogether. Androgenetic alopecia requires three conditions for its occurrence: the genes for hair loss, male hormones in adequate quantities, and time.

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