Age

The mere presence of the necessary genes and hormones is insufficient to cause baldness. Hair loss also requires exposure of susceptible hair follicles to the responsible hormones. The time required for hair loss to start due to hormone exposure varies from one individual to another, and relates to a person's genetic expression and to the levels of testosterone and DHT in his bloodstream. Significantly, hair loss does not occur all at once, but is cyclical. People who are losing their hair experience alternating periods of slow hair loss, rapid hair loss, and even stability (no increase in hair loss). The factors that cause the rate of loss to speed up or slow down are unknown.

Stress

When the body experiences stress caused by a traumatic experience, nutritional deficiency, or illness, the rate of hair loss can increase. An example of this occurred in a man whose four-year-old child died. Within just a few months, he lost all but the permanent wreath of hair around his head.
Women's hair seems to be more sensitive to the effects of stress than men's hair. This may be because women with a genetic predisposition towards hair loss usually have a higher percentage of fragile miniaturized hair. It is important to note that stress generally causes the type of hair loss referred to as telogen effluvium. This is very different from androgenetic alopecia. Telogen effluvium is the reversible shedding of hair in the resting phase when the body senses that it needs to divert its energies elsewhere. Therefore, stress temporarily changes the amount of hair that is shed, but the lost hair is likely to grow back.

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