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It is perhaps the most dreaded event in many men's (and women's) lives: Hair Loss. Young men with adult males in their family who are going (or are already) bald begin watching their bathroom mirrors with dread. Am I going to lose my hair? When is it going to start? How much will I lose? What can I do to prevent it? It is something that almost 40% of men (and women) will have to come to terms with by the age of 35.

Hair loss can be one of the most damaging events in a person's life when it comes to his self-esteem and how others view him. Studies conducted to show the impact of hair loss revealed the following:

Men with hair loss:

   • experience more negative social and emotional effects.
   • are more preoccupied with their baldness.
   • make more effort to conceal or compensate for their hair loss.

The study showed that more significant hair loss resulted in a greater degree of the effects above. The study also revealed that men who were bald (when compared with men who had hair) were perceived to be:

     • less physically attractive (by both sexes).
     • less assertive.
     • less successful.
     • less personally likeable.
     • older (by about 5 years).

For women, the effects of hair loss are even more devastating, and experience the effects listed above (social and emotional effects, preoccupation with the baldness, and making effort to conceal the hair loss) to an even greater degree than men with significant amounts of hair loss. There's little reason to wonder why hair restoration has become a multi-billion dollar industry.
 

Male (and Female) Pattern Baldness

Any type of hair loss above and beyond the normal shedding of hair as part of its normal growth cycle is called Alopecia. This includes the common patterned hair loss found in men and women as described above. The specific term for this type of abnormal hair loss is androgenetic alopecia and appears differently in men and women. For men, it is seen as a recession of the hairline at the forehead and thinning of the hair at the crown. It can continue until only a horseshoe shaped area of hair remains at the back and sides of the head.

In women, androgenetic alopecia appears more commonly as a general thinning of the hair all over the head, and can continue to the point where the hair coverage becomes patchy and in some cases will progress until the hair pattern is the same as that for men.

Such hair loss is caused by age, genetics and hormonal changes in the body which causes the miniaturization of the terminal (normal) hair, converting it into vellus hair. There is no way to prevent it, although there are now medications to arrest and reverse its progress. These medications generally require application multiple times a day and are only effective as long as you continue the medication. They are also moderately expensive (from 70 to 100 U.S. dollars per month or more for generic and over-the-counter versions of the products).

Since the causes of adrogenetic alopecia are genetic and hormonal, the degree of their effect varies from individual to individual as well as across gender lines. A man (or woman) with male pattern baldness may pass it along to his son and daughter. The son, in turn may only lose a small amount of his hair, while the daughter's loss may be far more significant. It's possible that neither child would experience any hair loss. Medical science hasn't advanced far enough to track the genetic potentials involved at this time. With any luck, the future will provide us with the means to treat this problem with a permanent solution.
 

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