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What
Causes Hair Loss?
Why do some men
keep their hair well into old age while others begin
losing their hair at a young age?
A
Genetic Problem?
For most men who are losing their hair before they'd
like to, the answer is genetic. Hair loss, like eye
color, is an inherited trait. While you were still
forming in the womb, your hair follicles were being
genetically coded. If genes responsible for hair
loss were present, they made the hair follicles on
top of your head sensitive to the hormone
dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. These follicles were
then predisposed to begin shrinking when you reached
adulthood.
Unfortunately, once this genetic process begins, it
will continue throughout your lifetime. As the hairs
produced by your ever-shrinking follicles become
finer and finer, they will begin failing to grow to
normal length. And what is first noticed as
"thinning hair" or a "receding
hairline" progresses to baldness when the
shrinking follicles finally stop producing any hair
at all.
Popular
Misconceptions
For many years our schools have taught — quite
erroneously — that hair loss is always inherited
from the mother's father. Medical science now knows
that baldness genes are passed down from both sides
of the family. They also can skip generations, and
are utterly random in terms of which siblings they
will affect; it is quite common for a man keep a
full head of hair while his brother goes bald in his
twenties.
How
Important Is Hair Care?
Contrary to common belief, hair loss is not caused
by a failure to take good care of your hair.
Consumers waste millions of dollars on shampoos and
phony, non-FDA approved treatments. (Only two
medications, Rogaine and Propecia, have ever been
approved by the FDA to treat hair loss.) We have
counseled too many men who held themselves
responsible for their hair loss. It is important to
understand that with very few exceptions our hair
follicles are going to live or die by their genetic
coding — and nothing else.
Medical science is
still searching for a complete understanding of the
biochemical processes that occur within our hair
follicles. Contact us to learn more about the
science behind hair loss and what you can do about
it.
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