Nearly 40% of guys in their thirties experience hereditary hair loss. Over half face it by the time they reach fifty. Men struggling with hair loss can start as early as puberty. In addition, an estimated fifty million American men experience male pattern baldness, clinically known as androgenic alopecia.
While genes play the most significant role, hormones, medications, diet, and a few other causes can be blamed for male hair loss.
Hair Loss Symptoms
Hair loss appears in various ways, depending on what’s causing it. For example, it can suddenly or gradually affect your scalp only or your entire body.
Here is what to look for to determine if you are suffering from hair loss:
- Gradual thinning: This is the most common, affecting men while they age. The hair begins to recede on the forehead at the hairline.
- Bald spot patches: Some men lose hair in circular patterns creating bald spots on the scalp, beard, or brow. The skin could become itchy before hair loss.
- Sudden loosening of hair: An emotional shock can cause hair to loosen. For example, chunks of hair may fall when combing or washing or after a gentle tug. This hair loss is temporary but contributes to overall hair thinning.
- Full-body hair loss: Some medical treatments, like chemotherapy, may result in hair loss over your entire body. However, this hair typically grows back.
- Ringworms: This condition can cause scaling patches accompanied by redness, swelling, and hair loss.
Hair Loss Causes
Men typically lose between 50 and 100 hairs daily. This generally goes without notice as new hair growth compensates for the loss. However, when new hair doesn’t replace some or all of the hair loss, that’s when hair thinning and baldness occur.
Men’s hair loss is typically associated with one or more of the following:
- Heredity (a family trait): Genetics is the most common cause of hair loss. This hair loss condition is called androgenic alopecia, responsible for male-pattern and female-pattern baldness. It occurs increasingly and in predictable patterns.
- Medical conditions: These include alopecia areata, ringworm, and trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder).
- Supplements and Medications: Certain drugs like those used for cancer, depression, arthritis, heart problems, high blood pressure, and gout can cause hair loss.
- Stress: Many men experience thinning hair during months of physical or emotional stress. This typically proves temporary.
- Hairstyles and treatments: Excessive hairstyling or hairstyles that pull your hair tight, like cornrows, can cause hair loss known as traction alopecia. Also, hot-oil hair treatments can cause hair to fall out.
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