by Roger Chartier:
Male pattern baldness and hair loss is a tragedy for some and others don't give a hoot and shave their whole head so that it doesn't matter.
If you decide to use Propecia, (finasteride) you may get some results. There is a matter of time to get to where you have improvement. Baldness happens to millions of men. Adults lose about 10,000 scalp hairs a day.
When one has male pattern baldness the hairs are not always being replaced, and after a while you may determine that you are bald. There are degrees of baldness and for some doing the comb over or getting hair plugs put in is the only solution. Other men might prefer a hairpiece (wig) and actually go around thinking that nobody notices the fake hair.
For most men, male pattern baldness is a normal genetic thing.
Hormones effecting the hair follicles, are the cause.
Testosterone, a natural hormone in men slowly gets changed into DHT, another normally occurring thing.
That action is caused by an enzyme named 5-alpha reductase. DHT slows down hair production.
Slowly men get weakened, shorter hairs and then in some cases it kills off the hair completely.
Baldness is also called alopecia. It's hair loss, or absence of hair.
Alopecia can occur anywhere on the body where hair grows. An acquaintance of mine actually lost every hair on his body for some unknown reason.
This was not a normal thing, and he was also psychologically effected by the loss.
He was a proud individual and felt embarrassed by the whole affair.
He had literally lost his eyebrows and all other body hair.
Are you sick in the head or on the head?
You could have a problem if your hair starts falling out in clumps, or it falls out more rapidly than normal.
Women have different issues with hair loss. There are more and different causes of hair loss in women than in men.
The women's patterns of hair loss are also different.
There is a great article that goes in depth about female baldness causes on Web MD
For men, if you have any strange stuff going on with your scalp and hair other than the above mentioned male pattern baldness you should see a doctor. In a lot of cases, you can get treatment and end up OK.
