Many men will experience male pattern baldness at some point in their lives. Half of men and women will experience some signs of baldness by their 40th birthday in the UK. There are many ways you can use the science of this condition to tackle it before it happens or improve the amount of hair on your head in the long term.
Beat Baldness at the Root: How to Treat It
You’re probably looking up this article because you fear you’re going bald or already balding, and you’re not too concerned with why it’s happening. While knowing about the problem can help combat it, we can also provide you some great alternatives for mitigating hair loss before getting to why humans often experience this issue.
Prescription Medication
A great way to help stall hair loss or gain some hair back is through prescription medication. Minoxidil is an effective hair loss treatment because it increases nutrients and blood flow uptake to the follicles. It’s available through pharmacies without a prescription. Finasteride can also work by inhibiting DHT, which is the hormone that makes you lose hair. However, you can only get finasteride with a prescription.
Avoid Hot Showers and Change Hair Products
Even though you only spend a few minutes in the shower per day, hot water can really damage your scalp by stripping away oils. Hair products like hair gels and chemically laced shampoos could also affect how your hair grows. Finally, try and use a laser comb throughout the top of your head three times a week to improve hair density.
Scalp Massage with an Anti-DHT Shampoo
Some studies suggest that a scalp massage can improve blood circulation to the scalp because it helps increase activity in the gene that promotes hair growth. If you use an Anti-DHT shampoo and massage it in your scalp while showering, you can block testosterone’s conversion to DHT – just don’t use it anywhere else in the body.
Photo credit: Pexel
The Science Behind Hair Loss
There are plenty of scientific reasons you’re losing your hair, and most of them aren’t your fault. As a positive, there are many factors in your life you can reduce or eliminate completely to prevent hair loss altogether.
Hair Loss Isn’t all the Mothers Fault
It’s common for people to blame the mother for hair loss, but scientists debunked this old theory years ago. Doctors now say that baldness is inherited by both parents, and a combination of multiple genes can lead to hair loss. An emotional shock from the death of a family member, sudden weight loss, and physical trauma can lead to temporary hair loss.
Hair Loss Effects 80% of White Men by their 70th Birthday
Hair loss is also associated with other health conditions, but male pattern baldness isn’t a cause for alarm in most cases. However, if a man has hormonal imbalances, prostate cancer, or heart disease, they are more likely to suffer hair loss. Men start to thin at the temples or in the back of the head around the crown before it excels outwards.
It’s Normal for Hair to Fall Out
On average, men and women shed 50 to 100 hairs a day. After a fresh shampoo, this number can jump to 250 – which is fine because we have about 100,000 hairs on our hair at any given time. If you’re losing more than 100 hairs a day, or if you are noticing bald spots, patchiness, or clumps of hair falling out in your hands, that could be a sign of male pattern baldness.
