It used to be a mystery why some men lost their hair early in life and others kept a full mane until old age.  There really did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to which men would be affected with this problem and which wouldn’t.  This was especially true when a man with a receding hair line would look at his father and he would have a full head of hair but the balding guy’s maternal uncles were bald.  Then another poor soul would have a all his known ancestors with hair.  It really seemed like some men were just cursed.

Recently the mechanism which causes hair loss has been determined and now things make perfect sense.  Balding for a man is most likely caused by a genetically passed medical condition known as Androgenic Alopecia.  It does not show up in every man in a family because it is caused by a recessive gene.  That means it is not dominate like some other genes are and it can lie dormant in several generations until it happens to show up in an individual.  Androgenic alopecia has nothing to do with how nice of a person you are or how clean a life you live.

The hair loss is actually caused by a hormonal metabolite called DHT.  When a man has the genes that cause this loss of hair there are hair follicles in some areas of his scalp which are susceptible to attack by DHT.  These follicles, or hair roots, are usually found at the front of the scalp (a receding hair line) or at the crown of the head (a classic bald spot).  The hormonal substance will bond with the follicles and slowly shut down the flow of nutrients.  This causes the hair shaft to turn whispy and eventually fall out.  There are a couple of FDA approved drugs which slow down this problem but nothing will cure it.

If a man goes bald the only hope is a toupee or hair implants.