THE FOLLY OF FOLLICLES GENETICS AND BALDING
It’s no comfort to balding men to hear that the very hormone that makes them male strips them of their hair.
While 17-year-old boys may be at their physical peak, with testosterone coursing though their young bodies, they are also beginning to experience one of the troubling effects of this male hormone. Most of them are starting to show early signs of baldness.
Although men clinically start to lose hair from the age of 17, most only begin to register a change in their frontal hair line when they reach their 30s. This loss may not progress for some time, but with age, everyone loses some hair, and by 50 half of all men will have significant loss. No-one can explain why testosterone makes hair grow in some parts of the male body and makes it fall out in other parts. In the places where it stimulates growth, it makes the hair follicles larger. In the places where the hair falls out, it does the reverse and shrinks follicles.
In response to the surge in testosterone that begins at puberty, hair follicles on the face, trunk and limbs enlarge and go on to produce a healthy crop of hair. They do this by transforming vellus hair (soft, fine, downy hair) into terminal hair (strong, pigmented hair).
Something different happens on the scalp. Follicles around the back and sides of the head keep up their normal terminal hair production. But, depending on their genetic programming, follicles in the centre and front of the head start the process that leads to balding. They miniaturise and, with time, stop producing terminal hair. Instead they make vellus hair that eventually becomes so short that the hairs cannot extend out of the follicle.
It is not known why male hormones have less influence on follicles on the back and sides of the head than follicles elsewhere on the scalp. However, if grafts of follicles from the former areas are transferred to the centre or frontal areas, they maintain the behaviour of the donor site after transplantation.
Male-pattern baldness is activated by testosterone. Research shows it does not occur naturally in eunuchs castrated before puberty but can be induced by giving testosterone to eunuchs who are genetically predisposed to balding. Once this process has begun, it can be halted, but not reversed, by slopping the testosterone.
Men who are excessively fond of alcohol often have thick heads of hair. This is because the alcohol has damaged their liver, which has the effect of decreasing the amount of circulating testosterone and increasing the amount of female hormones.
It is ironic really. Heavy drinking is supposed to be such a macho activity, but ultimately it feminises men. Men normally lose 50 to 100 hairs a day. This is not noticeable because the head has about 100 000 hairs. Loss becomes noticeable when a man loses in excess of 200 hairs a day for several months.
While male hormones are the main cause of male baldness, drugs, illness and hair abuse can also cause loss. Usually this loss is reversible. Medical disorders such as thyroid problems, diabetes, lupus and some tumours can cause hair to fall out. Certain drugs for cancer, gout, arthritis, depression and blood pressure have the same effect. Overenthusiastic bleaching, dyeing, permanent waving, teasing or straightening of the hair can also make it fall out.
In the Australian context, it is not true that an especially healthy lifestyle will produce a healthy head of hair. Most Australian men have an adequate diet and are not deficient in zinc, the mineral said to affect hair growth.
Just take a look in the gym and you’ll sec strapping young men who do a heap of exercise and have a good diet but are still losing their hair.
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