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Hair Loss Reasons
Hair loss is caused by a combination of hormones and "balding"
genes. The good news is that even people who are balding have a
supply of non-balding hair that can be successfully transplanted
to the balding or thinning areas.
It is quite normal to lose some hair every day. A person's head
has tens of thousands of hairs, and the average person loses about
100 hairs a day. This is known as hair fall.
However, hair loss is quite a different thing. It is often called
"male pattern baldness", as it generally affects men, and it is
caused by the male hormone, testosterone. When testosterone is changed
chemically, by an enzyme in the skin (5-alpha reductase), it becomes
a more potent hormone, known as dihydro-testosterone(or DHT).
Now we come to an important distinction: DHT acting alone does not
cause hair loss. Hair loss occurs only when DHT comes into contact
with hairs that are genetically programmed to suffer under its influence.
This means that hair loss arises from a combination of two factors:
the hormone DHT, plus the fact that you have inherited genes that
cause your hair to be sensitive to DHT. These genes might come from
either side of your family, from your father or mother, they might
skip a generation and they might affect one brother (or more rarely,
a sister) but not necessarily all siblings.
The good news is that this genetic disposition to hair loss generally
affects only certain parts of the scalp, typically the top of the
head and the crown.
This is why balding people usually have the horseshoe-shaped fringe
of hair surrounding the bald area. These hairs in the fringe, and
notably at the back of the head, are not genetically sensitive to
DHT. This explains why hair transplantation which transfers non-balding
hairs (i.e. those that are not genetically sensitive to DHT) to
bald areas, is so successful. Even in the new areas of the scalp,
which were previously bald, these hairs retain their non-balding
qualities.
This all means that hair transplantation provides a lasting solution.
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