Male pattern baldness and hair loss

Male Pattern Baldness (MPB) is a scale proposed by researcher Dr. James Hamilton in 1950 which was further developed by Dr. O’Tar Norwood. This classifies the several types or stages of baldness which structures from Stage 1 to 7.

 Androgenic Alopecia (AGA) is the scientific name for Pattern Baldness; there are other types of baldness but AGA is the most common one. There are two types of Male Pattern Baldness:

·         Anterior – Baldness starting from the temples of your head.

·         Vertex – Baldness starting from the middle of your head.

Male pattern baldness occurs only at center or front of the head but the hair of the sides and back are generally unaffected by it. And hair follicles from these areas are used for Hair Transplantation.

What are the Causes of Male Pattern Baldness?

·         Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), is an enzyme synthesised from Androgen hormones that is the primary male sex hormone affects to Androgenic Alopecia, hence the name. However, the exact involvement of DHT in causing AGA is not yet discovered.

·          Genetic inheritance is a major cause of Baldness.

·         Excess stress, harsh environmental conditions, and excess sun exposure can also lead to Hair loss and Baldness.

·         Drugs like strong steroids and pain killers can cause excess hair loss and baldness.

Stages of MPB

Ø  Stage 1 – Starts with follicle miniaturization resulting in hair loss from the cranial (middle of head) and lateral (temple) areas of head with thick and thin strands of hair. You will notice your hair slits broadening and your hair thinning.

Ø  Stage 2 – Starts with “Receding Hairline” or “Thinning Crown”

Ø  From Stage 3 to 6 the visibility just increases resulting in the final stage when you’ve lost almost all the hair in your head.

Non-Pattern Baldness

Other than Androgenic Alopecia, there are other forms of Baldness as well:

Ø  Tricho-tillo-mania - Looks like a patchy baldness in areas of the head. This is mostly a psychological case with people who have the habit of pulling their own hair, and sometimes this habit causes patches of hair fall. Sticking with strange tight hairstyles and hair accessories can also effect in the same. The treatment for this kind of baldness is completely based on personalized evaluation detecting the exact cause.

Ø   Alopecia Areata – a poor immune system can lead to thinning of hair and baldness with sections of hair looking like islands in one’s head. Diagnosis is based on Medical History.

Ø   Triangular alopecia – Hair loss temporal areas that sometimes begins in childhood. Hair loss may be complete, or a few fine, thin-diameter hairs may remain. The cause of triangular alopecia is not known, but the condition can be treated medically or surgically.

Ø  Scarring alopecia – occurs mostly in women with hair loss due to any scarring on the scalp. The condition frequently occurs in African-American women and is believed to be associated with persistent tight braiding or "corn-rowing" of scalp hair.

Ø  Loose-anagen syndrome – might occur in primarily blondes, might be childhood with weak hair follicles resulting in hair loss to combing and stroking.

Hair Restoration/ Hair Loss treatments

Hair loss treatments include, medication, rubbing of coconut/almond/ olive even mustard oil as per availability into the scalp, Laser Hair combs, and hair camouflage. This are all for hair loss treatment. But if you are affected by the appearance of the scalp or baldness there with Hair Restoration comes into the scene.

This typically means hair transplant surgery by means of either FUT or FUE and BHFUE.

FUT is follicular unit transplant procedure which takes the age old strip harvesting technique by surgically removing a strip of skin off the back of the patient’s scalp and in that strip of skin there will some thousand of hair follicles which shall be immune to DHT levels and hair loss, genetically. The follicles are surely extracted from the skin keeping the grafts intact. The scar can be detected closes with fine suturing the finer the less detectable would it be that too in the folds of upper layers of hair.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is to strenuously extract one hair at a time resulting in less detectable scarring however, this will require a bigger donor site to fill up a a bigger recipient than that it would take for FUT. FUE is great for female hair transplant to cover up a more diffusive pattern and smaller areas of baldness. BHFUE is body hair follicular unit extraction is the same process of FUE wherein body hair can be used.