While higher testosterone levels drive more obvious baldness in men, female hair loss happens when a woman who is genetically predisposed to the condition is exposed to androgens – predominantly male hormones that also exist in women.
Baldness in men is related to the male hormone dihydrotestosterone, which causes old hairs on the scalp to be replaced by progressively shorter and thinner hairs in a predictable pattern, beginning at the temples and crown of the head.
Female pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss in women. Female-pattern baldness is a pattern of hair loss (alopecia) caused by hormones, aging and genetics. Unlike male-pattern baldness, female-pattern baldness is an over-all thinning which maintains the normal hairline.
Some people who don't lose their hair have low levels of the enzyme that converts testosterone, and so more recently researchers have been seeking ways of blocking the enzyme in others. A treatment called finasteride works on this principle, but it is expensive and needs to be or hair loss begins again.
What causes FPHL (Female Pattern Hair Loss)? Genes: Your family's genes can cause thinning of hair along the top of your head. Aging: Hormone changes as you age can cause balding. Menopause: This type of hair loss often gets worse when estrogen is lost during menopause.
One popular myth is that hair loss in men is passed down from the mother's side of the family while hair loss in women is passed down from the father's side; however, the truth is that the genes for hair loss and hair loss itself are actually passed down from both sides of the family.
Many people think of hair loss as a male problem, but it also affects at least a third of women. But unlike men, women typically experience thinning hair without going bald, and there can be a number of different underlying causes for the problem.
So, for the questions “Do women like bald men?” the overwhelming majority of women gave positive answers. 87.5% of women of different ages and nationalities surveyed find bald men attractive compared to only 12.5% of women, who gave negative answer.
In women, hereditary hair loss usually starts after the age of 40. Roughly 40% of women have noticeable hair loss by the age of 50. And less than half of women get through life with a full head of hair. Hereditary hair loss looks a little different in women than it does in men.
This phenomenon is triggered by the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a derivative of testosterone that causes hair follicles on the scalp to shrink and die but does not affect hair follicles on the neck or back. “This is why even the baldest men are never total bald,” dermatologist Susan Bard explains.
A male sex hormone might be responsible, causing tightening of head tissue eventually impacting the hair follicles. Characterised by hair loss from the top and front of the head, 'male-pattern hair loss' is partly determined by genetics and partly by high levels of a male sex hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT).
Don't lament bald heads: they may confer an evolutionary advantage by protecting you from illnesses resulting from low levels of vitamin D. Instead, think of bald heads as personal solar panels for the photosynthesis of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, which is vital to many aspects of health.
They found the same results: People perceive bald guys as more dominant, confident, stronger, masculine, and – this is interesting – stronger.
Bald men are typically older, and tend to be seen by women as more intelligent and wiser, according to a separate study conducted at the University of Saarland.
About 70% of men will lose hair as they get older. And 25% of bald men see first signs of hair loss before age 21. “Recent advances offer a lot of hope in both treating and preventing different types of baldness,” says dermatologist Amy Kassouf, MD.
While studies have suggested almost all Caucasian men will eventually face some degree of male pattern baldness -- and around half can expect to lose their hair by middle age -- Asian men, and East Asians in particular, have historically experienced the lowest incidence of hair loss in the world.
About 55 percent of women experience some hair loss by the age of 70. The most common cause is female-pattern baldness, an inherited condition. It's characterized by gradual thinning of your hair, which may be noticeable as a widening part or a ponytail that's less hefty than it used to be.
Approximately 25 percent of men who have hereditary male pattern baldness start losing their hair before the age of 21. By the age of 35, approximately 66 percent of men will have experienced some degree of hair loss. By the age of 50, approximately 85 percent of men will have significantly thinner hair.
Based on identical twin studies, he and other researchers have calculated that somewhere between 79 and 81 percent of baldness is determined by genes.
The X or female chromosome carries the primary baldness gene, and men inherit this X chromosome from their mothers. This makes the hereditary factor around baldness most dominant on your mother's side.
On average it takes 15-25 years for men to go completely bald. This process can begin at any age. About two thirds of men are either bald or have a balding pattern by the age of 60. In a nutshell, there is no particular age when you can expect to see hair loss.
Which country has the least bald men? On the other hand, China is a country where the number of men who go bald is the least. Some other countries like Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia also have low levels of male pattern baldness.
Caucasians have the highest hair density among the ethnicities studied. Black people have the lowest. Asian people have hair density that falls somewhere in between.
Japan, Korea and the Rest of East Asia
People of East Asian descent and especially Japanese, experience hair loss at one of the lowest rates in the world, and start much later in life than other places. Those that do lose hair, generally, start in their 40s and 50s rather than their 20s and 30s.