Male Hair Loss – All You Need To Know
Although there are a number of hair loss conditions that can affect men, the most common is Male Pattern Baldness (MPB). Other names for this condition are androgenetic alopecia and genetic hair loss. This page will concentrate primarily on this condition but will also make reference to the less widespread hair loss conditions that could be affecting you, with links to more informative pages.
Male Pattern Baldness – What is it?
How do I know if I’m losing my hair?
This is a very good question, and although the answer might seem obvious, many men do not identify their hair loss until it has become fairly advanced, which could be too late to achieve a full recovery. The reasons men do not identify their own hair loss are usually down to simple denial, or because the process is very slow and it is something that they simply might not notice. At the opposite end of the scale, many men worry about hair loss when they have no reason to worry.
The best ways to know if you are losing your hair are:
- noticing the appearance of thinning hair or a receding hairline yourself
- other people informing you that you are losing your hair (you may not notice yourself)
- excessive hair on your pillow, the shower bed or in the bath plug, or on your hands when styling your hair in the morning.
How can I identify Male Pattern Baldness?
MPB is in fact easy to identify even for somebody with no clinical experience as it only affects hair on the top of the scalp and not the sides, causing a horseshoe-shaped pattern of hair loss. There are a number of different common patterns of hair loss – a receding hairline, a thinning crown, or general thinning spread over the top area of the head. You can read more about these below. MPB never affects the sides or back of the hair.
Treating Male Pattern Baldness
There are also numerous products out there that have no clinical efficacy, so it is easy to waste time and money whilst your hair continues to shed. It is therefore very important that you carry out the necessary research before deciding how you are going to treat your hair loss.
The good news is that unless you have lost all or most of your hair, there should be a solution out there for you, whether it be a medical solution, a surgical one, or a combination of the two.
Our comprehensive hair loss treatment guide walks you through all the most effective options available for treating hair loss and also gives you an in-depth look at the products that may not be worth using.
HAIR LOSS TREATMENT GUIDE
If I do not seek treatment will I eventually be bald?
This depends on a number of factors. Firstly, the condition causing your hair loss – if you have a temporary hair loss condition (which is unusual in men) then the answer may be no. Please refer to our list of other hair loss conditions below if your problem doesn’t appear to be MPB.
Assuming your condition is Male Pattern Baldness, the extent of your eventual hair loss really depends. Those men who have a very early or aggressive onset of MPB are more likely to lose their hair more extensively or at a faster rate, which could result in baldness at an early age. We see men who begin to lose their hair at 18 years old (or sometimes earlier). These men will of course be the ones most likely to reach eventual baldness, sometimes at a fairly early age (mid-twenties). Whereas some men only begin to see signs of thinning in their mid-to-late twenties, or even later. These men are much less likely to experience eventual baldness and may just have thin hair by the time they reach old age.
So the easiest way to tell if you could eventually lose all of your hair is to take note of when the onset of your hair loss began, and how aggressively or quickly your hair is thinning.
Using the right combination of clinically proven treatments should at the very least halt your hair loss, but will usually promote some degree of regrowth or thickening of the hair, whether it be moderate or dense regrowth.
When is the best time to seek a solution for my hair loss?
The simple answer to this is as early as possible. We advise that as soon as you begin to notice increased amounts of hair shedding, you should seek advice from a specialist. Male Pattern Hair Loss is a chronic condition that will progress if no action is taken. The more hair that is lost, the less chance your hair will have of making a full recovery, which is why Belgravia specialists always advise using a course of treatment before the condition progresses.
Is treatment likely to grow all my hair back?
(*Results may vary and are not guaranteed)
According to clinical data, some men will experience significant levels of regrowth and some more moderate levels of regrowth. A percentage of users will experience stabilisation and a small number will not notice significant results. To get a good idea of the results that people can achieve, you can view our gallery of over 2,000 case studies and hair growth comparison photos. Keep in mind that any level of response to treatment should be seen as a success, even hair loss stabilisation without any increase in density, as it is likely that without treatment the hair would have continued to shed at a much faster rate. Click below for our guide to different levels of hair regrowth from treatment.
