Thinning Hair Men

Thinning Hair Men – onset of male pattern baldness?

It begins with a retreating hairline during pubescence accompanied by a hairless patch on the back of the head. Before long, only a periphery of hair stays on where there had at one time been a good and majestic head of hair.

A lot of men endure male pattern baldness. Some will purchase toupees or hairpieces will may be uncomfortable, but then the alternative of maneouvering the continuing hair into a comb-over is rarely an attractive option either. The best look seems to be cutting it short to downplay the loss of the hair.

‘Generally half of men have some hair loss by the age of 50, but in many different ways,’ said Professor Ulrike Blume-Peytavi, head of the Clinical Research Centre for Hair and Skin Physiology at Berlin’s Charite Hospital.

Naturally, everyone has some normal hair loss – out of an available 100,000 hair follicles we lose about 60 to 70 a day. ‘But if it turns into 60 to 100 strands a day, you should get it looked at,’ says dermatologist Rolf Hoffmann.

Those levels of hair loss do not necessarily mean baldness is imminent. If it only lasts for two or three days, Blume-Peytavi says not to worry. ‘If the hair loss continues for more than eight weeks, you should go to the doctor,­ not wait until the hair has grown noticeably thinner.’

If the problem is spot baldness it is rare and generally caused by illness. Unfortunately, in about 95 per cent of men’s cases, the diagnosis is inherited baldness,’ says Hoffmann. Men can estimate their chance of becoming bald-headed by looking at the heads of their sires. ‘The maternal grandpa is the key,’ says the doctor.

Hoffmann advises people away from their first urge ­to cover up the thinning areas with their remaining hair. Hairstylists agree. ‘Making a deep parting – then combing the remaining hair over – ­ it just doesn’t work,’ says fashion hairstylist Winfried Loewel.

His colleague Klaus-Dieter Kaiser, a former hairstyling world champion, recollects with horror the manner in which men of earlier generations would attempt to hide bald spots. ‘When your hair starts to thin out, just cut everything around it shorter,’ recommends the expert. ‘If you leave your hair long in back and on the sides, then you only attract attention to the thinning regions,’ he says.

Covering up a growing bald spot with a toupe or false hair should be left to those who cannot psychologically deal with going bald, says Blume-Peytavi. A different option is using popular drugs like Rogaine or Propecia to keep the balding in restraint.

‘You can’t influence the gene – as soon as you stop taking these medications, the hair will begin to fall out again,’ says Blume-Peytavi. These treatments can be costly, up to 176 euros every three months in tablet form and 55 euros for an ointment. Frequently these costs are not encompassed by medical insurance policy.

Based on a press release © – Deutsche Presse-Agentur Berlin

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