Ask any guy and one of their top vanity concerns will be going bald. It’s why we stare suspiciously at our combs, spend long periods trying to get the right mirror angle so we can survey the back of our heads, and hawkishly eye shower drains for stray hairs.
Truth be told, however, even if your head of hair is full and healthy, we all lose hair at somewhat alarming rates. On average, every guy loses around 100 hairs each day. It’s not so alarming when you consider we have around 100,000 hairs on our domes, cycling through periods of growth, pauses, and “gasp! “dying in significant numbers at any given time.
Although around 90 percent of your hair is growing at any given time, the remaining 10 percent is typically in a “resting phase,” a period that can last a few months and ends with the hair being shed. But fear not: Once that hair is shed, more often than not new hair begins growing in the abandoned follicle, and the whole process starts again.
When a new hair doesn’t begin to grow, it’s because that cycle is being interfered with by any number of causes, including genetic factors, stress, or nutritional deficiencies. Those factors come into play more often than we’d like to think. About 25 percent of men start to see significant hair loss by the time they hit 30 years old, while about two-thirds are either bald or well on their way to baldness by the age of 60.
Here are a few of the most common reasons for your shiny pate:
Genetics
Androgenetic alopecia, better known as male pattern baldness, is the top reason men lose their hair, thinning around the crown or seeing the hairline routed like Napoleon at Waterloo. According to the experts, around 90 percent of baldness can be traced to genetics.
While conventional wisdom has long circulated that the baldness gene can be traced to your maternal grandfather, that’s not entirely true. The primary baldness gene is located in the X chromosome which you get from your mother’s side of the family, but studies have shown that if your father was bald you’re more likely to lose your hair than if your grandfather was Mr. Clean. So, your paternal genetics play a large part, as well.
Physical factors
A shock to your system, from a serious illness, certain medications, or nutritional deficiencies, can cause a condition known as telogen effluvium in which large numbers of hairs are prematurely sent into a resting state. Eventually, up to 70 percent of scalp hairs can be lost to this trauma.
The good news is that telogen effluvium can resolve itself in a few months, with new hairs beginning to grow again. The new hair, though, will likely be thinner and more apt to fall out again.
Contrary to another widely held belief, hats do not cause the kind of conditions that bring on this type of baldness.
Autoimmune disorders
Alopecia aerata, a rare form of hair loss is thought to be an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies attack the hair follicles. You may be in good health in all other respects, yet losing hair in patches to this condition. Like telogen effluvium, however, alopecia aerata can be cyclical. With treatment, the hair could return.
Another autoimmune discarder, cicatricial alopecia, results in inflamed follicles that shed hair. Unlike telogen, sufferers of this disorder usually see permanent hair loss. Symptoms include itching or pain along with those hairs in the shower drain.
