Male pattern baldness, as uncouthly indicated by the word “pattern”, tends to form a set of reasonably uniform “horseshoe” recession patterns and is usually easily identifiable to the naked eye – envisage Prince William, Bruce Willis and Patrick Stewart from Star Trek: The Next Generation (a through b to endpoint c).
Note, a similar type of hair loss in women, female pattern hair loss (FPB), results in diffuse thinning hair on the vertex (top) of the scalp but is generally less severe than occurs in males, although still very common (research, for instance, suggests that over the age of 65 as many as 75 per cent of women are affected to some degree).
Typical male pattern baldness is caused by a genetically pre-determined sensitivity to the effects of the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT as it is often abbreviated to, and affects roughly 50 per cent of men.
The production of DHT is regulated by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase.
In male pattern baldness, DHT shortens the growth, or anagen, phase of the hair cycle, causing miniaturization of the follicles which in turn creates the “balding look”.
Basically, the hairs in the genetically vulnerable region of the scalp of the lucky sod in question progressively shrink as they come under the continual “attack” of dastardly DHT.
The hair is still there, for the most part, but the susceptible follicles become finer and finer and correspondingly less visible as they move through the natural and ongoing phases of activity and rest called anagen and catagen.
“The hair follicles are still alive, but are no longer able to properly perform their task,” says Dr Flemming Andersen MD (2005; 2008).
That’s the nuts and bolts mechanics sorted which leaves the potentially vexatious question should I worry about it? for ponderous pontification.
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Look, guys, if you want to worry inexhaustibly about an essentially natural maturation process, go right ahead; it won’t do much aside from stressing you out and speeding up the departure of what remaining hair you have from your unhappy head.
A far better strategy would be to shrug off all that metro-sexual nonsense and embrace one’s own biologically determined super-manliness.
After all, are you a MAN or a stylized mouse with lip gloss and a pretty Justin Bieber fringe?
Male pattern baldness is not really a problem at all when you take a deep, controlled breath and examine it with the disinfecting light of objective reason for the whole minute it deserves; it just is, and it is the embrace of this c’est la vie attitude that will set you free from the self-constructed prison of doubt and undeserving scrutiny.
You might look better with hair, you might look worse.
The point of import here is that in either case it doesn’t have to define you or stop you being what you could and should be.
Men of planet earth: hair, it’s just friggin keratin a.k.a. dead skin cells.
Are Bruce Willis, Patrick Stewart, Jack Nicholson, Michael Chiklis, Jason Statham, Sean Connery, Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesal, Billy Zane, Billy Corrigan, Michael Stipe, Michael Jordon, Freddie Ljungberg, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, George Foreman, Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Kelly Slater, Larry David, Damien Hurst, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, etc any less talented, entertaining, attractive, successful, inspiring, diverse, infuriating, interesting and human for the lack of a painstakingly coiffured bonce?
That would be a NO! of such embarrassingly epic proportions that it can no doubt be seen from space.
In conclusion, male pattern baldness has very little, if anything, to do with nutrition, hat wearing, hair care, badger baiting or ahem “self massage”; male pattern baldness is caused by genetics and male sex hormones and a combination thereof. Male pattern baldness is not necessarily a problem that has to be fixed. It is just another physical characteristic which, like a wonky smile, can be a positively sexy asset on the right head and shoulders, so be bold if you just so happen to be bald.