Problem Hair Loss

In short if you are worried about male hair loss, then you have three options.  You can either embrace it, try to hide it or treat it.

Embracing Male Hair Loss Problems

Not everyone thinks that male hair loss is a tragedy, in fact if you look through women’s magazines, some of the sexiest men around today are bald.  Sean Connery, Bruce Willis, Lou Gossett, Jr. or Patrick Stewart regularly get voted as winners of polls on the sexiest male etc.

One of the things you can do about male hair loss is to shave what little hair you have left and go for the chrome dome look.  It’s really quite sexy.

Hiding Male Hair Loss

I’m not being judgmental, and I sure don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but this is the least attractive possible option for dealing with male hair loss.  Bald is sexy; comb-overs are not.

I suppose you could make a case that hiding male hair loss is associated with power.  Look at the awful toupees some of the news anchors wear.  They are pretty powerful men.  Both Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte wore comb-overs.  I guess some guys would rather be powerful than sexy.

Treating Male Hair Loss

Some men like their hair and don’t want to lose it.  They choose to treat male hair loss.

90% of men who experience hair loss have androgenic alopecia, or male pattern baldness.  It’s caused by a build up of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) around the hair follicles, which kills the follicle and causes hair to fall out.

DHT is a byproduct of testosterone (which gives credence to the bald guys are sexy theory), but some men have a genetic resistance to the effects of DHT on their hair.

Those guys don’t go bald.  The mother passes on the gene for DHT resistance, so if your mom’s father is bald, you could go bald, too.

Treatments for male hair loss work either to enhance hair growth, or to block DHT.

Minoxidil (Rogaine® is an over-the-counter treatment for hair loss in either men or women.  It works by encouraging hair growth.

You might still lose as much hair as ever, but you should (you hope) grow it back faster.

Propecia is a prescription treatment only for male hair loss.  It works by blocking DHT.  Avodart, a medication used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy, also blocks DHT, and some doctors prescribe it to treat male hair loss.

Saw palmetto is an herbal treatment that is also thought to block DHT.  It can be purchased at many drug or natural food stores.

Unfortunately, whatever the type of medication you opt for to fight male hair loss there is one problem, if you stop taking it on a regular basis then your hair will start to fall out again.

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