Did You Inherit Your Hair Loss?

Baldness is not something that anyone wants to have, and it's certainly not a good way to start your day to find yourself looking older than your age when you look at yourself in the mirror. Of course, some kinds of baldness can be caused by stress on the hair, such as when you braid it too often, cover it too often with tight hats or caps, or treat it too often with strong chemicals such as dyes and curling or straightening chemicals. However, if you are only in your twenties and your hair starts to get thin, and then starts to disappear, then you may have inherited your hair loss.

A condition called androgenetic alopecia affects about ninety-five percent of all males and about seventy percent of all females. This condition is hereditary, and it can affect you no matter what your race or ethnicity is. It can be passed on to you by your father or your mother, and because baldness can be brought on by many different genes on many different chromosomes, this kind of condition does not skip generations, and even if it does, there does not seem to be any pattern in its behavior.

Androgenetic alopecia often happens when the hair follicles shrink progressively. This occurs because of a change in the growth cycle of hair; in this case, hair growth can be arrested because of a shorter growth cycle, specifically a much shorter phase allotted to hair growth. With a much shorter growth phase, the hair starts to thin out, and eventually, hair will stop growing. Both men and women can be affected by adrogenetic alopecia, and the rates are actually quite high.

Despite the commonness of the disease, androgenetic alopecia can be treated. For instance, some doctors recommend surgically transplanting hair onto the affected areas. This procedure is expensive and it can take a long while for recovery to occur. However, the results have been good for quite a number of patients that have undergone the treatment. Another treatment is not as invasive. Patients can be given minoxidil, a chemical that has been proven to increase hair growth and stop hair loss. Minoxidil is applied twice a day and is available commercially as a lotion. Yet another hair treatment is finasteride, which is available as a pill. Finasteride, which is often prescribed for men who are going through male pattern baldness, can block hormone formation that would allow for hair to be lost through weakening of the hair follicle.

Hereditary hair loss does not happen overnight, which means that treatment can be started immediately when it is detected, and results can therefore be better. One way for you to know if you inherited your family's alopecia is to check your family tree: did you have a lot of aunts and uncles that underwent pattern baldness early? You may want to ask your older relatives if their parents or aunts and uncles were bald early.

These are only a few ways for you to not only prevent pattern baldness, but to treat it early and make sure that you get the right therapies for your case. No matter what your case of baldness entails, you will need to consult with your doctor on possible ways for you to get rid of baldness or stop it in its tracks.