Article by Jimmy Chase

Introduction

I started losing my hair in the late 90s. I did not know much about hair loss because it was not a concern for me, but when I started losing my hair it became a concern and I wanted to know what was causing my hair loss. So I started researching everything I could about male hair loss to determine what was causing mine and how I could stop it.

Male Hair Loss

Under normal circumstances, an adult male loses between 50 to 100 strands of hair a day. When you start to lose more than 100 strands a day, it indicates that you may have a hair problem.

Now you do not need to count your hair strands in your brush, drain or pillow to know that you are losing more than the normal amount of hair. You will know. In my case I tried to ignore it but my wife started complaining about all the excess hair I was losing because it was clogging the drains.

When I started looking at what could cause hair loss in males I found there was a number of reasons that could cause it:

* Stress- Stress from work, death in the family or other sources could cause hair loss. This was not causing my hair loss because I had taken early retirement, so I had no stress. Plus there were no recent emotional events that had occurred in my life.

* Medicine- I found that certain medicines could also cause hair loss, but the only medicines I was taking were herbal supplements.

* Diseases- Certain diseases can cause you to lose your hair. Some examples are diabetes or lupus. But I had just had physical and was pronounced in good health.

* Androgenetic Alopecia- This I found was the most common type of hair loss in men and women, also known as male or female pattern baldness. But I did not have this because looking at pictures and descriptions, I did not have any baldness on my crown. But I did notice my hairline receding at the forehead but it was not like in the pictures I saw, I still had some hair left there.

After further research I finally determined what was causing my hair loss.

Cause of My Hair Loss

Just because I did not have the typical balding areas on the crown or the rapidly receding hairline, I did have male pattern baldness or androgenetic alopecia.

The other thing that threw me off was that my mother’s family did not have androgenetic alopecia, which was believed to be where you inherited the condition. But it has been determined that you can get this condition from either your mother or your father’s family. My Dad’s family did have male pattern baldness.

To further strengthen my evidence that I had male pattern baldness, I had to understand how this condition results and what other physical evidence, other than bald patches, indicate male pattern baldness.

Cause Of Male Pattern Baldness

Androgenetic alopecia or male pattern baldness is caused by the hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that comes from the transformation of the male hormone testosterone by the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. The DHT hormone attaches to the hair follicle where it stops vital nutrients from reaching the follicle and the hair strand.

This action shortens the growth or anagen phase of the hair cycle and results in a shorter the hair strand. This results in finer and shorter hair strands in your washbasin.

This is what I had on my hairbrush and what I saw in the sink. Fine hair strands of only about three inches long. This was the evidence I needed to determine that my loss was caused by male pattern baldness.

Stopping And Re-Growing Hair

Once I had determined what was causing my hair loss, it was time for me to take action to stop my hair loss. During my research, I had found that the herb Saw Palmetto could stop the formation of DHT by acting on the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. So this will stop the hair loss, but how do I re-grow my lost hair?

I started using the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved medicine for re-growing hair caused by male pattern baldness, Minoxidil.

By using a combination of Saw Palmetto and Minoxidil, I was able to stop my hair loss and re-grow some of the hair I had lost.

Conclusion

If you are losing your hair and do not have the typical bald spots caused by male pattern baldness, look at your hair strands that have fallen out. If they are short and thin, then you probably have male pattern baldness.

Jimmy Chase started losing his hair when he turned 50. He has done lots of studies on loss of hair, in both men and women, to determine what works and what doesn’t. He has successfully stopped his hair loss and has even re-grown some of his hair. He wants to help other people learn what he has learned, on dealing with loss of hair and re-growing hair.

He operates the web site No Longer Balding