May have been asked sometime in the past but here again- basic reason for male pattern balding( hair loss ) and can it really be controlled or should I say reversed?
Male pattern baldness is an inherited trait (genetic).
It may be controlled or even reversed via some medicines such as minoxidil (Rogaine) or finasteride (Propecia) but effectiveness seems spotty at best. There is some evidence they work but not for all people and even for those it does work for the results vary.
I understand hair transplants (aka hair plugs) has advanced a great deal and is no longer the nasty doll hair effect it once was. I have a friend who had it done and I never knew till he told me. Not really a “cure” it can at least put hair back where it is lost. That said I understand it is not cheap.
And just to head it off at the pass, the thing about it coming from your mother’s father is a myth. It’s a plain old autosomal trait, coming equally from both parents. However, the gene in question is sensitive to testosterone levels, so baldness is considered recessive in females and dominant in males. Also, in females, even if they have two copies of the baldness allele, it’s not expressed as severely - they just get thinning hair rather than full male pattern baldness. And if you’re a man with the gene, the more testosterone you have floating around, the balder you’ll be.
Testosterone triggers MPB. The most obvious example of this is FtM transsexuals who as a group all seem to suffer from it. The sudden boost of testosterone hit their genetic trigger level and out comes the hair.
My brothers all suffer from baldness. I do not. They have normal levels of testosterone, I (due to some really scary medical conditions) take mine through a needle. As a result I have a full head of hair and they are bald.
Supposedly, thirty percent of thirty-year-old suffer from MPB, going to 40% of forty-year-olds and half of fifty-year-olds.
We’re just too damn manly!
Does a decrease in testosterone cause the hair to grow back?
Suppose there was a MtF who had a magical testosterone inhibitor (are there any?) and pumped themselves chock full of estrogen (if it mattered…). Full head 'o hair?
Actually, it’s dihydrotestosterone (pic here) that triggers pattern baldness. Most (all??) of the pattern baldness drugs, Azelic acid, Propecia, Dutasteride, act by inhibiting the enzyme, 5-alpha testosterone reductase, which turns testosterone into a locks killer.