can air pollution accelerate male pattern baldness ?

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
Hi guys,

It would be great if people with a deeper insight into the mechanisms of hairloss could give their educated opinion on what is happening here. Be sure, it is much appreciated!

Background:
A job offer made me move from Germany to London about 9 months ago. Two months in, I realized that my right temple started to recede. This is going on now for some time and I can see it getting worse week by week.

Before that time I had a stable hairline for 13 years. I have to add that I am a male to female transsexual and have undergone the hormonal and surgical steps 10 to 6 years ago. I hope you are ok with me posting here, I am addressing you guys in the forum because my hair follicles genetically are male despite the hormonal changes.

I searched the internet for possible explainations. In 2008 the University of London conducted a study that found that air pollution can accelerate male pattern baldness in men. I did not find the study itself but some newspaper articles referring to it.
Now I am wondering if the temple loss is actually caused by oxidative stress from the chemicals in the air here. (London has the highest degree of air pollution in Europe).

I did not find any other sources that supported that claim. Here on the forum there are hardly any posts referring to male pattern baldness and pollution. Since the study is already 7 years old I would expect more people talking about it in the meantime, if the findings would be true and significant.

A hair specialist I see (he does research and publishes articles in medical journals) says that the findings were irrelevant because the study was done in vitro.
Still, for me it is quite hard to believe hat there can be another cause. For 13 years all was fine, I move to London and 2 months later, temple recession starts at a considerable speed. Honestly I am scared of loosing my frontal hair in a male pattern.
My doctor ruled out that DHT is the cause since my levels are too low for that.

13 years ago when I was 21, male pattern baldness started but I immediately went on finasteride and minoxidil and maintained my hairline until some months ago. I still take both meds.

If you have an idea what is happening here, please let me know.
Do you believe air pollution is one of the external factors that can make male pattern baldness worse?


Many thanks for your answers!

Melanie
 

I.D WALKER

Senior Member
Reaction score
869
I'm ok with you posting on HairLossTalk.com. Your participation here can only enrich this forum in scope and caliber.

Melanie I agree that we can most likely rule out air pollutants as a cause of male pattern baldness.
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
I'm ok with you posting on HairLossTalk.com. Your participation here can only enrich this forum in scope and caliber.

Melanie I agree that we can most likely rule out air pollutants as a cause of male pattern baldness.




Thanks I.D Walker. Nice you say that.
I agree that male pattern baldness generally has a hormonal / genetic cause. But what about pollution acting as an accelerating factor?
That means pollution would not cause male pattern baldness but would make it worse for people already affected by it.

Has there been any (anecdotal) evidence of that?
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
You mean when one twin lives in the countryside and the other in a big city for example?

- - - Updated - - -

I would be really interested in looking a bit further into these twin studies. Fred can you provide a link maybe? Many thanks!
 

hellouser

Senior Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
2,634
If it did, everyone would be bald. Even so, air pollution wouldnt for some reason select just the top of your head. So, no, pollution doesnt affect it. Hair loss is genetic.
 

Armando Jose

Senior Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
975
Tanaka, did you change your hair style when moving from germany to London?
OTOH pollution can not explain the pattern of common hair loss, similar to stress.
GL
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
Tanaka, did you change your hair style when moving from germany to London?
OTOH pollution can not explain the pattern of common hair loss, similar to stress.
GL

No I did not change my hairstyle. My stress level at that time and now is average I would say. I had much worse stress in my life.
Do you think the hairstyle can play a role?

By the way I have read that in places like Mumbai and Shanghai, foreigners get massive problems with hairloss due to the air quality.
 

Armando Jose

Senior Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
975
Hi Tanaka, I think that the type of hair can have a role, a minor one, more when hair is thin and with less hair density. Even the lenght of hair can take part, long hair is better acording to my idea where problems with sebum can trigger the process.
Also I have heard that problems with hairloss are correlated to the type of water used in diferents locations, but again they dont explain the special pattern of common hair loss.
did you noticed that men are more prone to hairloss? usually women wore long hair, have any role in it????
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
I dont think hair length can be an issue here, male pattern baldness is at least 90% genetic. There has been talk about external factors like smoking, sun exposure and stress that can accelerate the process. According to what you guys say, I can pretty much rule out pollution as an external factor.

I have really no clue what can be the cause for this temporal recession then. Im thinking about getting the opinion of another specialist. The only thing that bugs me is he wants 300 Pounds for an initial consultation. Ouch.

The other specialist pointed out that changes in the hormonal regimen can possibly cause hairloss at the temples. Then I think it should grow back several months after the change, but it doesnt in my case (I had a change in medication back in October). Seriously Im confused.
 

SayifDoit

Experienced Member
Reaction score
111
I didn't realise we still had misinformed fools spouting out nonsense that somehow life choices/enviromental effects have some correlation to male pattern baldness. I no nothing I say will convince you, so I ****ing hope that one day you will look in the mirror after all these years of deluding yourself and see a white egg head staring back at you. Because you can only run from reality for so long and waste all your money on snake oils.
 

I.D WALKER

Senior Member
Reaction score
869
Unfortunately we are confronted with the implacable fact that male pattern baldness (among other scalp disorders) is GENETIC. There may be an unknown external variable(s) that subtly act(s) to accelerate it's typical progression, but to date there is nothing under the sun to change it's inherent and inherited etymology.
 

jnestor481

Member
Reaction score
33
So you've been maintaining your hair with finasteride and minoxidil for 13 years with no problems until now ? Consider yourself lucky, I doubt most of us will be that fortunate.
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
So you've been maintaining your hair with finasteride and minoxidil for 13 years with no problems until now ? Consider yourself lucky, I doubt most of us will be that fortunate.

Yes because 9 years ago my T and DHT went down to almost zero. Not so much of a surprise I kept my hair. But now it seems like male pattern baldness starts again as if somebody has pulled a switch despite the almost nonexistent level of DHT. So can it really be genetic only?
 

abcdefg

Senior Member
Reaction score
782
Anything is possible in the whacky world of medicine, but my guess is no air pollution does not cause male pattern baldness or contribute in any meaningful way

- - - Updated - - -

Yes because 9 years ago my T and DHT went down to almost zero. Not so much of a surprise I kept my hair. But now it seems like male pattern baldness starts again as if somebody has pulled a switch despite the almost nonexistent level of DHT. So can it really be genetic only?

T and DHT were never the real problem for hair loss though its always been why is hair sensitive to them? Without knowing that maybe your hair gets more sensitive as time goes on or receptors change or adapt to less androgens and the process continues. No one knows why at this point but its always been a pretty important question
Its also possible though its never been androgens causing male pattern baldness but something deeper like WNT pathway problem or pgd2 levels or something unknown still. male pattern baldness has many layers and our superficial knowledge relies on androgens right now.
Yes its genetic only. There are very old people with absolutely zero hair loss which proves to me its almost entirely genetic because they breath the same air and eat the same stuff most of us do generally speaking.
 

Armando Jose

Senior Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
975
Anything is possible in the whacky world of medicine, but my guess is no air pollution does not cause male pattern baldness or contribute in any meaningful way

- - - Updated - - -



T and DHT were never the real problem for hair loss though its always been why is hair sensitive to them? Without knowing that maybe your hair gets more sensitive as time goes on or receptors change or adapt to less androgens and the process continues. No one knows why at this point but its always been a pretty important question
Its also possible though its never been androgens causing male pattern baldness but something deeper like WNT pathway problem or pgd2 levels or something unknown still. male pattern baldness has many layers and our superficial knowledge relies on androgens right now.
Yes its genetic only. There are very old people with absolutely zero hair loss which proves to me its almost entirely genetic because they breath the same air and eat the same stuff most of us do generally speaking.


I always ask why only change certains receptors regarding sensitivity??? Only change over the top of head? Strange..... It must have another explanation.
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
I have observed over time that when I make changes to my hormonal regimen, my hairline apparently takes a hit. This happened 2 years before when I made changes in my estradiol medictation. I got shedding on the whole head but the temple region did not grow back.
Maybe this time it is the same, it just got much worse. This is the second theory I have. Maybe it is true since everyone is convinced it cant be blamed on pollution.
I just wonder how a change in estrogene levels can kill hair follicles for good. I think abcdefg is right, male pattern baldness is much more complex than we might think.
 

Agustin Araujo

Moderator
Moderator
My Regimen
Reaction score
331
tanaka,

It's never been proven that air pollution can accelerate Male Pattern Baldness, the only thing that's been proven about the medical condition is that it's entirely genetic.

Don't listen to that Armando Jose guys tanaka, he's the last bastion of "BS natural cures work" posters on Hairlosstalk.

He probably has really slow balding and probably somehow came to the conclusion that natural treatments help in one way or the other, when they really don't.
 

tanaka

Member
Reaction score
1
Estrogens might protect against hair loss.[/QUOTE]

Thats what I thought too! Actually I am not supposed to have male pattern baldness. But I do apparently (which can ruin your day)
 

abcdefg

Senior Member
Reaction score
782
Yeah I think estrogens are good for hair. Everyone should try to eat better but I wouldnt tie my hair loss to what I eat. A lot of problems though might be related to diet and exercise but male pattern baldness isnt one of them.
 
Top