How common is it to inherit male pattern baldness from your father?

[Autumn Sundown]

My dad started to lose his hair around 18 and had noticable loss by age 20. From pictures I can tell he was about a Norwood 3 at 27. I saw a picture of him at 35, I couldn't see the top of his head, but I could see his temples and forelock were completely gone. He's around a NW5.5 at 50.
His father was bald and so are both of his brothers. His mom's side of the family kept their hair as far as I know. One of father's sisters had 2 kids, both of which were completely bald by 27, even though their father had a thick NW1 at 60.

My mom's side is much better. My Grandpa had a thick head of hair at 75. My uncle is a NW5 at 57 but didn't start to lose his hair until around 40 or 45, his maternal grandfather started to lose hair around the same age. I would be completely okay with that, I would just like to keep my hair for my 20's and most of my 30's.

I see a lot of men with thick hair in old age, there's no way all of those men had fathers and maternal grandfathers with full heads of hair. How common or rare is it to not inherit the male pattern baldness gene if your father has it? I'm 18 with very thick hair like my grandfather and no signs of hairloss.

Do any of you know anyone with a bald dad who didn't go bald like he did?

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

You can't inherit androgenic alopecia from your father. It does sound like there's at least some form of baldness on your mothers side too however.

 

[The Gardener]

You can't inherit androgenic alopecia from your father.

Sure you can. The belief that androgenic alopecia is only inherited from the mother's side is a complete myth.

Androgenic alopecia is caused by various genetic inputs, the most readily observed input being associated with an gene on the X chromosome.

Both sexes carry the X chromosome, thus you can receive this defect from either your mother or your father. Additionally, since this gene is recessive, and is just one of a combination of factors that result in male pattern baldness, in trying to predict what your hairline might be, you might as well take pictures of all of your relatives going several generations back, arrange them on a pinwheel, and give it a spin.

 

[Autumn Sundown]

You can't inherit androgenic alopecia from your father. It does sound like there's at least some form of baldness on your mothers side too however.

Yeah, there's very little baldness on my mom's side, but I would be completely okay with that kind of hairloss because it isn't agresseive and starts late in life. Men lose hair as they age, that's normal, I would just like to keep my hair through my 20's. Anyone's hairloss pattern except my dad's or his brother's would be okay with me.

 

[Boondock]

Gardener is correct. You can inherit it from either side. The mother thing is a complete myth, seriously. I can't believe people on these boards still tout that.

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

Both sexes carry the X chromosome, thus you can receive this defect from either your mother or your father. Additionally, since this gene is recessive, and is just one of a combination of factors that result in male pattern baldness, in trying to predict what your hairline might be, you might as well take pictures of all of your relatives going several generations back, arrange them on a pinwheel, and give it a spin.

This is one of the worst grasps on genetics I've ever seen. If you receive an X chromosome from your father you're not a male, hence not covered under the scope of a "Men's General Hair Loss Discussions" forum.

A recessive gene means that if there is a competing copy of the gene from the other parent that the recessive one won't be expressed. However, being that it's on the X chromosome and as a male you only get 1 of these (as mentioned above) there is no other competing gene to dominate it.

As far as male pattern baldness goes, I mentioned nothing of the sort, simply androgenic alopecia wherein DHT negatively affects the growth of scalp hair follicles through a mutated DHT receptor encoded by a gene on the X chromosome.

This is no myth, there have been no studies which show androgenic alopecia to be controlled by any other genes aside from on the X chromosome. There have been studies which show male baldness to be linked to other genes but that is a very different thing.

Technically even the term "androgenic alopecia" is proof that the medical community has to flipping clue about what is going on as alopecia areata (which you can get from both parents) is also affected by androgens.

 

[The Gardener]

This is no myth, there have been no studies which show androgenic alopecia to be controlled by any other genes aside from on the X chromosome.

I agree with your point about the X chromosome being the driver of your androgen receptors... you are right, that would be a maternally inherited thing, but I disagree with your point above. Most research I have read suspect that a number of genetic factors are at play with male pattern baldness.

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

Most research I have read suspect that a number of genetic factors are at play with male pattern baldness.

Read them again, they only have to do with other genetic factors related to hair loss in males, not the specific "androgenic alopecia" where DHT is the only factor in hair loss. That specific type of hair loss has only been found to be controlled by genes on the X chromosome. The studies you are referring to simply look at the genes then look to see if the person ranks on the Norwood scale, that's not the same thing as proving that the genes have anything to do with Androgenetic Alopecia. As I mentioned above, the second most common allele related to hair loss (20p11.22) currently is junk DNA that sits next to a gene responsible for encoding your liver/pancreas structure and is androgen-independent (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18849994) ie: not Androgenetic Alopecia.