male pattern baldness is genetic, right?

[crisis]

So male pattern baldness is genetic?

My father is mid 50s - not bald.

Both my grandfathers died in their 60s - neither where bald or had particularly extensive recession.

Me? 21. Losing hair like mad.

Some things just dont make sense.

Does this suggest I could be losing hair due to other causes?

 

[drinkrum]

Yes, it seems to be genetic, but the exact nature of it is not known. This means that even if no one in your immediate family is bald, you may still lose your hair. It is highly doubtful that you're losing your hair from other causes.

D.

 

[chewbaca]

Yes, it seems to be genetic, but the exact nature of it is not known. This means that even if no one in your immediate family is bald, you may still lose your hair. It is highly doubtful that you're losing your hair from other causes.

D.

Has anyone thought the genetic thing could stretch back longer than your parent's level, maybe from their forefathers a few generations ago?....

 

[pleasegodno]

you can certainly be losing hair from other causes. it is very worthwhile to explore these alternatives if you have apparently little genetic predisposition to male pattern baldness. what kind of hairloss do you have (diffuse or clear recession, etc.)? what are your eating habits? have you undergone extreme stress/anxiety? are you taking any medications? insulin resistance? thyroid problems?

 

[fabrizio72]

I think that the problem is not only from the Father. Your Mother and grandmother may have the gene, but they have hairs because they have less DHT (they are not man).
This is maybe one possiblility.
Ciao

 

[crisis]

you can certainly be losing hair from other causes. it is very worthwhile to explore these alternatives if you have apparently little genetic predisposition to male pattern baldness. what kind of hairloss do you have (diffuse or clear recession, etc.)? what are your eating habits? have you undergone extreme stress/anxiety? are you taking any medications? insulin resistance? thyroid problems?

my hair loss is fairly wide spread and diffused although its obviously more apparent around my temples and hair line. mainly due to the fact that my hair line has naturally been receeded either side of my forehead since i was a child.

the thing that gets me the most is the way ive completely lost my side burns, and am currently losing alot of hair around my ears. ive never seen anyone with this type of baldness. this conerns me a great deal as it means shaving my head (which i would definately consider under normal circumstances) will accentuate these features.

i think my diet is fine although i do 'over indulge', shall we say, in certain activities at weekends. no more than alot of others at my age do though.

with regards to anxiety and stress, i would describe myself as both stressed and anxious due to temporary factors (university going badly, finish soon though) and long term problems (debt/bad life decisions/naturally low self esteem/and now hairloss). also i have suffered a couple of traumatic events in the last 5 years, one of which resulted in me being on citalopram for 6 months (anti-depressants).

i think i will pursue this route some more (why not?) and obviously ill report back if it turns out to be the cause. i'm not getting my hopes up though.

thanks for the replies,

c

 

[Greg1]

crisis, just to be on the safe side, I'd say check out things with your Doctor. Even though male pattern baldness can jump generations, it's still a very good idea to rule out other reasons. IMO.

 

[DaveA]

I went to my doctor just a few weeks back to get a prescription for proscar. He told me the gene comes from the mother's side. Sucks. My Dad had a full head of hair, but he died young - in his 40's. My Mom's Dad had a full head of hair too. But my Mom's brothers (my Uncles) do have some hair loss - nothing major, though. And that leaves me hopeful. I'm 28 and have slowly - and I mean slowly - even today most don't even notice it - have been thinning for several years now. I went on proscar to hopefully keep it slow or even halt it. If I were to get 'as bad' as my Uncles, I could handle that. Any worse and I'd get hair transplant.

 

[WADA]

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[WADA]

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[WADA]

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[Trent]

dad, receeding some at age 53. grandpa on dad's side, jude law recession at 75. mom's dad, died with full head at 55. all my uncles (4) = full heads of hair.

me = 24 and norwood 1.5 with some diffuse thinning. genetics only go so far.

 

[crisis]

couple question for crisis,
1) does the right side of your lower back ach?
2) does the area right below your eye appears to be darker?
3) also, you have older siblings, right?

1) no
2) edit: yes actually they do
3) no im the eldest

why do you ask?

 

[rapidfrontal]

I went to my doctor just a few weeks back to get a prescription for proscar. He told me the gene comes from the mother's side. Sucks. My Dad had a full head of hair, but he died young - in his 40's. My Mom's Dad had a full head of hair too. But my Mom's brothers (my Uncles) do have some hair loss - nothing major, though. And that leaves me hopeful. I'm 28 and have slowly - and I mean slowly - even today most don't even notice it - have been thinning for several years now. I went on proscar to hopefully keep it slow or even halt it. If I were to get 'as bad' as my Uncles, I could handle that. Any worse and I'd get hair transplant.

Okay, haven't we decided that the gene for baldness can come from anywhere in your family? I am pretty sure that the Mother's FAther thing is a myth, if I am wrong correct me, but I don't think I am. If I am right, then why the hell is your doctor telling you that the gene comes from your mother's side. Sounds like a typical Dermatologist that doesn't know sh*t about hairloss. Take it from me, I have a Father who is a Dermatologist that doesn't know sh*t about hairloss.

 

[The Gardener]

From my reading on this issue...

1) male pattern baldness is genetic, and is not caused by stress or environmental factors. Environmental factors can speed or slow the onset, but environmental factors don't cause Androgenetic Alopecia male pattern baldness. It is something that is hard coded into your genes. Even if you live a completely stress-free life, and have perfect nutrition you'll still lose your hair.

2) The mother's father theory is a myth.

3) male pattern baldness genes can come from anyone in your genetic bloodline, and can skip several generations. You can have 4 grandparents with perfect hairlines, and 2 parents with perfect hairlines, and still get male pattern baldness yourself.

 

[WADA]

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[crisis]

I asked because I am trying to see any correlation between your hair loss and the weak kidney symptom in Chinese medicine.

I too suffer diffuse thinning w/o family history of hairloss, so I am just curious.

Do you look older than your friends who are in the same age(right before noticing hair loss that is)?

a little bit i guess

 

[powersam]

k the way you all talk about this is slightly off to me. it doesnt seem wholly accurate to me to say male pattern baldness is genetics. its simply not specific enough. if you were to say male pattern baldness is a symptom of a condition to which i have a genetic pre-disposition then maybe. but even that doesnt sound right. the point im trying to make i guess is that male pattern baldness is not the main factor, its simply a very visible symptom/side effect of what is most probably a hormonal issue.