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Hair Loss in Male

​Male Hair Loss – All You Need To Know

Although there are a number of hair loss conditions that can affect men, the most common is Male Pattern Baldness (MPB). Other names for this condition are androgenetic alopecia and genetic hair loss. This page will concentrate primarily on this condition but will also make reference to the less widespread hair loss conditions that could be affecting you, with links to more informative pages.

​Male Pattern Baldness – What is it?

Male Pattern Baldness is a genetic condition that can be passed down from either side of the family tree. So if your Father has a perfectly thick head of hair, don’t think you are definitely safe (although you could be!). 
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How do I know if I’m losing my hair?

This is a very good question, and although the answer might seem obvious, many men do not identify their hair loss until it has become fairly advanced, which could be too late to achieve a full recovery. The reasons men do not identify their own hair loss are usually down to simple denial, or because the process is very slow and it is something that they simply might not notice. At the opposite end of the scale, many men worry about hair loss when they have no reason to worry.

The best ways to know if you are losing your hair are

  • Noticing the appearance of thinning hair or a receding hairline yourself.
  • Other people informing you that you are losing your hair (you may not notice yourself).
  • Excessive hair on your pillow, the shower bed or in the bath plug, or on your hands when styling your hair in the morning.

​How can I identify Male Pattern Baldness?

​MPB is in fact easy to identify even for somebody with no clinical experience as it only affects hair on the top of the scalp and not the sides, causing a horseshoe-shaped pattern of hair loss. There are a number of different common patterns of hair loss – a receding hairline, a thinning crown, or general thinning spread over the top area of the head. You can read more about these below. MPB never affects the sides or back of the hair.

​Patterns of Hair Loss

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There are three general patterns of Male Pattern Hair Loss – we are quite confident that one of these will bear a similarity to your own pattern.

Other conditions

Alopecia Areata

This is a highly unpredictable, autoimmune skin disease resulting in the loss of hair on the scalp and elsewhere on the body. This common but very challenging and unpredictable disease affects approximately 1.7 percent of the population.
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Due to the fact that much of the public is still not familiar with alopecia, the disease can have a profound impact on one’s life and functional status, both at work and at school.
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In Alopecia Areata, the affected hair follicles are mistakenly attacked by a person’s own immune system, resulting in the arrest of the hair growth stage. Alopecia usually starts with one or more small, round, smooth bald patches on the scalp and can progress to total scalp hair loss (Alopecia Totalis) or complete body hair loss (Alopecia Universalis).
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Lichen planopilaris

Is a type of scarring hair loss that occurs when a relatively common skin disease, known as lichen planus, affects areas of skin where there is hair. Lichen planopilaris destroys the hair follicle and then replaces it with scarring, resulting in permanent hair loss.
Trichotillomania is a self-inflicted condition which sees sufferers repeatedly pull, tug at or twist their hair until it comes out.
Pseudopelade is an extremely rare hair loss condition, also known as Alopecia Cicatrisata. It mostly affects women and occasionally children, causing patchy hair loss with bald patches that can still contain individual healthy hairs.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease which causes the body’s immune system to turn on its own tissues and organs. Perhaps best known for the butterfly-shaped rash it can cause across the nose and cheeks, Lupus can also cause diffuse hair loss.
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