(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-09 14:57

BERLIN: First the forehead gets higher, then a spot at the back of the head clears - hair loss is for many men the worst thing they could possibly suffer as they get older.

While balding men used to place their hopes in all kinds of remedies or attempt to conceal the areas with hair pieces, effective hair growth medications have been available for years. But they can't guarantee the return of a full head of hair.

There are good reasons for the anxiety men feel when their hair starts to fall out.

"Studies show that to other people, bald men appear to be an average of three to four years older than they actually are," says psychologist Ronald Henss of Saarbruecken.

Studies show that many men who suffer from hair loss feel depressed. DPA

"They also are perceived as less stylish than men with a full head of hair. In the eyes of many beholders, a bald head means the loss of attractiveness. One small comfort: Most people think of bald-headed men as family men and faithful husbands," Henss says.

The likelihood of hair loss increases with age. By their 80th birthday about 80 percent of men are affected, says dermatologist Natalie Garcia Bartels from Berlin's Charity Hospital. Up to 100 individual hairs fall out per day from a normal head. Anything over that is considered hair loss.

"Mostly it is congenital hair loss - the so-called androgenic alopecia or male-pattern baldness, which can begin in men from age 20," Garcia Bartels says. It appears gradually as a receding hairline from the lateral sides of the forehead or hair loss as a bald patch at the top of the head that works its way gradually toward the front. "Many men are left with only a ring of hair around the lower part of their head."

Hair loss is set off by a hormone in the scalp. An enzyme causes testosterone to be transformed into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is believed to be the primary contributing factor in most cases of male pattern baldness. The hair follicle develops a deep sensitivity to DHT, which initiates a process of follicular miniaturization. This progressively decreases the width of the hair shaft until the scalp hair resembles peach fuzz or goes away completely.

"The result is more hair than normal is lost. Why this happens to some men and not others has not yet been researched," says endocrinologist Gerd Hofmann of Munich.

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