Do you know why people go bald?

Prof. Know Why explains:

Normally, there are about 100,000 to 150,000 hair strands on the human scalp. However many people cannot retain them and eventually go bald.

Androgenetic Alopecia, the most common type of baldness — otherwise known as male pattern baldness — occurs due to a chemical known as Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) that builds up around the follicle and eventually kills the follicle and the hair. In simple terms, the growing cycle becomes shorter. So the hair does not grow as long as it once did. It becomes finer, and eventually the growth cycle is eliminated.

A follicle’s resistance to DHT is genetic – which is why some people go bald and others do not. If you have relatives with thin hair or who are bald, you may well develop the same problem. Doctors say that the gene can be inherited from either the mother’s or the father’s side of the family and skips generations.

In other conditions, such as Alopecia Totalis and Alopecia Universalis, the entire scalp and entire body become completely bald due to a viral condition.

Patch baldness, in which hair falls out of the scalp in patches, is caused by stress or poor nutrition or adverse scalp conditions. In this case, the hair usually grow back once the cause has been rectified.

While the effects of hair loss can be devastating, there are treatment options from non-surgical techniques to hair transplants that can slow or stop hair loss or even gain the appearance of a full head of hair. So just don't worry too much and be happy!