The most common form of hair loss in the world is androgenic alopecia, but that does not mean most people understand an individual’s genetic predisposition to balding and what triggers the condition. Many people can blame their high school biology teachers for that lack of understanding.
When studying simple genetics in biology classes, people are often taught that androgenic alopecia is a dominant genetic condition inherited from your mother’s side of the family. That gross oversimplification simply implies that if your mother’s father had pattern balding, you will likely have it too.
The truth is much more complicated and involves genes from both sides of your family. It is true that more genes involved with pattern loss are derived from your mother because they are located on the X chromosome. If you are a female, you received one of your X chromosomes from each of your parents. This makes it impossible to reliably predict a pattern of loss from simply looking at your parents.
However, if you are a male, you have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome. By definition, you had to have received your X chromosome from your mother. But you only randomly received one of her two X chromosomes, so there is only a 50-50 chance that you have the same X chromosome as your mother’s father. If you have several uncles on your mom’s side, then probably at least one of them would have the same X chromosome as you, but this is still a simple guessing game.
None of this really makes much of a difference, however because there are dozens of genes involved with androgenic alopecia which are not on the X chromosome, Therefore, you may experience this problem despite interpretation, but it would be triggered if both of your parents gave you a copy of the same hair loss recessive gene from a chromosome other than the X chromosome. Ultimately, it does not matter where you inherited the genes from, because if you have androgenic alopecia you have it. Just do something about it if it bothers you.
What Triggers Androgenic Alopecia?
In medical terms, androgenic refers specifically to things related to hormones that promote male-type physical characteristics. The Cleveland Clinic points out, “Androgens have other important roles too, like keeping your bones strong and helping red blood cell production.” Building muscle mass and playing a part in libido are also influenced. Everyone has androgens, but males naturally have more.
Because testosterone is the most prevalent and well-known of the androgenic hormones, many people have incorrectly claimed that people who are losing their hair have higher levels of testosterone. This is false. It is true that when men and women have higher levels of DHT (dihydrotestosterone), they are more likely to have pattern hair loss. DHT is a derivative of testosterone, so when testosterone is higher, more DHT is produced,
For men, testosterone production spikes when they reach puberty and continues for much of their lives. In the worst cases, androgenic alopecia could coincide with puberty, but it is more common for men with early onset male pattern baldness to start losing their hair in their early to mid-20s.
Most women who experience female pattern baldness, the less scientific name for androgenic alopecia in women, begin experiencing hair loss at a later age because their levels of DHT are much lower. Fewer women experience androgenic alopecia than their male counterparts.
The level of testosterone and DHT in the body is not the main determining factor in the severity of one’s androgenic alopecia (Pattern Baldness). The main issue is the quantity of DHT receptors that you have on your hair follicles. This is what you have inherited from your parents, and this is the ultimate determinant of hair loss. The more DHT receptors a person has on their hair follicles, the faster and more severe the hair loss will be. Lots of receptors correspond to early onset hair loss.
Most people have a moderate amount of DHT receptors, and their hair loss is gradual over decades. For those lucky individuals that never lose their hair, they can thank this to an absence of DHT follicle receptors. Therefore, a person with twice as much testosterone in their body could easily hold onto their hair much longer than a person with a lower testosterone level, but a higher concentration of DHT receptors.
What Role Does Genetics Play In Hair Loss?
Researchers have identified more than 60 genes that are associated with androgenic alopecia. The one gene that is potentially the most associated with male or female “pattern baldness” is found on the AR gene which is inherited, in both men and women, from your mother because it appears on the X chromosome.
Genetics are tricky again here. Technically, the AR gene is a recessive gene. This means that women must have identical copies on both of their X chromosomes for early onset pattern loss. This makes it much less likely to be visually expressed in women early on, as they would need to inherit it from both parents.
However, men only have one X chromosome. When this is the case, the gene expresses itself as if it was a dominant gene and causes loss with a just a single copy of the mutated AR gene (normally a dominant gene supersedes a recessive gene to express itself, while 2 recessive genes must be present for their copies to be expressed. For example, if a person has one gene for brown eyes and one gene for blue eyes, they will express the dominant brown eye color. Two blue-eyed genes are necessary to have blue eyes because these genes are recessive).
What Does Androgenic Alopecia Look Like?
The type of hair loss a person has can often be determined by the shape or pattern of the balding. This is especially true in androgenic alopecia, which is why it is often called “pattern baldness.”
In men, the hair loss often begins as a M-shaped receding hair line or hair loss at the crown of the head, causing a circular bald spot. In women, the hair loss is usually diffuse, often seen as an overall loss of volume and/or a widening hair part. Both sexes generally first notice hairs becoming miniaturized at first, before finally disappearing for good.
La Mesa Medical Hair Restoration Specializes in Treating Androgenic Alopecia
Whether your hair loss is just starting or you are already experiencing significant hair loss, there are treatments available. Contact La Mesa Medical Hair Restoration to determine what the best treatment is for your type of hair loss.
