Hair Loss

[Mksmith71]

Healthy Hair growth today is attributed to quite a few factors stress, genetics, age, hormones pollution.. they all have the ability to effect strong hair or the ability to create major hair loss...

I'm interested in the internal factor and what causes hair loss,  as you get older it's blamed on the increase in testosterone,  women normally up until they reach middle age in general has it balanced out by oestrogen levels, that is until the onset of menopause.  But I'm curious...in men testosterone if anything is the reason why areas of the body grow thicker hair which is normally why they usually have larger areas covered by hair and in youth some women who exhibit unusal levels of testosterone grow hair more in areas like men and the hairs more darker and thicker,  so my question is why then at menopause women face hair loss and receding hairlines due to this hormone,  yet in certain areas like the face chin upper lip hair starts to become more prevalent  ???

[CharonY]

I suspect you are talking about androgenetic alopecia. Fundamentally, the condition is related to sensitivity to androgens and especially DHT, and not exclusively to androgen levels itself (though higher levels can increase the effects in sensitive folks). For example, age-paired groups of folks with and without hair loss have no significant difference in androgen levels. 

Rather, there is something in the signaling cascades (for example number of receptors and there is some evidence of second involvement of certain second messenger pathways) that affects follicle growth. Also, there is a difference how hair on top of the head reacts to DHT and hair on the rest of the body (one aspect being is the number of androgen receptors, for example).

 

 

[Agent Smith]

On 10/10/2022 at 12:57 AM, CharonY said:

I suspect you are talking about androgenetic alopecia. Fundamentally, the condition is related to sensitivity to androgens and especially DHT, and not exclusively to androgen levels itself (though higher levels can increase the effects in sensitive folks). For example, age-paired groups of folks with and without hair loss have no significant difference in androgen levels. 

Rather, there is something in the signaling cascades (for example number of receptors and there is some evidence of second involvement of certain second messenger pathways) that affects follicle growth. Also, there is a difference how hair on top of the head reacts to DHT and hair on the rest of the body (one aspect being is the number of androgen receptors, for example).

 

 

Gracias. Male-pattern baldness? 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Agent Smith

[kenny1999]

I strongly believe that male pattern hairloss is purely genetic, some businessmen like to connect it with other factors like stress, diet or hair treatment products but that is not true. I have been observing hairline and hair quality of many people for a long time and I find that different people could have really different hair quality that do not seem to be affected by any environmental factor. For example, my uncle who is not blood-related to me has four brothers and he is stressful and unhappy all the time, he is over 60 now but his hairline is still nice and perfect and all his brothers don't have any sign of hair loss. My father has lost all his hair and his brothers are all bald, my hair loss started when I was 25.

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, kenny1999 said:

I strongly believe that male pattern hairloss is purely genetic, some businessmen like to connect it with other factors like stress, diet or hair treatment products but that is not true

What do the opinions of businessmen have to do with a scientific question at all?  

On the subject of hair loss, it seems reasonable to consider that both genes and environment will have some effect.  The genetic factor of follicle lifespan is certainly there, but there are also factors like diet, smoking, lifestyle that may affect blood circulation to the scalp and follicular viability.  Might be interesting to look for studies of MPB that compare smokers and nonsmokers, for example, given the effects of smoking on narrowing dermal capillaries.

 

[npts2020]

On 12/23/2023 at 2:32 PM, TheVat said:

Might be interesting to look for studies of MPB that compare smokers and nonsmokers,

like this?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9069908/

[Ken Fabian]

On 10/9/2022 at 8:42 PM, Mksmith71 said:

why then at menopause women face hair loss and receding hairlines due to this hormone,  yet in certain areas like the face chin upper lip hair starts to become more prevalent  ???

I wonder to what extent the emergence of heavier hairs on older women's faces is them just not bothering to pluck or depilate in pursuit of beauty anymore, ie it actually began at puberty and has been happening all along.

[Nivelon]

The men who share my Y, all my brothers, dad's brothers, their sons, on up the line, never go bald. Never ever. All of their daughters, who have sons, are not bald, even when they marry bald guys. When we marry daughters of bald guys, no one goes bald. We also have almost no body hair and struggle to grow beards. My sister's son, whose dad is very bald, has super full hair and bear-like beard and body hair.

Native Americans also would not go bald or grow body hair until colonization. My family came from the ancient aristocracy of France, often written as the most ancient.

My conclusions. Baldness is carried on the Y, and those Ys pass it to the X. It probably has to do with the lack of a gene more so than a mutated gene. Treatments or theories related to elevated testosterone or stress most likely have a degree of validity among the men whose Y carries baldness. I view baldness as a symptom of a condition, not the actual condition. I view blond hair to have the same source, or same type of condition. I feel elevated testosterone and body hair is the body's response to this condition.

Currently I am looking at the physical length of various Y haplogroups as the cause, and the gametes interactions as the mechanism to determine the degree of hair loss. The elevated testosterone being the body's response. I feel professional investigation of this hypothesis may lead to the discovery of many genetic illnesses, as well as genetic predisposition for general health. Amazingly, this effect and conditions related to it appear in very old histories. I began to look into this while writing a comprehensive history of my family. If anyone with the means to professionally investigate this wants more information, please contact me.

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, Nivelon said:

Baldness is carried on the Y, and those Ys pass it to the X.

MPB is polygenic.  One study found at least 63 loci that were associated with the development of MPB, and only a few were on the X chromosome (which was formerly thought to be where MPB was located).  I am unclear what "Ys pass it to the X" means, but it doesn't sound like any theory of inheritance I've heard of.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28272467/

Abstract

Male-pattern baldness (MPB) is a common and highly heritable trait characterized by androgen-dependent, progressive hair loss from the scalp. Here, we carry out the largest GWAS meta-analysis of MPB to date, comprising 10,846 early-onset cases and 11,672 controls from eight independent cohorts. We identify 63 MPB-associated loci (P<5 × 10^-8, METAL) of which 23 have not been reported previously. The 63 loci explain ∼39% of the phenotypic variance in MPB and highlight several plausible candidate genes (FGF5, IRF4, DKK2) and pathways (melatonin signalling, adipogenesis) that are likely to be implicated in the key-pathophysiological features of MPB and may represent promising targets for the development of novel therapeutic options. The data provide molecular evidence that rather than being an isolated trait, MPB shares a substantial biological basis with numerous other human phenotypes and may deserve evaluation as an early prognostic marker, for example, for prostate cancer, sudden cardiac arrest and neurodegenerative disorders.

[Nivelon]

10 minutes ago, TheVat said:

 I am unclear what "Ys pass it to the X" means, but it doesn't sound like any theory of inheritance I've heard of.

Thanks for the link! I am not a biologist so my understanding is limited. I meant that men who had it would pass it on to their daughters some how. And it would only show if a person had it on both their x and y. It also appears that men who do not have it on their Y somehow eliminate it on their daughters X. This is only based on observations of people in my family, and observations of some documented Native American families. I have very little understanding of the mechanics, but I know what I observe. It is hard for me to find research as I get inundated with information hawking cures and treatments. Thanks again.

 

Edit: I think if someone studied the men who do not experience hair loss and compared it to a study of men who do experience hair loss, it would become clear what causes hair loss.

Edited March 13 by Nivelon