One reason that the team at the Regeneris Medical achieves such great results is our close attention to the nature of a patient’s hair loss. When patients in the greater Boston area visit our practice, we will carefully assess the cause or causes of hair loss in order to determine the proper surgical or non-surgical treatment.
Your genetic makeup plays a major role in your hair loss and the thickness of your hair. Let’s explore this issue in a bit more detail right now.
Male Pattern Baldness and Genetics
Male pattern baldness is the kind of hair loss that many men will experience at one point of their lives. This hair loss usually begins at the top/crown area of the head, with recession of the hair also occurring in the front of the hairline.
Male pattern baldness tends to begin around a man’s thirties, though it can happen sooner than that time. By the time a man reaches middle age, he will have typically suffered from some degree of male pattern baldness depending on his genes.
Balding and Your Mother: Dispelling a Common Myth
A common myth is that male pattern baldness is passed down through your mother’s side of the family. A related myth is that if your maternal grandfather was bald, you are likely to be bald as well, and that the baldness will skip a generation.
This is not necessarily the case, however.
The fact is that the genetics of balding are far more complicated. In some cases, a man with a bald maternal grandfather will have a full head of hair and vice versa. Your father’s genes will also have an effect on your likelihood for future hair loss. As a general rule, if balding runs in your family, you are more likely to suffer from male pattern baldness.
Female Hair Thinning and Genetics
While most people think about genetics with regard to male pattern baldness, genes will also have an effect on the nature of female hair thinning as well.
Female hair loss is much different from male hair loss. While men will lose hair in concentrated parts of their scalp, women may notice that their hair becomes thinner in general over time, sometimes leaving portions of the scalp more exposed. This is part of the aging process, and a variety of genetic and environmental factors can result in more pronounced hair thinning.
Thinning Hair and Your Female Relatives: Trends in a Family
Many times the nature and degree of your hair thinning can be determined by noting the hair thinning trends of your female relatives. If your mother, grandmother, aunt(s), and/or older sister(s) experienced or currently experience varying degrees of thinning hair, you can expect to also experience a certain degree of age-related hair thinning during your life.
Treatment Options for Genetic Hair Loss
For male pattern baldness, hair restoration surgery and the use of hair regrowth drugs such as Rogaine and Propecia are ideal options to consider. The right treatment for you can be determined during a consultation.
For female hair thinning, the best options tend to involve non-surgical treatments since the hair thinning differs fundamentally from male pattern balding. Changes to your hair care, diet, and general lifestyle tend to yield strong results for thickening your hair and improving its general appearance.
Schedule a Consultation at Our Practice
To learn more about the genetic factors that lead to balding and what you can do to restore hair growth, be sure to contact our hair loss and transplant surgery clinic today. The entire team here at Regeneris Medical looks forward to your visit and helping you look and feel your very best.