Just the title. Why do, usually, men go bald on their heads but nowhere else? So many bald ppl with massive beards.
In: Biology
Older guy here with a lot of thinning hair on my head. My beard seems unaffected,but I’ve lost most of the hair on my legs. So hair loss does occur elsewhere.
The tendency for men to go bald on their heads but not necessarily on their faces comes down to the sensitivity of hair follicles to a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT).
On the scalp, some hair follicles are genetically more sensitive to DHT. When DHT interacts with these follicles, it signals them to shrink over time. As a result, the affected hair becomes thinner and eventually stops growing. This process is known as miniaturization, leading to the common pattern of male baldness.
Now, the facial hair follicles are usually less sensitive to DHT. That’s why even if a guy is losing hair on the head, the beard area might still flourish. It’s like having different sets of soldiers – the ones on the head are more susceptible to DHT’s influence, while the facial hair troops are more resilient, creating a diverse landscape of hair growth across the body.
I don’t think the hair on my head has thinned one bit. However, my shins have gone from pretty hairy to basically hairless in my mid-40s.
my nephew started losing his hair as a teenager and now at 40 rocks his bald head.
he used to tell us that tho he may have a bald head, he makes up for it with his hairy back lol
Like the person said, it’s sensitivity to DHT
First of all there is another form of male pattern baldness which affects the legs. Lots of people think guys lose their leg hair due to wearing office socks, nope, it is DHT. Some guys might lose leg hair but not head hair, even. On the opposite end, people with more severe alopecia can lose facial hair and even eyebrows, it’s just not as common. Again, all of it comes down to sensitivity to DHT, aka the genetic lottery, as well as lifestyle things, like stress, smoking, or taking steroids, that can influence how much DHT you have floating around.
Off topic but Im a 37f… my eyebrows are thinning. Full head of hair, just started getting greys about 4-6yrs ago, no thinning. I have to draw them puppies on. Even tried dying them because I thought maybe they just turned grey (I’m a dirtyblonde) there’s nothing but peach fuzz.
You do lose body hair as you age.
It thins out and you can eventually be hairless all over.
It’s probably not as noticeable as the scalp because you don’t see many octogenarians with little to no clothes on!
The question becomes, what are the differences between cells which make up follicular units on your scalp versus the cells which makeup your beard? Being able to turn off sensitivity to the scalp cells to DHT without the testicular side effects would be a huge market.
Can someone explain why I (40m) started going bald at 16? By the time I was 19 I was very thin up top and by 25 I started shaving my head because the balding was bad.
Why did it hit me so early compared to other men? 16 seems young to me to lose hair.
I had alot of hair on my legs and the tops of my feet as a teen (I evne shaved my feet to make socks more comfortable) now i have almost none, haven’t for decades, and also lost most of my arm hair
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