On average it takes 15-25 years for men to go completely bald. This process can begin at any age. About two thirds of men are either bald or have a balding pattern by the age of 60. In a nutshell, there is no particular age when you can expect to see hair loss.
Male pattern hair loss progresses rapidly between the ages of 20-30. After the age of 30-35, shedding starts slowing down, as the levels of androgens in the blood start reducing. In older men with androgenetic alopecia, the hair loss slows down even more.
About 70% of men will lose hair as they get older. And 25% of bald men see first signs of hair loss before age 21. “Recent advances offer a lot of hope in both treating and preventing different types of baldness,” says dermatologist Amy Kassouf, MD.
Not all guys or men that are genetically predisposed to male pattern baldness will go totally bald. Male-pattern hair loss can present itself as a slightly receded hairline, as diffuse thinning, or just as a small amount of hair loss around the temples.
You'll notice the signs of a receding hairline if your hair begins to thin at the temples, creating a more prominent widow's peak and a hairline that resembles the letter M or a horseshoe. Or your hairline might seem to recede or thin all the way across (Murphrey, 2021).
In most cases, hair loss actually can be prevented, but taking early action is important. “Baldness is preventable, but early intervention is key. If a person starts to notice thinning and shedding or hair loss of any kind, it is important to get on a regimen as soon as possible.
One popular myth is that hair loss in men is passed down from the mother's side of the family while hair loss in women is passed down from the father's side; however, the truth is that the genes for hair loss and hair loss itself are actually passed down from both sides of the family.
Going back to the hormones theory, you may be wondering why all men don't experience hair loss if they all produce testosterone and therefore, create the same testosterone by-product. This is thought to be down to the fact that some men create more than others, and some have more receptors than others.
Thankfully, technology has advanced so that you can actually grow your own hair back with a minimally-invasive, more heavy-duty treatment. With a follicular unit extraction (FUE) treatment, surgeons can transplant viable hair follicles and implant them in bald spots.
For younger women, thinning hair is usually a result of poor nutrition, stress, disease, or changes in medications, like birth control. Crash diets, weight loss, and low iron levels are all reasons why you may notice hair falling out or changes to hair growth.
Unfortunately, male pattern baldness will not stop by itself so you will have to decide if you want to accept it or treat it.
So, for the questions “Do women like bald men?” the overwhelming majority of women gave positive answers. 87.5% of women of different ages and nationalities surveyed find bald men attractive compared to only 12.5% of women, who gave negative answer.
Men all have roughly the same amount of testosterone. Certain genes make your hair follicles more or less sensitive to the amount of testosterone in your body. Basically, an enzyme converts testosterone into a substance that shrinks hair follicles.
It usually takes 15-25 years to go bald, but can be quicker. Typically, at first the hair begins to thin (recede) at the sides (temples). At the same time, the hair usually becomes thin on the top of the head. A bald patch gradually develops in the middle of the scalp.
A man can more accurately predict his chances of developing male pattern baldness by observing his mother's father than by looking at his own father. Each hair sits in a cavity in the skin called a follicle. Over time the follicle can shrink causing the hair to become shorter and finer.
The X or female chromosome carries the primary baldness gene, and men inherit this X chromosome from their mothers. This makes the hereditary factor around baldness most dominant on your mother's side.
Hair Loss
Even though many men experience male pattern baldness naturally, a decrease in the amount of testosterone may also be a significant contributing factor to balding. Hair loss in patients with low testosterone isn't limited to the scalp, thinning body hair may also be a signal of a testosterone deficiency.
No evidence of a link between hair loss and premature death was found in a large and well-known Danish study published in 1998 in The Journals of Gerontology. Perhaps surprisingly, other signs of aging like wrinkles and gray hair were not linked to early deaths, either.
But baldness can be deceiving: Two-thirds of men face hair loss by age 35, and a bad genetic hand is often to blame. Male-pattern baldness is an inherited sensitivity to dihydrotestosterone (DHT, a by-product of testosterone), which leads to finer hair, a receding hairline, and finally a deserted scalp.
If you can easily see your scalp through the hair, it's thin. If you can't, it's medium or thick.
The most obvious of the stages of hair loss is a noticeable change in your hairline that you can clearly see. Baldness often begins in the hairline, with the flat or mildly receded hairline you previously had turned into a more obvious M-shaped hairline — basically, bald with hair on sides.
Male pattern baldness does not indicate a medical disorder, but it may affect self-esteem or cause anxiety. The hair loss is usually permanent.
There are racial differences, however, in the incidence of male pattern baldness. The highest rates are found among Caucasians, followed by Afro-Caribbeans. Chinese and Japanese men have the lowest rates. For some unknown reason, this form of hair loss is does not occur among Native Americans.