June 27 2012, 12:48 pm PT | Posted in: Age + Hair Loss Causes
doctor,
since we know DHT is a cause of hairloss, why do some people start showing sings of male pattern baldness later in life? I know a few family friends pople who have had extremely thick beautiful hair norwood 1, with no signs of balding in their 40’s and late 40’s. then in their 50’s they started get thin and crown balding. if dht is the cause then i’m sure these guys had dht in their body in there 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. why all of a sudden in there 50’s the dht decided to choke the follicles?
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the cause of hair loss when it is associated with the genetic disposition of male pattern baldness. The genes that cause hair loss are preprogrammed and often express themselves at different ages.
For example, some men and women get grey hair in their 20’s, whereas some never do. Most men with the balding gene will go bald in their 20’s and 30’s, but there are always exceptions to the rule as you pointed out.
Dht is not the cause of AGA, it is needed to grow hair. Merck found that there was more dht in the balding area than the hairy area, they came to the wrong conclusion thinking that caused AGA, if dht was the cause, the situation would be reversed. The follicles in the hairy area is able to absorb and utilize dht and produce healthy hair, the follicles in the balding area have been rendered dormant by a lack of 5 a-reductase and cannot absorb and utilize dht.
More 5 a-r type II was found in the hairy area than the balding area, it is believed that 5 a-r acts with dht to grow hair. That is why you get so much shedding when you inhibit them using Finas and Dut.