Some basics doubts about male pattern baldness.

[g31]

In order to understand male pattern baldness more cleary, I would appreciate if someone can help me with this doubts.

1- Are the follicles damaged by DHT? or are they just sleeping?
2- Why does it happens at a certain time-age? I mean, when we were younger, there was not DHT in the scalp or something like that?
3- Why is that there is some regrowth with drugs like Finasteride? Does the fact that you remove DHT from the scalp, allows the follicle to regrowth? Is that mechanism?. And if you stop taking it, will DHT attack the exact same follicles again? because that's how genetically programed is?
4- Minoxidil makes the follicle grow in an "artificial" way, right? Is it the growing mechanism that was damaged in the follicle during male pattern baldness procces or what? I would like to know what exacly happened to the follicle.

Thanks

 

[2bald2young]

1. I thought that the hair becomes minuscule, so you can't see it anymore.
2. no idea maybe at a certain age something is triggered
3. What happens when you completely remover dht from the scalp I don't know since hair that is attacked by dht is already full of dht, but if you stop taking finasteride of course the progress will continue.
4. no idea what happens exactly, but if the know that then we would hae more ways to prevent it or maybe even regrow it.

 

[Vlatch]

1- Only vellus hair remains. In theory, it's possible to reactivate "dormant" follicles, this is what some researchers are trying to do actually, with not much success for now =\

2- I don't know why it would start at 30 for some people.
But in my case, it started as soon as I hit puberty (13), so as soon as my body started to produce a lot of T and DHT. All of a sudden I had tons of dandruff and I lost at least 200 hairs a day. So, no particular switch was really triggered, puberty did its job.

3- Follicles that had been dormant for a short period of time (usually 2 years max) and follicles that were soon to become dormant can suddenly heal due to the dramatic decrease in DHT. Some young vellus hair can become healthy hair again, and the rest of the hair thickens as well.

Let's say your serum DHT was at 600 pg/ml prior to treatment. Hair sensitivity to DHT varies from one person to another. If your follicles start miniaturizing at a DHT concentration of 300 pg/ml and finasteride brings down your DHT to 200, this will halt your loss and cause some regrowth.
If you stop taking finasteride, your DHT levels will go back to 600 and you will lose your hair again.

4- I'm no minoxidil expert. Apparently it acts in a different way than finasteride and helps opening potassium channels, resulting in some regrowth. But it doesn't help with the principal factor of male hair loss, which is DHT, that's why some people say it just hides hair loss. You will still lose hair on minoxidil, but minoxidil hair will cover that up for a while.

 

[peter079]

Most of those questions have not been answered by science yet.

 

[zzzzz]

follicles regrow on finasteride because when they are not being attacked by DHT they have the ability to heal somewhat.

 

[dehoha]

I thought minoxidil works by expanding blood tissue, which helps circulation? I could be wrong though.

 

[dreamermerlin]

I thought minoxidil works by expanding blood tissue, which helps circulation? I could be wrong though.

This is only a part of minoxidil's mechanism of action, because any other vasodilators did nothing for hair.
The true mechanism is not known yet.
In fact minoxidil's action could just be an illusion, it may simply make more hair be in the anagen phase at the same time.

 

[Vlatch]

In fact minoxidil's action could just be an illusion, it may simply make more hair be in the anagen phase at the same time.

It's can't be just that, a lot of people see regrowth in previously bald areas with minoxidil.

 

[dreamermerlin]

It's can't be just that, a lot of people see regrowth in previously bald areas with minoxidil.

Completely bald shiny areas? I think it would be rare...

 

[Vlatch]

Completely bald shiny areas? I think it would be rare...

I'm not talking about full hair restoration of course, but some young vellus hair can turn into terminal hair once again with minoxidil, that's why there is an increase in hair count for most patients in every minoxidil study.

 

[g31]

Thanks guys