5 Signs of Balding in Men (And What to Do About It)

Past puberty, the percentage of men experiencing balding roughly correlates with their age. For example, balding in men who are 60 years old is about 60%-66%.

Despite that, balding early for your age group could have incredible psychological implications. Depression is a serious side-effect of losing what many men consider a symbol of their manliness and vitality. Balding symptoms and signs of balding differ from one type to another.

There are solutions for hair loss.

How can you tell what the signs of balding are, and what type of hair loss may be occurring? Keep reading for five signs of balding and possible solutions to the problem!

1. Scaly Irritated Plaques on Your Scalp

Irritation and scales aren’t always simple dandruff or seborrheic dermatitis. At times those can get severe enough that physically scratching will take hairs along with it, though.

Thick plaques can develop from another malady that affects the follicles. Ringworm is an often-missed diagnosis by someone thinking it’s simple dandruff patches or a contact allergy to soaps and detergents.

Ringworm is not a worm, but rather it’s a fungus infecting the top layer of your skin. Places to commonly find tinea (or any dermatophyte) is the hair shaft (cuticle), scalp, nails, between toes, and in the groin area.

You may know two manifestations by their names “jock itch” and “athlete’s foot.” That’s because close contact, hot and humid weather, sweating, and showering in common facilities all spread the fungi easily.

A place it’s commonly missed is on the scalp. It causes patches of heavy plaque, as well as weakened hair. Fortunately, it doesn’t attack the follicle itself, and a dose of terbinafine hydrochloride or griseofulvin clears it up.

In the meantime, though, the side effects include sun sensitivity, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and dizziness.

Medicated shampoo is also usually prescribed including the ingredients ketoconazole and selenium sulfide. These shampoos only reduce the growth of the fungal infection without actually killing it.

It’s important that all in the household also follow protocols to reduce or eliminate spread and reinfection since it’s so communicable. It’s a slow process of recovery, taking more than a month in most cases.

Untreated, tinea capitis (ringworm) develops into patchy loss of hair along with the plaque. Further development includes kerion, a severe reaction of inflammation, as well as favus, or chronic inflammation from infection.

It’s best to take care of it right away if you suspect you may have a ringworm infection.

2. Bald Spots Appear in Random Patches

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune response that causes the body to attack its own hair follicles. It can be triggered, as most autoimmune responses, by increased stress. It can affect whole patches of skin or the whole scalp.

In advanced cases of AA or alopecia areata, it is called alopecia universalis. Over 2.1% of people in the U.S. are at a risk for developing alopecia areata (AA) or AU, or 6.8 million people.

Alopecia areata is a non-curable condition. What often happens is that the follicles are under such stress they continue on a telogen phase (more on that later).

Even if hair doesn’t regrow on its own, there are treatments that can help. Because it’s non-curable, many people confuse that with untreatable.

You can manage symptoms of alopecia areata with corticosteroids for suppressing the immune system. UV light therapy may be used to promote hair follicle growth and blood circulation.

Most people develop alopecia areata before 30 years of age. Similar to many autoimmune disorders, they aren’t fully apparent until after puberty.

It’s likely you can get regrowth of hair to occur with alopecia areata. However, because it can’t be cured, many people experience massive hair loss again later. The cycle of hair loss and regrowth of all follicles may align.

3. Sudden Significant Hair Loss

Alopecia areata and telogen effluvium are two forms of hair loss related to sudden loss of hair. There are a number of reasons telogen effluvium will come about, but all of them due to a major stressor.

Alopecia areata is a life-long condition but can be triggered by major stress or shock. Part of the issue is a disruption of the hair growth cycle.

There is a normal cycle of hair growth, rest, and shedding, much like the cycle of the seasons on the earth. Imagine the cycle of no growth, the dormant state, as winter for your hair follicle. An unusually cold autumn season can trigger leaves to change and drop early.

High stresses in the form of a shock or ongoing chronic stress can do the same for us. Sometimes this causes hair to go into a resting dormant state early. This most commonly is seen in 65% of chemotherapy patients when they lose their hair across their whole body.

With these kinds of hair loss, it’s important to become familiar with the four stages of hair growth by name. The four phases are:

• Anagen
• Catagen
• Telogen
• Exogen

Anagen is a growing phase that lasts between two to seven years. The catagen phase occurs as the hair follicle begins shrinking. A three-month resting phase is the telogen phase.

Lastly, the exogen phase is when the follicle “lets go” of the hair and sheds it. At this point, a new anagen phase takes over.

To promote hair regrowth from a telogen effluvium event, three vitamins are vital. Vitamins B, C, and E are potent weapons in your fight against hair loss.

Vitamin E has powerful antioxidant qualities to prevent free radical damage. Vitamin B comes in many varieties, such as biotin. These help the follicle grow strong and healthy and increase metabolism (growth rate).

Vitamin C, on the other hand, helps to build collagen which is an important connective tissue in skin and hair.

The most important thing, though, is to reduce the stress that caused you to lose your hair in the first place. It could take more than a month of concerted effort before you’ll see any kind of hair regrowth.

4. Losing Hair Across Your Whole Body

Alopecia universalis is the name for full-body hair loss. The greatest sign for having this type of hair loss is the loss of eyebrows, eyelashes, and general body hair. You do lose hair on your head, but losing hair on the rest of your body is the greatest sign of this type of alopecia.

This type of hair loss even includes coarse pubic hair and the inside of your nose. Itching, crawling, and burning feelings in affected areas are also possible.

The most common reason for this kind of alopecia is autoimmune disease or chemotherapy. It may even run in families, although the underlying reasons for alopecia universalis and alopecia areata remain obscure. For most people, it’s a genetic inheritance.

Extreme stress may also trigger alopecia universalis, the same as alopecia areata and telogen effluvium.

The treatment for alopecia universalis can include corticosteroids for suppressing the immune system, and even drugs for stimulating the immune system locally. UV light therapy may be used to promote hair follicle growth and blood circulation.

Chemotherapy is another reason you may be losing your hair across the whole body, not only your head. Telogen effluvium is local or can manifest body-wide.

Reducing stress and detoxing your body (including your hair products) will go far with regrowing and recovering your hair’s natural state.

5. Noticeable, Gradual Thinning on Top

The most common type of balding in men is associated with male pattern hair loss. The formal name for this kind of hair loss is “androgenetic alopecia.”

Androgenetic alopecia also affects women, but the pattern comes out differently. Approximately 95% of men suffering from hair loss and baldness can attribute it to this androgenetic alopecia type of hair loss.

In numbers, that means about 50 million men and 30 million women in the United States suffer from androgenetic alopecia. It’s caused, not surprisingly, by androgens.

DHT is the most common androgen hormone that causes hair loss and is derived from testosterone. DHT stands for dihydrotestosterone and comes about because of reactions of testosterone with the 5-alpha reductase enzyme.

In women, it’s more commonly produced by DHEA. It can also indicate a higher risk of PCOS or polycystic ovary syndrome.

DHT presents in the prostate, hair follicles, and skin. It’s essential for prostate health, but with too much DHT men develop what’s called “benign prostate hypertrophy” or enlarged prostate. Because of this link, certain patterns of baldness can even indicate prostate cancer.

Androgenic hormones are important for hair growth, too, though. During puberty, the increase in these levels converts hairs from vellus hairs (like the fine hair of women’s and children’s bodies) into terminal hairs.

The key is timing and quantity. As time goes on, without a reduction in these androgenic hormones, the follicle becomes damaged and dies.

What to Do About Balding Symptoms

A common treatment for DHT-related baldness is finasteride. You use finasteride alone or with another medication for a variety of DHT balance issues. For hair loss, it often goes under the brand name of “Propecia.”

Because DHEA is more common in women, it isn’t used to treat women with androgenetic alopecia. It’s also not for use in children, since disrupting hormones can cause lasting consequences in development.

Finasteride will control various conditions but requires ongoing use. It isn’t a cure for anything.

Common side effects are quite dramatic and sometimes life-altering. The most powerful and common effects are:

• Erectile dysfunction
• Lack of sexual desire
• Painful ejaculation and reduced ejaculation volume
• Testicle pain
• Depression

These effects may be temporary or permanent, and the research is still ongoing.

PFS or Post-Finasteride Syndrome is a real and scary proposition for many men undergoing hereditary baldness or male pattern baldness. They wonder if they can be one of the lucky ones that dodge the symptoms of something they know will keep them from going bald.

It’s a fair question, given the knowledge that finasteride works in the overwhelming majority of men. Sadly, it also almost always comes with the above side effects.

What’s a man to do?

Better Solutions for Hair Loss

Don’t lose heart. Finasteride is not the only treatment for this kind of alopecia, and there could be another solution.

RU-58841 is a drug that has been in development since the 1970s. It’s now finally making its way into the hair loss prevention community. It also blocks DHT, but only locally.

It’s a topical treatment that dries in about a minute. It’s colorless, odorless, and won’t cause erectile dysfunction.

In combination with vitamin E and a proprietary blend of moisturizers, it also helps to prevent dry and flaking skin. As of yet, there are no known systemic side effects for RU-58841.

The way it works is by presenting DHT from attaching to the hair follicle. It also has a one-hour halflife, which is sixteen times less than finasteride.

Balding in Men: Not the End of the World

Balding in men is not only not the end of the world, it’s also quite common. But it can also be prevented, reduced, or reversed depending on the type of alopecia you’re experiencing.

That’s why it’s important to identify and diagnose your type of hair loss as early as possible and get on track to recovery, restoration, and preservation. Of course, it’s always a good idea to consult your dermatologist before trying something new.