Receding hairline is commonly linked to male pattern baldness. It is quite rare to be associated with other causes. The good news, it doesn’t always end with baldness, particularly true if you take appropriate treatments for coping. There are some treatment options. A challenging question, is it reversible?
Causes of receding hairline
Thinning hair on the crown is another symptom of MPB. You can learn more about the phases or stages of how receding hairline of MPB progresses in this section!
Receding hairline usually occurs first. Over time, it will be followed with thinning on the crown. Eventually, partial or complete baldness may occur.
Medically, MPB is categorized into androgenetic alopecia. Androgenetic alopecia in women is known as female-pattern baldness (FPB).
It’s quite rare to find receding hairline in women. Women with FPB usually experience thinning hair on the entire scalp (all over the head). In other words, the pattern of hair loss is different than what happen in MPB.
Age
Age is a common risk factor of receding hairline and male pattern baldness. As people get older, they tend to experience a thinning hair. Therefore, it is common to see a recession along the hairline as the age – though not all people have it!
The National Institutes of Health explains that about 25 percent of men start to encounter hair loss problem by the age of 30. And by the age of 60, about 66 percent of men experience a balding pattern or even suffer from partial /complete baldness.
Genetic traits
Although receding hairline is not always linked to genetic trait, but many times it occurs in men who have a family member of the same condition. Even most of male hair loss problems are linked to hereditary, according to the American Hair Loss Association.
Therefore, experts say that it is a hereditary condition. For such case, the problem may be inherited from one or both of the parents.
Nevertheless, experts believe that other factors have a role. In fact, not all men with a family history of MPB develop the same condition. It seems that a variety of genetic and other factors are likely to play a role in triggering the problem.
How do men inherit MPB? What is specific inherited-gene that causes the problem? There are some studies that have been observing this issue. However so far, the answer is not easy to find. Because again many factors are likely to be involved!
Male hormones
As mentioned before, there may by lots of factors that trigger the problem. Some studies are continuously observing these factors, though most of these risk factors are still unidentifiable yet.
Androgens are essential hormones for men. They have an important role in the male sexual development during puberty or even before birth, stimulating hair growth, and for sexual drive.
The growth of your hair starts in hair follicles. Each hair has a life-cycle. Normally it will grow for about 2-6 years, next step is resting phase, and eventually will fall out (replaced by a new hair). In some men the increased level of androgens affects this life cycle, causing a shorter cycle of hair growth and also the growth of thinner or shorter strands of hair.
Is receding hairline reversible?
Actually, it is generally considered harmless – though some studies show that it may be associated with the increased risk of particular medical conditions. In fact, the treatment for this hair loss problem is often due to for cosmetic reasons.
Many men with it are extremely unhappy, especially true if they know that their receding hairline may be associated with MPB and put them at high risk of having baldness in the future. It may also affect many aspects of their life such as their professional and interpersonal relationships.
Even some may have to change their career paths to cope with! They can do anything to help treat the problem or reverse it. But can it be reversible?
The answer is dependent on the cause and may also be dependent on the kind of treatment you take!
