Why Do We Go Bald? / What Causes Hair Loss? DEBUNKED

for many of us it's a worry that starts as soon as we hit adulthood how long will that lovely bouffant of hair stay around there's plenty of theories and hearsay about how your everyday lifestyle can affect hair growth and lead to balding over washing stress styling too much testosterone and even too much sex our suggested culprits to name but a few so what can we really do or avoid doing to try and keep hold of our luscious locks i'm stu this is debunked and we're here to sort the truths and the miss and the facts from the misconceptions worryingly hair loss can start as early as your teens with 20 of men suffering from some form of boarding by the age of 20 and then it just gets worse from there because 30 percent of men will experience hair loss by 30 years old 40 by 40 and half will see their follicles fall by age 50. you don't have to be a genius to see the pattern here so what's going on well we tend to lose our head hair in one of three ways on different areas of the scalp it recedes we develop a bald patch or it thins out the factors that decide the type of hair loss we experience are believed to be genetic for example studies have shown that twins will lose their hair at the same age over the same period of time and in the same pattern okay so now i've set the scene let's drill down into some science and first take a look at the good old receding hairline this is termed by temporal recession and is characterized by the triangle of hair that we slowly lose over each temple starting at the anterior hairline and moving backwards creating the familiar m shape we associate with receded hair this can precede any other form of hair loss by many years in fact this happens to some degree in most boys as they hit puberty though the hair loss is usually quite mild so if you're in your teens and have begun to notice your hairline retreating don't panic this is a perfectly natural phase of development and your hair is unlikely to continue receding with any great urgency in fact less than five percent of men retain their straight anterior hairline that they have in boyhood so don't feel too bad if you're among the 95 percent the next form with hair loss is the development of a bald patch on the crown of the head that spreads out in all directions creating a circular baldness in some cases an area at the bottom of the circle can remain creating a sort of hoof shape what's interesting about these two forms of hair loss is that the hair we lose seems pre-programmed to behave in this way experiments have shown that when hairs next to an increasingly boarding area are transplanted to another location on the body the hair follicles continue to shrink and fall out on schedule so they were still on the head the third common form of hair loss is thinning which occurs at the top of the head and is the most typical form among women affecting over 75 percent of the female population and 85 percent of men as they age with this kind you could lose up to 50 percent of your overall head hair before you even noticed any balding for women they may realize that their ponytail for example is less full whereas for men it's harder to remain camouflaged as we tend to have shorter hair so an actual bald patch may be the first thing we notice to find out why we lose our hair it's important to first understand the natural cycle of hair growth and to know when it's perfectly normal for hairs to fall out and when it's not hair is made up of two main parts the hair follicle and the hair shaft the follicle includes the dermal papilla which supplies blood nutrients and the bulb where cells divide to grow new hair the hair shaft is what is made from these cells and is pushed out of the follicle resulting in the new hair growth we see appearing through our scalp now we know what we're looking at here's the three phases of each hair's life cycle one the growth phase this is called anagen the longer your hair follicles continue in this phase the more hair it will produce and the longer it will grow this tends to last two to six years which is why we can end up with such long hair two the regression phase lasting up to two weeks this is a transitional stage called catagen where the hair detaches from the dermal papilla and blood supply and growth comes to an end the follicle shrinks and a bulb of keratin is formed acting as a root to keep the hair in the scalp this is known as a club hair three the resting phase called telogen at this stage the follicle lies dormant for around three months basically doing nothing with your hair not growing there is actually a proceeding subface of this referred to as oxygen this is where the hair actually falls out and then the cycle starts again your hairs will be at different points in the cycle at different times so that you tend to have a full head of hair at any one time during this cycle however the average adult will lose roughly 100 hairs per day but with around 100 000 hairs on your head you're unlikely to notice losing 0.1 percent of them unless your hair's long enough to clog up the drain when the number of hairs that fall out start to significantly increase you are likely to be suffering from androgenetic alopecia which is more commonly known as pattern hair loss or pattern baldness this occurs when the hair follicles slowly shrink the growth phase reduces and the resting phase gets longer the now smaller hair follicle produces a thinner hair and as the follicle continues to get smaller with each new cycle it becomes less and less well anchored to the scalp making it easier to fall out over time a reduced growing phase means the hair cannot grow as long and eventually the growth phase becomes so short that the hair doesn't even have a chance to peek through the surface of the skin which is a roundabout way of saying you're going bald so what causes the follicle to start shrinking well this brings us on to what clinical professor neil saddik claims is one of the most common misconceptions namely that having lots of sex and overflowing with testosterone can cause baldness this you'll be glad to hear is untrue but you can see why this myth gained traction because it is instead a sensitivity to testosterone where it is converted into a hormone called dihydrotestosterone or dht which actually causes the follicular downsizing although you shouldn't be too resentful of dht as this hormone helps form your male characteristics like a deep voice and increased muscle mass ironically it's actually essential for growing body hair and facial hair yet detrimental to head hair but hey a lot of guys have managed to rock this look the expendable it's like a commercial for hair loss when you see the full lineup nevertheless why are some of us converting more testosterone into dht and so boarding earlier than others one culprit is an enzyme called five alpha reductase found in the sebaceous glands under your scalp it is here that five ar converts testosterone into the dreaded dht as levels of 5ar increase more and more of your testosterone will be converted into dht this in turn stimulates more production of the skin's natural lubricant sebum and more hair loss will occur now if you're not already bald then how would you possibly know if you have any of these worryingly high levels this is where family heritage comes into play because the best way to identify if your dht levels are likely to be high is to look back at your family history i.e if your dad's bored you're likely to have higher levels of these substances too and so be in the same situation as him on the other hand your father can't take all the blame as you may also be able to point the finger at your mother one of the largest studies on male hair loss was conducted by the university of edinburgh in 2017 it looked at 52 000 men and identified 287 different genetic signals that linked to hair loss their findings suggested that the long-standing theory that men inherit hair loss from their mother's side often thought to be from her father does genuinely hold some weight in the study researchers identified that while most of the genetic signals were scattered across the genome 40 of them were linked directly with the x chromosome which we inherit from our mothers on the plus side if your mum's father had a full head of hair through to a ripe old age and you might be lucky but if he was as bored as an egg and i'm afraid you may be heading the same way it is common though for these traits to skip a generation so there's still hope yet either way we can't do a great deal about any of this as it's all just genetics unless you go down the route of using anti-dht medication however it's not a great idea to mess with your dht levels as this is the sex hormone that essentially makes you male so blocking or reducing the production of this before you finish developing as an adult is seriously not recommended heritage and medication aside if you know that your hair tends to get oily or greasy quickly you most likely have a higher production of sebum so the best thing you can do is try and manage the amount on your scalp by washing your hair regularly otherwise this can lead to issues like blocked pores that can consequently be detrimental to hair growth leading trichologist or hair doctor annabelle kingsley as well as specialists at the uk's leading hair loss clinic recommend washing your hair daily and claim that the long-standing myth that over-washing strips your hair of its natural oils is just that a myth your scalp is skin just like your face and it's important to keep it clean each day if you're finding that washing your hair regularly causes your scalp to be dry then switch to a more sensitive shampoo aside from dht there are other factors at play when it comes to hair loss a survey in 2016 found that 22 percent of men were concerned that frequent use of their hair styling products would cause them to go bald the theory goes that caking your hair in a chemical based glute like gel or parmaid will block your hair follicles and inhibit growth so is there any evidence to suggest that these lifestyle choices are actually causing harm well the hair itself is not a living material the only living part of the hair is made up inside the follicle once it sprouts out it's essentially dead and so long as you only apply your preferred styling glue to the hair not the scalp then all you are doing is coating the strands and then washing it off at the end of the day it is highly recommended however to avoid applying or massaging any styling products to the scalp itself as this can irritate and inflame the skin causing itching and flaking and could be detrimental to hair growth but even in a fairly extreme example trichologist vanessa bailey says that they won't cause you long-term damage i once came across a patient who did ruin their hair with excessive use of hair gel the product was applied in excess to the hair every day without the hair being shampooed for a period of three weeks however this was only cosmetic damage of course and didn't mean he became more susceptible to baldness once the damaged ends were removed a healthy head of hair remained on the other hand if you do have a sensitive scalp it's worth staying away from styling products that contain a high level of alcohol as this will just dry and irritate your scalp a water-based product is often considered the best option and it will be easier to rinse out without the need for shampoo yet our worries don't stop there with a now freshly washed sopping wet head the next concern is whether towel drying will cause our hair to fall out interestingly it does but not in the way you may think our hairs are protected by cuticles not these but these you see each hair strand is essentially made up of fibers and these are covered by a protective outer layer known as cuticles when our hair is wet the strand swells making the cuticles open then when it is dry the cuticles close back down if you rub a towel vigorously across your wet hair when the cuticles are open the protective layer is vulnerable to friction damage and will eventually be eroded away exposing the fibres without the protective outer layer these fibers are no longer held together and will then fray and break away this then appears to us that our hair is falling out but the damage is only being done to the actual hair shaft not the follicle itself so towel drying will not lead to permanent hair loss if like most guys you do dry your hair like this then it is highly recommended to use a conditioner as this is designed to protect the cuticles and close them back down and interestingly letting your hair dry naturally isn't the next best option a study in 2011 experimented with different hair drying methods and observed the damage they caused the results showed that the best approach was to blow dry your hair in a continuous motion with a hair dryer held 15 centimeters roughly six inches away from the hair it also found that the hair cuticles suffered more damage as the temperature increased so a medium to low temperature setting was preferable right so now that we have a clean and dry healthy head of hair what other factors are out there trying to rob us of our priced locks a poll we recently conducted with our audience showed that 33 of people have real concerns about how stress can cause hair loss the good news for the 33 is that this doesn't cause androgenetic alopecia or pattern baldness the common hair loss we've been talking about but there is an autoimmune disease known as alopecia areata which causes you to lose hair in unpredictable circular patches this form of hair loss has traditionally been considered a stress induced disorder however there is very little scientific evidence to support this theory severe stress may be a trigger in a small number of cases but there are other factors like hormones viruses allergies and toxins that all play a part and it's believed it is when several factors combine that prompt the development of alopecia areata the good news is that depending on the extent of the hair loss four out of five people will recover fully within a year now i don't want to stress anyone out for obvious reasons but there is another form of hair loss that you may be more susceptible to known as telogen effluvium now this is a reactive type of hair loss and can be induced by stress with all your hairs happily going about their individual life cycles each with their own schedule stress or trauma can disrupt this cycle and shock a large percentage of them into the resting phase no matter what stage they were at by resetting or re-synchronizing these hairs back to this phase it means that the hairs won't actually fall out for another three months once they reach the oxygen phase and when they do it will give the appearance of thinning dermatologist dr lauren plock explains a theory behind why our body reacts to stress in this way when our body experiences stress it essentially goes into survival mode and diverts resources away from functions that are non-essential for life such as hair growth on the positive side of this form of hair loss is rarely permanent it will normally grow back and return to its regular life cycle within three to five months of the initial shedding so now that we have a decent understanding of most of the environmental genetic factors that do and don't cause hair loss what can we do when our hair is genuinely on its way out well there is a four billion dollar hairy growth industry worldwide so surely some of it must work luckily a discovery in 2018 by dr nathan hawkshaw may have finally got to the root of the problem during his investigations he found a useful side effect of a drug called cyclosporine a primarily used for organ transplants to stop the patient's body rejecting the new organ this drug also enhanced hair growth hawks identified that it was affecting a protein called sfrp1 in particular which promotes follicle growth with further exploration he discovered a pre-existing osteoporosis drug that targeted this protein and so he applied it to scalp samples we usually do experiments for over a week we put the hair follicles in a dish and this drug enhanced hair shaft elongation within two days but it also kept the hairs healthier when you look at them they're larger thicker hair follicles so it's quite promising though for many this discovery feels like yet another fruitless promise as scientists have been announcing that the cure for baldness is only around the corner for years spencer cobrin author and founder of the american hair loss association is continually skeptical having heard these claims for the past 20 years when i wrote my book in 1998 they had just found the hair loss gene there was talk of hair clones we were like this is it we're going to cure this in five years more than two decades later and we're in the same position alternatively the upside of having only specific areas of the head that are prone to the common types of boarding is that there are areas namely the back and sides of the head that do not go bored meaning procedures like transplants are now possible and easier than ever with modern scientific advances currently you can have 4 500 grafts in a single session which is close to the amount you would need to cover the top portion of a completely bald head so for some going board is now optional although it doesn't come cheap a hair transplant can cost anywhere up to forty thousand dollars depending on the level of hair loss for some the next best option is a pharmaceutical drug called finasteride better known by its brand name propecia across the whole of our research for this video this is the treatment that seems to come up trumps literally us president trump puts his albeit strange but full head of hair down to the regular use of propecia everybody else seems to like it in fact the american hair loss association claims that it stops the progression of hair loss in 86 of men except again this is a dht reducing treatment so should it only be used after a certain age remember dht is a sex hormone and there are potential negative sexual side effects of taking finasteride so consult a doctor when going down this path but drugs like these only stop hair from falling out anyway they are not considered to promote regrowth propecia still isn't exactly an affordable option for most with six months supply of tablets costing around 360 dollars if you do go down this route hair transplant surgeon dr ragu reddy offers a useful life hack propecia lasts for about 16 hours so even if you take it every other day it should still work however if medication like this is too costly what about over-the-counter hair boosting shampoos like the ones that contain caffeine german engineering for your hair shampoo is too small a word for it alpazin provides caffeine to your hair so it can actually help to reduce hair loss well the uk advertising standards authority have actually banned this brand from advertising that their products can reduce hair loss as there is not enough evidence that it has any effect and according to trichologist annabelle kingsley despite some of the claims a shampoo or conditioner won't be able to stop or slow hair loss nor help with the receding hairline or thicken hair that's becoming thinner so if your hair is already on its way out and unless you want to invest some serious dollar into keeping it then cobrin's advice may be more suitable cut your hair as short as you can if you can own it you can beat boldness as to why we go bald no real genetic advantage has ever been identified there are however theories that in the age of the hunter-gatherers when life expectancies were significantly lower and so a bald head rarer it became associated with strength wisdom and social maturity making them the natural choice for leader in a group although there isn't really any signs to back this up if you are lucky enough to have a full head of hair and are keen on keeping it that way there are a few simple habits that you should adopt into your everyday lifestyle wash your hair daily with a sensitive shampoo if you have dry hair then wash it every other day and make sure you gently massage the shampoo into your scalp as its primary purpose is to clean the scalp of any sebum buildup gently dry your hair ideally with a hair dryer following these guides use a water-based styling product and rinse it out at the end of each day keep on top of your mental health so that you can deal with stress meditation techniques like mindfulness can go a long way to helping you with the stresses of the everyday and it only takes a few minutes and finally eat a healthy diet deficiencies in iron vitamin d and b vitamins have been closely linked to hair loss plus biotin rich foods like nuts seeds sweet potatoes or tomatoes help condition the scalp to provide a healthy environment for the hair follicles it's also worth making sure you eat enough protein as the keratin hair is made from is actually a form of hard protein as leading trichologist annabelle kingsley puts it if you aren't eating correctly no matter what products you use on your hair it simply won't grow to its best ability thank you for watching check out the video that's on screen now and if you haven't subscribed then please click on the button below we have a patreon page and if you'd like to support us click on the button and check out our rewards we want to make more videos and it's your support that helps make this possible we hope to see you next time you

Channel: Debunked

Views: 1,186,407

Rating: 4.8744917 out of 5

Keywords: what causes baldness, why do men go bald, balding, hair loss, can stress, hair loss cure, bald men attractive, balding cure, balding men, shaving, hair growth, alopecia, alopecia areata, hair, hair falling out, anti hair fall, anti hair loss, hair fall, hair is falling out, losing my hair, hair transplant, myth busters, debunked, debunk, myth, fake news, urban legend, fact, lies taught, baldness, stress, follicle, receding, thinning hair, Physics, Biology, finasteride, minoxidil

Id: OOpq4YyP3cY

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019