When I was eighteen years old a close friend of mine stared at the top of my scalp and stated: “Dude, looks like you have a little bald patch!” But I was only a teenager and it seemed so ridiculous that I didn’t think a lot of it. That was until my early twenties when I noticed in a photograph that my widow’s peak was creeping back higher on my head. The obvious widow’s peak is a visible feature for most of the guys in my family so again I dismissed it hoping that was as far as it might go. The nearer I got to thirty the more apparent it became that my hairline was getting even worse and that I was experiencing hair loss on my crown too. I was mortified. I was still a young man. How was this possible? My confidence took a nose dive and I was feeling a little miserable.
It really is an awful feeling when you discover that your hair is thinning especially when you look around your social group at all the full heads of hair, you feel cheated and isolated. Furthermore there is the added strain on you from your peers because in the modern world a full head of hair is synonymous with youth and virility. It has you questioning yourself. Are you going to look unfavorable to a potential employer? Or even worse yet might you be ignored by girls?
There are many myths with regards to hair loss. Wearing headwear will not make your hair fall out nor will the use of shampoo and conditioner. It is in fact natural to lose hair; in fact, the average person will lose between 50 and 100 hairs per day. But for some these hairs are not always replaced. The most common cause of thinning hair in men is the genetic condition androgenic alopecia which is more commonly referred to as male pattern baldness. Men with this particular condition have greater amounts of the hormone known as 5(alpha)-reductase, which transforms testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT attacks hair follicles, gradually shrinking them which leads to shorter, thinner hair until eventually the hair follicle dies.
If you have read this far and can relate then you have probably come to grips with your thinning hair but what can you do about it? You could try your best to hide it possibly using the good old comb over or in my situation the comb forward. Although that isn’t going to work permanently and you will gradually wind up resembling Donald Trump.
A pair of commonly used hair loss remedies are Rogaine and Propecia. Rogaine is a liquid that is applied directly to the top of the head. Rogaine works to expand shrunken hair follicles to enable them to produce lengthier, fuller hairs. Propecia is a pill that acts to lessen the generation of DHT (the hormone that we established is responsible for shrinking the hair follicles to begin with). The issue with these two treatments is that they contain finastercide which has been connected to erectile dysfunction and reduced libido. The other problem is that the minute you stop using these products your hair will go back to the original condition.
Another option is laser treatment where a low level laser is used to stimulate hair follicles and entice hair growth. This is actually something which I have tried personally. I once gave a company thousands of dollars for a plan composed completely of the previously mentioned drugs plus some laser hair sessions. There was minimal improvement. Bear in mind that the results will vary as obviously the process effects everyone differently; nonetheless, I surely couldn’t see the justification of the multi-thousand dollar sale price.
The previous treatments work on the philosophy that you catch your hair loss early. If it’s too far gone for you there are a few cosmetic solutions such as a hair piece. These can be costly and hard to maintain. And in spite of seeming realistic, all it requires is for somebody to run their fingers through your hair to understand that it isn’t real. You might also consider hair transplants where healthy hair is harvested from the other areas of your head and transferred to the bald spots. It’s usually an expensive or painful process and there is the chance of scarring.
One more option and this is one that I began leaning towards recently is to just go bald gracefully. Shave your head. Look at some of the guys out there making this look trendy. Michael Jordan, Vin Diesel and Bruce Willis just to name a few. True, it will likely be off-putting to shave that first strip, but there are men out there with flawless hairlines that choose this as a style since it looks hot and in many cases makes them look younger.
You need to understand that losing your locks is not the end of the universe despite the fact that it is disheartening because it is something you don’t have any control over. Just remember you are not alone with reports proving that one in four men will experience hair loss before their 30th birthday. It’s not your haircut that defines you. It’s how well you carry yourself.
Everyone knows what it feels like to be in a rut, trapped in a pattern of circumstances that we cannot escape. Sometimes, those circumstances change by themselves, but more often we need to take action to ensure that we don’t become stuck in a rut.
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