Receding hairline?!? [STAGES, SIGNS & TREATMENT]

 Receding hairline?!? Does your forehead appear to be bigger than it was a few years back? Does your hairline appear to have shifted back creating an “M” shape at the frontal part of the scalp? Then there is a probability that you are facing alopecia of some form. Alopecia simply means hair loss, for any reason whatsoever, from areas of the body wherein normal circumstances it is supposed to grow. Alopecia has many different types but broadly speaking any kind of hair loss is called Alopecia. Receding hairline among men is fairly common, it affects almost 50% of men before the age of 50 and 90 % of the men at some point in their life and 50% of women in their lifetime. The most common affected areas for Alopecia in men include the frontal hairline and the crown. Losing hair from the front recedes the hairline, due to which forehead appears bigger and an “M” shaped hairline is formed and thus the receding hairline is formed. Gradually, the hairline keeps receding, if not controlled at the initial stage and ultimately it becomes bald.

So, what happens in androgenetic alopecia or pattern baldness which creates an appearance of receding hairline? To breakdown Androgenetic alopecia, we have androgen which is a class of hormones that includes testosterone or the male hormones so to speak and genetic which means that it is encoded in your genes. Keep in mind it's not just one gene that is responsible but multiple genes. Therefore it may not be visible in everyone in your family, but there may be a person who is a distant relative facing alopecia and you may have inherited the same genes. So, does it mean that one can't have androgenic alopecia because no one else in one’s family has it? Well, in reality, since multiple genes are involved, a person may have inherited some from the mother and some from the father, and then the combination has the ability to cause it. Hence, the cause of receding hairline can be multiple. Additionally, it tends to actually start earlier with each successive generation! So, if your father or mother started having receding hairline at quite later in life, the chances of you getting a receding hairline earlier than them are higher.

Now, you must understand the stages in the cycle of hair growth :-

Any normal hair has a life-cycle that consists of three phases anagen, catagen and telogen. Anagen is a growing phase and telogen is the resting phase after which the hair falls off and new hair comes in the place which starts with the anagen phase again. Generally what's observed is that there is progressive miniaturization, where each time you have a cycle, then the next hair that grows is actually smaller and finer than its predecessor and it also lasts for a shorter period of time. But keep in mind that these phases are quite long, the anagen phase itself lasts for about 6 years and by the time it reaches the final stage you can add another 6 years, so normal hair will have a life cycle of about 12 years minimum. Post which new hair comes up with a shorter life cycle. Now, people who have receding hairline or are losing hair from the crown area, are probably suffering from alopecia, in them, this cycle gets shortened drastically. As a result, there is a rapid loss of hair.  Now, once androgenetic alopecia kicks in, it is advisable that one must take action to thwart its progress. Generally, the progression of baldness is measured in Norwood-Hamilton-scale (picture below).

Treatment :-

There are multiple ways to slow down this condition of receding hairline which to a certain extent controls the rapid aging of the hair. The most popular ones are Minoxidil and Finasteride. Both of which are FDA approved. There's a lot of myths surrounding minoxidil as well as Finasteride because both of them have been around for a long time. A lot of people have a lot to say about them and a lot to think about them.

Now coming to minoxidil, for it to work a person must give it some time. So if you try it for one month, and it didn't do anything, well, it was not supposed to do anything in one month. This takes about six months to have an effect. Additionally, sometimes you can't see the effect because it keeps the hair loss from getting worse instead of growing new hair. So you might not see any growth of hair but that doesn't mean it's not working at all.

If you want to maintain the benefit that you're getting from it, you have to keep using it. Actually, Minoxidil improves vascularity in the scalp area. With proper blood flowing to the hair follicles the chances of them living longer increases.

Finasteride is recommended for men with alopecia. Propecia is the trade name of it. It mostly prevents worsening of the hair loss just like Minoxidil, but sometimes it does improve regrowth as well. It is basically a DHT blocker that restricts the activities of DHT on the susceptible hair follicles and prevents its action over it.

Minoxidil combined with Finasteride can tackle alopecia effectively.

Another fancy treatment is the laser Comber or laser helmet. It is effective for people with thinning hair as it helps to improve and reduce the amount of shedding or helps reduce the overall loss of hair. Some people like the helmet more than the comb because of its convenience. This kind of set up is also offered by a number of clinics where they have helmets or machines that are like this, you can go a couple of times in a week to get the treatments. But if you own one, it is nice and convenient.

When it comes to vitamins and supplements Iron and vitamin D are extremely essential. Both of these are necessary for normal hair cycling. Excessive Vitamin D may worsen hair loss so do keep that in check. Biotin Tablets are also popular to help inhibit receding hairline.

Now, if you want some prolong treatment that can give evident results in most of the cases,you should contemplate hair transplant as an option. It doesn't work for telogen effluvium which is simply shedding of hair in large volumes due to some kind of stress, as the hair loss in such cases is expected to come back after a period of few months, so hair transplant is not needed in such a case. Also if a person has alopecia areata which is an autoimmune disease and is a subtype of alopecia, where hair loss is observed in circular patches across the scalp, hair transplant is not recommended but proper consultation with a physician is required, and has different mode of treatment for the same.

In hair transplant surgeons usually take a strip of healthy hair, generally from the backside of the scalp which for some reason tends to stay immune from the actions of DHT and is planted into the areas where baldness is experienced. And for whatever reason, the hairs remember where they came from and they grow as if they're growing in the back of the scalp. Eventually, they grow nice and thick just like they did before.

Conclusion – Receding hairline is quite general and is faced by the majority of the population. There are effective treatments available to reduce its intensity. No need to be super conscious about it. Just make sure to tackle it at the initial stage itself.