HG Smart

It’s a sad biological fact of life that as we age, our hair slowly thins. The way it works is quite simple. There’s a natural cycle of growth, resting, shedding and regrowth. It usually takes between eighteen and twenty-four months for each hair to go through this cycle. Each time a hair is shed, the next hair to grow in its place is slightly thinner than the last. Thus, over your lifetime, your hair will move from thick and bouncy, to thin and flat. Worse, after several cycles, no new hair grows from the “old” follicle. So, although there are a number of different causes of hair loss, the most common is simple aging where the hair on your head gets progressively thinner and falls out. In men, this is usually male pattern baldness and it first makes itself known through a receding hairline. A second patch forms on the top of the head leading to the characteristic pattern.

The question most often asked by men is whether, if they have managed to get to forty without showing any signs of the pattern forming, they are “safe” from baldness. From the first paragraph, you will see this question slightly misses the point. Hair loss is unavoidable. No matter what you do or drugs you take, two-thirds of all men start balding by the age of sixty. The percentage rises steadily after that with men retaining only a small area of coverage by the age of eighty. The only difference between younger and older men lies in their attitude. By the time they are officially seniors and retired from the mainstream of life, their social expectations have changed (along with their waist and height measurements). They are more accepting of their “natural” beauty. So the answer to the question is that, no sign of hair loss at forty is great news, but there’s no guarantee your hair will not start to fall out tomorrow.

If your hair loss does start at forty or above, what can you do? Well, you can cover up the problem. Baseball caps are perhaps too obvious, but better than many of the hairpieces and weaves on the market. More dramatic is the option of hair transplants, or, if you want to delay the loss, there’s propecia. This modifies the way in which the chemistry of the hormones changes in your scalp. Even over forty, the effect is still good. The hair loss will slow significantly. Maybe it will stop for a while. But, unlike the men who start earlier, there’s less chance of any regrowth. This is the sad reality. Even with the power of propecia, hair loss is not going away and, once you are over fifty, it will slowly start up again. So, as you age, come to terms with the march of time. You cannot prevent the years from having their effect. Instead of fighting, you might just as well embrace the change and consider yourself still attractive. With that self-confidence, you never know what will happen. Women may find you beautiful and life will get better for you.