In most cases however, the cause of hair loss in women is due to a gene for baldness which some women inherit just as some men do. A woman who carries the gene for baldness will gradually lose hair over the course of her life. Common male baldness is relatively fast and dramatic compared to baldness in women. It's not unusual for a man to lose almost all his hair by his late 20's. The rate at which common baldness progresses in a woman is very slow and not as obvious.
Male baldness occurs only on the top of the head, leaving a fringe around the back and sides.
The hair thins all over the scalp with no specific, well-defined pattern. Unlike men, the pattern in female hair loss usually leaves the hairline intact. The full extent of normal baldness in women usually does not occur until they are in their 70's. Everyone's hair, male or female, whether they have the baldness gene or not, becomes a little thinner, each hair a little finer and less luxuriant, as they grow older. Unfortunately for women with the baldness gene, not only is their hair finer and less full-bodied, but there is progressively less and less of it.