Mary Buckler has been a barber in Lakeland for 16 years. She has seen the teen-agers who are just beginning to show the signs. By the time many are in their 20s, the pattern becomes more obvious. Five years, she says, can mean the difference between thin and almost bald. Then it all starts to thin out.
Hormones stimulate both hair growth and hair loss.
As a result, changes in hormones have a big impact on hair loss for both men and women and are the most common cause of thinning. Men, though, tend to lose hair in a pattern from the front through the crown. Male-pattern baldness depends on hormones. Men with male-pattern baldness have high levels of DHT in their skin. When this hormone binds to a hormone receptor on the hair follicles, it slows down hair production.