page_title: Pattern hair loss
section_title: Myths
hierarchical_section_title: Pattern hair loss / Society and culture / Myths
caption_attribution_description: Sokrates, Antisthenes, Chrysippos, Epikouros
context_page_description: Pattern hair loss is hair loss that primarily affects the top and front of the scalp. In male-pattern hair loss, the hair loss often presents itself as either a receding hairline, loss of hair on the crown of the scalp or a combination of both, while in female-pattern hair loss, it typically presents as a thinning of the hair.
  Male pattern hair loss is believed to be due to a combination of genetics and the male hormone dihydrotestosterone. The cause in female pattern hair loss remains unclear.
  Management may include simply accepting the condition. Otherwise, treatments may include minoxidil, finasteride, or hair transplant surgery. Evidence for finasteride in women is poor and it may result in birth defects if taken during pregnancy.
  Pattern hair loss by the age of 50 affects about half of males and a quarter of females. It is the most common cause of hair loss.
context_section_description: Many myths exist regarding the possible causes of baldness and its relationship with one's virility, intelligence, ethnicity, job, social class, wealth, and many other characteristics.
caption: An ancient phenomenon:
  Greek philosophers with and without much hair (from left to right: Socrates, Antisthenes, Chrysippus, and Epicurus, fifth to third centuries BC)
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