By age 25, 90 % of the male population suffers from androgenic alopecia, better known as male pattern baldness. It is called androgenic because it is caused by heredity (genes) and androgens, which are the hormones responsible for hair loss. Today’s oral treatments inhibit the production of precisely these hormones in order to avoid thinning hair, but only in certain areas of the head.
If hair loss continues, and the pilous follicles die, the process becomes irreversible, and there is no treatment that can bring it back. The only solution in these cases is hair micro-grafts.
Since baldness is usually progressive – following the visible baldness pattern inherited – Norwood defined the evolution of baldness according to a scale that goes from Stage 1 – a full head of hair with the frontal hairline intact and no visible hair loss –to Stage VII, which is the most severe form of hair loss, with the which represents a hair line implantation with no hair loss, up to the extreme degree which is VII, hair loss throughout the top and back of the head, with hair left only at the base of the head and the sides just above the ears.
In certain cases, hair loss can be scattered; in other words, hair thinning and loss may occur in different areas without necessarily following a front-to-back progression.
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The Stages of androgenic baldness can be seen in the Norwood Scale.
Watch 3D Animation: Male Pattern Baldness
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