Alopecia or loss of hair in males differs from the alopecia of females. It is known as male pattern baldness. It is very common type of baldness and most of men suffer from it. Degree of severity varies from trivial to extreme. Male pattern baldness is on account of disorder of male hormones, which are collectively known as androgens. The hormone connected with male pattern hair loss is testosterone. Hormones are chemical messengers produced by the body that stimulated activity by organs or tissues elsewhere in the body. If a man has inherited the genes responsible for hair loss, a little of this testosterone is made by some of the hair roots into a derivative named as dihydrotestosterone. This dihydrotestosteron is mostly responsible for male pattern hair loss.



In males, alopecia starts during the twenties or early thirties of the life. There will be gradual loss of hair noticed from vertex (center of head facing sky) and temporal regions (sides). This process of falling hair may also begin after attaining puberty. The anterior hairline become thin or recedes on each side in such a fashion that the forehead becomes high. In course of time, the top of scalp totally becomes devoid of hair. In some cases, it is not the full-scale hair falling but falling at the vertex and receding of hair on both sides of parietal region. In some cases, there is uniform thinning of hair over the top of scalp with no pattern of spot baldness or otherwise. This thinning leads to complete baldness later.

The rate of falling hair varies from person to person. In the first stage, there will be sudden loss of hair in the twenties and this process of hair falling goes on slowly in coming number of years. The pattern of such hair falling in twenties and thirties of the life is that the hair falling is not affecting the occipital areas and parietal area. A patient of about twenty-five years came to me with complaint of hair loss from of head and vertex. His anxiety was that he was getting married. His father had also faced the same problem and he knew that it is by heredity. I advised him to wear the wig because there is no method to eliminate the inherited factors. He did not purchase a wig but was satisfied that there is no treatment. He got married and at the age of thirty-seven, he was completely bald at vertex and forehead.

There is a strong inherited factor in balding. This can be either from paternal or maternal side of the family. This affects both male and female but in most of cases of females, they do not inherit complete baldness. The pity is that the medical science does not know the exact mechanism working behind this theme of baldness. The doctors still advice and consol the patients prescribing medicines and oils etc.

I have not seen eunuchs developing baldness. The science might have attributed many reasons for this but practically; we take it as creation of Almighty.