Most people associate balding with men and that is not unexpected as most western men do go bald sooner or later. Most men actually hate going bald. Some take to brushing their hair in another fashion, having it cut short or even shaved off altogether or they wear a hat.
More and more though, men are seeing balding as a natural process over which they have no control and merely get on with their lives. This is a step in the right direction.
However, women go bald as well, or at least they can do. Traditionally western women care more about their appearance than their men folk do and so women may take it very badly when or if they begin losing their hair. Some women take to wearing a wig and others try a hair transplant.
The problem is that men and women lose their hair for different factors and hair transplants favour the causes of men’s baldness over women’s.
Distinctive male baldness is known as ‘male pattern baldness’ and everyone knows men whom it has affected. It means that men lose hair first at the front, a receding hairline, and then on the top; leaving a band of hair running about three sides of the head. The three lower sides in fact have healthy, growing, self-replicating follicles.
It is this hair that is utilized if a man opts for a hair transplant – healthy hair and it has to do with testosterone, the male hormone, as oestrogen is the female hormone.
Female baldness tends to affect the whole of the head at the same time, which means that there is not a crop of strong hair follicles from which to transplant hair to other areas of the head. This makes most women unsuitable clients for a hair transplant.
Luckily for women up to around retirement age, baldness merely affects a small percentage of them unless it is through illness or the cure of an illness. On the other hand, only about 5% of women are fit candidates for a hair transplant.
Women who have lost their hair due to using rollers for a long period of time, usually have a couple of patches of good hair left that may be utilized for transplanting.
Other women who have a good opportunity of a successful hair transplant are those who have a form of male pattern baldness and those who have lost hair due to damage surrounding areas of surgery. Those who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy, will frequently experience a full or near full recovery after the chemo sessions are over.
The easiest alternative for older women is to wear a wig. It is not perfect, obviously, but it does restore some confidence to those who could not otherwise go out without hair. Other options are hats, scarves and turbans, just like numerous women wore in the Twenties and Thirties.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous subjects, but is at present involved with tea tree oil for hair loss. If you have an interest in hair loss, please visit our web site now at What is the Best Hair Regrowth Product?