• Question: why do men loose hair and women don't?

    Asked by hannah5959 to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Actually women can lose their hair, it’s just much more common in men. Hair loss has a range of factors but quite a big element is genetic. The primary cause of baldness is a molecule known as DHT, an analog of testosterone. One of DHT’s major functions is promotion of facial hair growth. This in turn leads to the suppression of hair length al over the body including the head. The knock on effect for some people is that their head hair never grows to a length at which it matures into deep rooted terminal hair, thus it remains short, weak and falls out easily. As DHT is a male hormone it is found in greater concentrations in men, though it is still expressed in women, which is why baldness is much more prevalent in men.

    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 17 Mar 2012:

      I think its something to do with the hormones that occur in men and how they get processed when you get older. I’m not sure though as I’m a physicist.

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      Yeah, I think it has something to do with testosterone and other hormones. I think that things like pregnancy can change the texture and thickness of a woman’s hair due to all the hormonal changes. And there are some health problems where a symptom might be changes to hair because it shows that the hormones have changed.

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