Do Non-Balding Men Have DHT as Well as Men With Hair Loss?'

Name: AJ

Question: Non-balding men also have DHT, which is responsible for the growth of body hair and facial hair (and some other male sex traits), but the hair on their scalps doesn’t react to DHT the same way as it does in balding men. Is this true?

Answer: Hi, AJ. This is true - DHT is present in everyone, not just those with androgenetic alopecia.

Men - and women - with genetic hair loss (more commonly known in men as male pattern baldness and in women as female pattern hair loss) have an inherited sensitivity to the enzyme.

If this sensitivity is active then this is what causes thinning hair from the top of the head and hairline. This is because the DHT binds itself to the follicles in these areas, gradually weakening it to the point where it thins and falls out through a process known as 'miniaturisation'.

Sometimes this sensitivity can be present but dormant, in which case the person may not lose their hair despite carrying the 'balding gene'. This can be why hair loss appears to 'skip' a generation or affect one sibling but not the other, in some families.

For those whose predisposition is active, there are clinically-proven hair loss treatments that can help to prevent this type of thinning and promote regrowth. For men, there are two MHRA licensed and FDA approved medications for the treatment of male pattern baldness which can be used singularly or simultaneously, one of which is a DHT-blocker, taken as a one-a-day oral tablet. The other is a topical solution which can help to promote hair growth and can be used by both men and women with pattern hairloss.