A Genetic Problem?
For most men who are losing their hair before they'd like to, the answer is genetic. Hair loss, like eye color, is an inherited trait. While you were still forming in the womb, your hair follicles were being genetically coded. If genes responsible for hair loss were present, they made the hair follicles on top of your head sensitive to the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. These follicles were then predisposed to begin shrinking when you reached adulthood.

Unfortunately, once this genetic process begins, it will continue throughout your lifetime. As the hairs produced by your ever-shrinking follicles become finer and finer, they will begin failing to grow to normal length. And what is first noticed as "thinning hair" or a "receding hairline" progresses to baldness when the shrinking follicles finally stop producing any hair at all.

Popular Misconceptions
For many years our schools have taught — quite erroneously — that hair loss is always inherited from the mother's father. Medical science now knows that baldness genes are passed down from both sides of the family. They also can skip generations, and are utterly random in terms of which siblings they will affect; it is quite common for a man keep a full head of hair while his brother goes bald in his twenties.

How Important Is Hair Care?
Contrary to common belief, hair loss is not caused by a failure to take good care of your hair. Consumers waste millions of dollars on shampoos and phony, non-FDA approved treatments. (Only two medications, Rogaine and Propecia, have ever been approved by the FDA to treat hair loss.) We have counseled too many men who held themselves responsible for their hair loss. It is important to understand that with very few exceptions our hair follicles are going to live or die by their genetic coding — and nothing else.