The Psychological Aspect of Hair Loss
By the time a man is 50, he is 50% likely to have experienced (or begun to experience) hereditary hair loss. It’s just part of being a man. What’s sad is that billions of men all around the world are losing their hair in one form or another, and millions of these men are going to experience changes to their self esteem, self confidence, personal perception of appearance, and even feelings of self doubt.
What many men don’t realize is that hair loss, like all aspects of life, is something that is often beyond the control of the person who is experiencing it. Both sexes have unique elements to them that the other sex will not experience, and in the case of men hair loss happens to be something that primarily affects men.
Noticing Hair Loss
Hair loss is not something that (usually) happens all at once, meaning that you’ll have a period of time where you’ll notice the tell-tale signs of gradual hair loss:
- Hairs on your pillow – Losing a few hairs during the night is common, but losing a whole bunch of them is not. If you are starting to see more hair than usual on your pillow, you may be experiencing gradual hair loss.
- Hairs in your brush – It’s completely normal for a few hairs to find their way into your hair brush. However, if you are literally finding thickets of hair in your brush you may be experiencing gradual hair loss.
- Shower/sink drainage – Losing a few hairs in the shower is quite common. If you start to notice hairs in your drains you may be experiencing gradual hair loss.
Those are the primary signs of hair loss, though there are others. Please keep in mind that just because you are experiencing hair loss doesn’t mean that you’re going to go bald or that there’s nothing you can do about it. Thankfully, there are several treatments available that have been proven to be effective, so don’t write off that luscious head of hair quite yet.
Handling Hair Loss
The last thing that you should do is stress out about your hair. Remember, in the grand scheme of things it’s a very small element of who you are, and it certainly isn’t a defining factor of your self worth. Just as growing old is a fact of life, hair loss is something that will always affect men.
You can handle it via treatments, such as Rogaine or Propecia, a new hair style, or by simply accepting your thinning hair and focusing on other things. Stressing out is likely to cause increased hair loss, so take it for what it is and either accept it or do something about it.
Both Rogaine and Propecia have high effectiveness rates, so it’s not unlikely that you’ll find a solution with either one of those medications. Keep in mind that you will need to continue taking those drugs for prolonged periods of time in order for them to continue working.