How to Stop a Receding Hairline

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Have you noticed your hairline beginning to recede? It’s one of the first signs of hair loss, which affects many men at some point in their lives.

It’s easy to panic when your hairline creeps backward every year, especially when a high hairline is easy to notice in the mirror or in photos. Luckily, there are several ways you can prevent further hair loss and even regrow hair around your hairline.

These include:

  • Taking finasteride to block the hormone that causes hair loss in men

  • Using the topical medication minoxidil to stimulate hair growth

  • Adding a hair loss prevention shampoo to your routine to stop hair shedding

  • Eating a balanced diet that’s rich in hair-friendly foods

  • Reducing stress, massaging your scalp and other techniques

We’ve gone into more detail below about these techniques, as well as how a receding hairline can develop in the first place.

What is a Receding Hairline?

A receding hairline is exactly what it sounds like — a hairline that’s gradually (or, for some guys, rapidly) moving further up your head due to androgenetic alopecia, or male pattern baldness

Receding hairlines differ from naturally uneven hairlines or widow’s peaks, which are thought to be passed on as a result of your family history. 

It’s common to see your hairline receding in the earliest stages of male pattern baldness. You may spot your hair thinning slightly near the temples, or notice your hairline starting to resemble a V, M or U shape when viewed from above. 

Receding hairlines can develop at any point in your life, but most guys first notice some degree of hair recession in their 20s, 30s or 40s. 

(Related: Causes of Hair Thinning In Men)

What Causes a Receding Hairline in Men?

There are a few different types of hair loss. However, when it comes to a receding hairline, the culprit is almost always a hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

What is DHT?

DHT is an androgen hormone, or male sex hormone. During childhood and adolescence, DHT plays a key role in your development. It’s involved in the development of your male secondary sex characteristics, such as a deep, masculine voice, as well as your facial and body hair.

Your body naturally produces DHT as a byproduct of testosterone. Through the action of an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, a small percentage of your testosterone is converted into DHT on an ongoing basis.

As you get older, DHT becomes less critical to your development. However, your body still produces a small amount of this hormone.

DHT and a Thinning Hairline

In some men, DHT can bind to receptors in the scalp and cause the hair follicles to miniaturize, or shrink. Over time, this process stops the hair follicles from producing new hairs, resulting in increased hair fall and gradual hair loss.

The hair follicles at your hairline — especially near your temples — are often the first affected by the miniaturization caused by DHT. 

DHT sensitivity can vary between men. Some guys have hair follicles that are highly sensitive to the effects of DHT, while others have hair follicles that continue growing normally even with DHT circulating throughout the scalp.

If you’re sensitive to DHT, you might notice that you see more of the skin around your temples over time, or that your hairline begins to look thinner. 

Not everyone with a receding hairline will go completely bald. However, a receding hairline is a common early sign of hair loss, which means it’s also a sign to start taking action to protect your hair before it thins further. 

How is a Receding Hairline Diagnosed?

A receding hairline is almost always a symptom of male pattern baldness — a form of hair loss caused by a mix of hormonal and genetic factors.

Most of the time, you can identify a receding hairline yourself by looking at your frontal hairline in the mirror or a photograph. If the corners of your hairline have moved up on your scalp, or if your hairline is starting to develop a V or M-like shape, there’s a good chance it’s receding. 

Most healthcare providers diagnose male pattern baldness the same way that you would — by looking at your scalp.

Sometimes, a receding hairline might develop at the same time as other male pattern baldness symptoms, such as:

  • A bald patch around your crown

  • Diffuse thinning on the top of your scalp

  • An increased amount of daily hair shedding

Receding Hairline Treatments

Seeing your hairline start to creep up your scalp can be a stressful experience. Luckily, there are plenty of proven treatments available that can help you stop your hairline from receding further.

In some cases, these treatments can even stimulate new hair growth, meaning you may notice that some thin or empty areas of your hairline start to fill in with more hair.

Before getting into specific treatment options for receding hairline prevention, it’s important to make one thing clear: the sooner you start treating your receding hairline, the more hair you’ll likely keep. 

Here are eight recommendations for preventing your receding hairline from getting worse and stimulating new hair growth, starting with the most effective. 

(Related: Do Hair Growth Products Work?)

Use Finasteride to Lower Your DHT Levels

Research shows that the most effective way to stop male pattern baldness from getting worse is to block DHT using medication. 

Right now, the most effective medication for reducing DHT levels is finasteride (also sold as the brand name medication Propecia), a prescription drug that blocks 5-alpha reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT within your body.

By inhibiting 5-alpha reductase, finasteride reduces your DHT levels and limits the damage that DHT can cause to your hair follicles.

Currently, finasteride is available as an oral and topical medication. The oral version is approved by the FDA as a treatment for hair loss, while the topical version isn’t yet FDA-approved but has been proven effective in studies.

Research shows that finasteride not only prevents DHT-related hair loss from getting worse, but can also stimulate new hair growth

For example, a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that finasteride helps to increase hair count in balding men. 

We offer finasteride online, following a consultation with a licensed healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate for you. 

Apply Minoxidil to Stimulate Hair Growth

Minoxidil is a hair loss medication that’s available over the counter. Although it doesn’t reduce your DHT levels, experts believe it can stimulate hair growth by moving your hair follicles into a state of active growth and promoting blood flow to your scalp.

Currently, minoxidil (also known as Rogaine) is FDA-approved as a topical liquid and as a foam. It’s also used off-label in its oral form as a treatment for hair loss, although this is less common. 

Minoxidil works well on its own due to its effects on blood flow, but it’s especially effective at protecting your hairline when used with finasteride.

In one small study published in the journal Dermatologic Therapy, 94.1 percent of men with hair loss showed improvements after using minoxidil with finasteride.

It’s important to keep in mind that minoxidil, like finasteride, has a catch: if you don’t use it, you lose it. To maintain your hair growth and prevent your hairline from receding further, you’ll need to keep using minoxidil (as well as finasteride) on an ongoing basis. 

We offer minoxidil solution and minoxidil foam online, allowing you to easily add this medication to your hair loss prevention toolkit. 

Wash With a Hair Loss Prevention Shampoo

Can the shampoo you use save your waning mane all by itself? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean it can’t help. 

Many hair loss shampoos feature active ingredients like ketoconazole and saw palmetto, which may help to stop the negative effects of DHT on your scalp.

While shampoo usually won’t have as much of an impact on a balding hairline or diffuse hair loss as medication, it can still work as a valuable part of your toolkit for treating and preventing hair loss. 

Eat a Diet That Promotes Healthy Hair Growth

There’s no miracle diet for preventing male pattern baldness. However, eating a healthy diet rich in essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients may promote consistent hair growth and stop some hair-related issues, such as hair breakage and shedding.

Numerous nutritional deficiencies are associated with hair loss and hair shedding, including iron, zinc and protein deficiencies. 

The good news is that there’s no need to follow an impractical, difficult diet to maintain a healthy head of hair. In fact, many of the foods that are rich in hair-friendly nutrients are probably part of your diet already. 

Our guide to what to eat for hair growth shares more than 15 foods that you can add to your diet to make sure you’re supplying your hair follicles with the nutrients they need for healthy growth.

Other Techniques for Promoting Hair Growth

When it comes to stopping and reversing a receding hairline, most of the heavy lifting is done by finasteride and minoxidil. 

However, there are also other techniques that, while not as effective as medication, can promote good general hair health. Try the following approaches — in combination with medication, of course — to keep your hair follicles functioning at their best: 

  • If you smoke, try to quit. Some research suggests that smoking may contribute to hair loss by constricting the blood vessels that supply your scalp, as well as by harming your hair follicles.

  • Try a biotin supplement. Biotin deficiency is a rare health issue that may cause you to shed hair. Although it’s not essential for hair growth, adding a biotin supplement to your daily routine could reduce your risk of becoming deficient and promote healthy hair. 

For Severe Hair Loss, Consider a Hair Transplant

Hair transplantation is a surgical hair loss treatment that involves extracting actual hair follicles from the sides and back of the head, then transplanting the follicles to areas with bald spots and thin hair.

When done by a skilled surgeon, a hair transplant can make your hair look full, thick and identical to a natural hairline that’s unaffected by male pattern hair loss.

Although hair transplant surgery is effective, it has a major downside: it ain’t cheap. If you have an obvious receding hairline and noticeable hair loss, this type of hair restoration procedure can come with a minimum price tag of several thousand dollars. 

You can learn more about this type of procedure, its advantages and disadvantages, different techniques and more in our guide to hair transplants.

The Bottom Line on How to Fix a Receding Hairline

There’s no such thing as a bad hairline, meaning you shouldn’t panic or feel as if your youthful good looks are on the way out if you begin to notice some signs of recession.

However, if you’ve recently noticed your hairline creeping backward and want to do something about it, it’s important to act quickly to stop your hair loss from getting worse.

You can do this by:

  • Using FDA-approved hair loss medications like finasteride and minoxidil to address the root causes of hair loss and stimulate new growth.

  • Adding a hair loss prevention shampoo and conditioner to your daily hair care and hair regrowth routine.

  • If all else fails, or if your hair loss is already severe, consider undergoing hair transplant surgery to fill in your hairline, top of the head and other areas with visible thinning. 

If you’re starting to experience hair loss, you can learn more about your options and get started with these medications by taking part in a hair loss consultation via our telehealth platform. 

This article originally appeared on Forhims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

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4 ways hearing loss affects your overall health

4 ways hearing loss affects your overall health

Hearing loss might seem like an inconvenience – you turn the TV louder, or choose quieter restaurants, or ask people to repeat themselves – but it’s actually not just an annoyance. It’s also linked with some serious health problems.

“We used to feel that hearing loss was a loss of communication opportunity and that was about it, but what has become clearer in the last several years is that there are much deeper cognitive and physical health implications,” says Donald Schum, vice president of audiology at Oticon, a hearing aid manufacturer.

Paul Farrell, associate director of audiology for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, outlines the types of health problems we’re talking about:

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“Most adults develop hearing loss gradually over many years,” Schum says. Over time, you might gravitate away from experiences you no longer enjoy, like restaurants and parties, and toward less-social activities that don’t put as much demand on your hearing.  

“As older adults get more and more isolated, that can lead to stress and depression,” Schum says. It’s a downward spiral.

Communication difficulties isolate people, and then people become more depressed and stressed. 

“Their physical health starts to deteriorate as a result of these factors, and as their physical health deteriorates they become more isolated because they can’t participate. These factors are building on each other,” he says.

“Our big concern in audiology is that we believe we can stop some of that [downward spiral] earlier on if people are willing to do something about their hearing loss,” Shrum says. “We want to get more people to recognize that linkage and act.”

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There are a few different hypotheses about the link between hearing loss and decreased brain function, Farrell says. One says neither causes the other, but that neurodegeneration as you age causes both. 

Another thinks the energy the brain uses as you struggle to hear might deplete the energy the brain needs in other areas, Farrell says.

And a third suggests that the social isolation that can stem from hearing loss can lead to decreased sensory input, which can then lead to dementia.

“One of the best stimulations for the cognitive system is to be around other people, having a good conversation,” Shrum says. “When you start to lose that because of isolation you’re at greater risk of cognitive decline.”

He points to a British study that found that untreated hearing loss tops the list of factors leading to dementia that are under your control.

“We are in no way saying that getting hearing aids prevents dementia or Alzheimer’s—we’re not anywhere near that—but we do recognize how important social interaction is in the later years, and it’s tricky to create those environments for yourself if you allow yourself to become more isolated because of hearing loss,” Schum says. 

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Farrell says a study of 2,000 people found that those with a higher degree of hearing loss had a greater risk of falling. It’s not yet clear what the connection is between falling and hearing loss. 

Schum says, “It’s a little premature to suggest that hearing loss causes falls. There’s some speculation about the mechanisms behind that, but it’s early days.” 

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Diabetes might affect the blood flow to the cochlea and lead to hearing loss, Farrell says. And while it could be that diabetes is causing hearing loss, not the reverse, hearing loss could still be an important indicator.

That’s because 8.1 million people in the United States with diabetes are undiagnosed.

And hearing loss in the low frequencies could indicate heart disease, though the connection is still unclear. “We’re seeing more and more evidence and continuing to discover the links between these serious conditions and hearing loss,” Schum says. 

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Hearing loss is a common problem as you age. According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, disabling hearing loss affects about 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 54, 8.5% of adults aged 55 to 64 and nearly 25 percent of those aged 65 to 74.

Schum says there are two reactions that adults often have that interfere with treatment for hearing loss. One is denial: “They say, ‘It’s not my hearing, people mumble.’”

The other is normalization. “It’s more subtle, but equally dangerous,” Schum says. That’s the assumption that your hearing is going to deteriorate as you get older, so you just accept the effects. “They think, ‘None of my friends can hear well,’ or ‘You should see my spouse’.”

“It’s really important for any individual who has hearing loss to ensure they have a good conversation with their physician and audiologist,” Farrell says. “Be open and honest about all the health conditions you’re being faced with.”

This article originally appeared on Considerable.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

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