If Your Hair Is Thinning, Is It A Sure Thing That You'll Go Bald?

By Ava Alderman

I sometimes hear from folks who are starting to realize that what they hoped was only temporary hair shedding is actually thinning. What is the difference? When you are shedding, you will generally have prompt and robust regrowth so that you never really are able to see too much of your scalp underneath your hair. Because you are rapidly replacing what is lost, you may notice that you have lost some volume but you shouldn't be able to distinctly notice areas on your head where the hair is obviously very thin.

Often, when you first notice this, you will see a very sparse area of hair. And you may begin to wonder how much longer it is until you don't have any hair there whatsoever. And you might hope that you will always just have thinning that may never lead to full fledged baldness in those thinning areas.

To demonstrate, I might get a comment on my blog like: "I am a woman and my hair is thinning at the top. You can see clear through to my scalp. It's getting very thin. My dad and brother are completely bald on top. I am wondering if this is what I have to look forward to. Is there anything that I can do to prevent this? Does thinning always lead to balding?"

It's my experience that it doesn't have to. It's pretty rare for a women who has thinning with hair loss conditions like androgenetic alopecia to have the condition to progress to complete baldness, but I suspect that it sometimes happens. Yes, it can get thin and some women eventually become more comfortable wearing a hair piece or topper in the problem area. But it's much more common to see balding in men than women.

But, with both men and women, early and aggressive treatment can help to dramatically slow or even reverse the process. This is a multi faceted process. First, you need to address the androgens. If you can lessen your sensitivity to them, then you should not have as much hair loss. One thing that makes thinning lead to eventual balding is miniaturization. The hair will fall out and then the hair that replaces it will come in more thin and fine. And with each cycle, it comes in more and more thin until it doesn't come in at all any more. This is when you get baldness. So, in order to not have baldness occur, you need to stop the process. If you can stop or slow the androgens, then that would definitely help. When the androgens are no longer attacking the follicle, this helps the hair grow back more normally. In addition to addressing the androgens, you can also try to do things to support healthy regrowth. There are topical solutions that help with both the androgens and the inflammation and which also help to bring blood flow to the scalp. Also, methods like scalp message can help to stimulate the scalp.

But to answer the original question, whether you are male or female, thinning most definitely does not always lead to baldness. With early and effective treatment, you can sometimes keep the hair that you have and even grow new hair that is more healthy and full than what you are replacing.

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