Guys, we all look into the bathroom mirror everyday when we wake up. Has anything changed?
Nope. Then let’s get on with our days.
But wait.
You notice that your hair feels different when you run your hands through your hair. It feels slightly less thick.
You get a little anxious.
So you use a mirror to look at the back of your head and you notice a bald spot on your crown. Now you are worried about what this means for the future of your once amazing hair.
Is this normal? Why are you balding? How do you stop hair loss? Is there a way for you to regrow your hair?
Keep reading along as we will answer all of these important questions and more!
Is It Normal To Have A Bald Spot On Your Crown?
Balding around your crown or vertex is an early sign of male pattern baldness (MPD).
Typically, a bald spot at the crown means you have experienced hair loss and shedding. And you are likely to continue experiencing hair shedding over time.
Losing hair around your hair is uncommon. A lot of men experience hair loss for a number of reasons as they age.
Signs Of A Balding Crown
In addition to seeing a clear bald spot on your head. Here are other signs of male pattern hair loss and balding at the crown of your head. So you can spot balding yourself!
Hair Loss Around The Crown
Losing hair around the vertex is a clear and obvious sign of balding.
In this situation, you should expect to see your scalp when you are using some type of hairstyling product. Or when you simply run your hand through hair.
Balding hair will provide less resistance and it will feel like you can easily touch your scalp.
Receding Hairline
Another clear sign of MPB is a receding hairline.
A normal or mature hairline looks like a solid line along the front of your forehead. However, when your hair recedes, your scalp is more visible or the corners of your hair are less thick.
When you see your hairline moving backwards, this can mean you are likely losing hair in other areas too. Like your crown.
Thinning Hair
Similar to losing hair at your crown. Thinning hair is hair loss in other regions besides the crown.
Traits of thinning hair include a visible scalp when styling or your scalp can be seen easily with a naked eye.
Another trait of thinning hair is that your head is more sensitive. In other words, your head is sensitive to things like rain or cold weather.
Thinning hair is caused by your healthy hair follicles becoming smaller. And a general decrease in new hair growing.
If you have thinning hair on your crown it can likely spread to other areas of your scalp.
Widening Part
One other sign of MPB is a widening part in your hair.
You can tell that you have a widening part when you create a part as you normally would. However, your middle line doesnt look as distinct and you can see more of your scalp.
If you have a widening part, it can mean you may have a bald spot some time in the future.
Why Am I Balding Only Around My Crown?
The question everyone asks themselves is why do I have balding around my crown or male pattern hair loss.
The cause for why is DHT. Dihydrotestosterone.
DHT is a hormone that is responsible for growth of body hair and the deepening of your voice.
Based on research done by dermatologists, only the hair on the top of your head can be impacted by DHT. The hair on the side scalp is more resistant to DHT. This is why men typically lose hair on the top of their heads.
Overall, there are a couple forms of hair loss that involve DHT. Time to get scientific.
Androgenetic Alopecia
This type of alopecia occurs when DHT attaches to androgen receptors that are in your hair follicles.
When DHT attaches to hair follicles on the scalp, it causes the follicles to shrink.
Then when new hairs form, they will be finer and more prone to shedding.
Telogen Effluvium
Another form of hair loss is telogen effluvium.
There are three main phases in the hair growth cycle. Anagen, catagen, and telogen.
When DHT is attached to your hair follicles, it can reduce the length of the anagen phase. The anagen phase is responsible for hair growth.
DHT will also increase the telogen phase. Which is the dormant phase of the hair growth cycle.
Over time, your hair will take longer and longer to grow back. And at the same time, the rate of shedding has increased.
In the end, this results in you losing hair faster than you are growing it back.
Some other causes for balding around your crown or male pattern baldness are below.
Genes
Unfortunately, male pattern baldness genes can be passed along to you from your family.
MPB can come from the paternal or maternal family side.
If you notice the majority of your family members with no hair. It might make sense to take some steps to prevent the same happening to you.
Lifestyle
The way you live life or what has occured during your life can also cause further hair loss. Whether you want it to or not.
Habits like smoking and drinking alcohol are not good for you generally speaking. However, having these habits in excess can negatively impact your hair. For example, smoking reduces blood circulation to your scalp.
Without blood circulation, your hair follicles can’t grow properly.
Other forms of negative lifestyle that can cause hair loss are:
- Lack of Protein
- Lack of Biotin
- Lack of Iron
- Lack of Zinc
- Emotional Stress
- Surgery
- Taking Strong Medication
Harsh Chemicals
We all love washing our hair with shampoo and conditioner to make it feel fresh. Or style it with our favorite hair products.
However, using some products can actually do more harm than good for our hair.
Hair products can include some bad hair ingredients that can actually speed up the loss of our hair and make it harder for new hair to grow back.
Some examples of harsh chemicals in hair products are:
- DMDM Hydantoin
- Dimethicone
- Parabens
- Sulfates
- Hydroquinone
How Do You Stop A Balding Crown?
Don’t give up now! All is not lost.
According to professional medical advice from dermatologists, there are a number of ways to slow down the loss of hair. Or at the very minimum, make it look like you haven’t lost that much hair.
Below are some techniques to slow down the spreading or reduce the appearance of hair loss.
Style Hair Properly
Depending on your personality, losing your hair can be tough.
Some guys are confident and can just deal with the loss.
Other guys may need the help of their barbers to mask bald spots. Here are five top hairstyles that work when trying to hide a bald spot.
#1. Slicked Back Pompadour
A popular style these days is the slicked back pompadour.
This style is for guys who keep their hair a bit longer. With this style you basically brush all of your hair towards the back of your head.
The nice part about this style is that it adds height to your face and can complement a beard nicely.
Given, the negative impacts to your hair from hair products. Go easy on the products!
#2. Side Swept Medium Style
If you have a bald spot starting to form and you like to keep your hair a medium length then this hairstyle is for you.
A medium hair side swept style is perfect if the vertex of your head is the only thinning area.
For this style, you can grow your hair longer and wear it either to the left or right covering the bald spot partially.
#3. Buzz Cut
For guys with square faces, a buzz cut is a great confident look.
When it comes to a bald spot. People are less likely to notice your bald spot when your hair is cut so closely to the scalp.
Overall, this is a bolder look and shows that you can own your hair loss with confidence.
#4. Slicked Back Classic Style
This hairstyle is almost the same as the slicked back pompadour style. However, the classic slicked back style is with shorter hair.
This style is great for hiding any hair loss for guys that still want a sophisticated look.
#5. Caesar Cut
An awesome hairstyle for built guys is the Caesar cut.
This style has a short or faded side cut while the top of the head is kept heavier. The additional texture masks your bald spots and also gives you a very masculine look.
Use Quality Hair Products
If you want to stop a thinning crown then you should try to choose high quality hair products.
High quality products will prevent your hair from drying out. Dry hair is brittle and can easily break.
Ingredients to watch out for:
- Sulfates
- Formaldehyde
- Alcohol
Improve Diet
A poor diet can lead to many health issues, but also hair loss.
Getting your diet in check will make you feel better naturally and you should expect to see less hair fall from your scalp.
Some items that you want to make sure you get enough of are:
- Iron
- Zinc
- Biotin
Improve Lifestyle
Similar to a poor diet, lifestyle improvements can make you healthier and stop your hair loss.
The three main improvements are sleeping properly, exercise, and reducing the amount you smoke and drink.
Starting with sleep. Getting a good night’s rest keeps all of your body’s hormones in a balanced state. These hormones control different functions of your body. When your hormones are not in sync the imbalance can cause problems like hair loss.
Exercise can make you generally healthier. But it can also tell your body to wake up and start regulating itself better. This regulation will help blood and other nutrients flow to your scalp for proper hair growth.
Lastly, smoking and drinking are the two main habits that cause a number of health problems. But when it comes to hair health. These two stop blood flow to your scalp by constricting your blood vessels.
Can You Regrow Hair On Crown?
Luckily for us science has come a very long way. There are several different ways to regrow your hair if you have lost some of it.
The option that is best for you depends on a few things. How much you care. What your budget is. Which option does your body and hair react the best to.
Below we will discuss the different options you can choose from to regrow your hair.
Hair Transplant
Due to technology the most accessible and effective hair loss treatment to restore your hair on your crown is a hair transplant. Keep in mind it is expensive. But it works!
Hair transplants such as the FUE treatment take healthy hair follicles from the back or side of your head and implant them on the top of your head in the bald spots.
Transplants work because the hair on the side of your head is resistant to DHT. This makes the new hair on top very unlikely to fall out.
One thing to note for hair transplants is that you should let the balding take it’s full effect. This way your hair doesn’t keep falling out after a transplant requiring you to get touch ups.
Regrowth Using Medication
According to the American Hair Loss Association, there are two main medications that have shown to produce results and are FDA approved. Minoxidil and Finasteride.
Minoxidil
Minoxidil (also known as Rogaine) is an effective hair loss treatment that does two things to keep and grow your hair. Increase blood flow. Tighten hair follicles.
This medication is a vasodilator and is also used for people suffering from high blood pressure. It widens your blood vessels causing more blood to flow through your body and to your scalp. The additional blood flow keeps the hair that you have healthy and promotes new hair growth.
The other effect of Minoxidil is tightening your hair follicles. Tightening your hair follicles makes your scalp hold on to the hair shaft so that it can’t fall out.
Overall, Minoxidil works great, but you need to use it continuously to maintain results.
Finasteride
Another clinically proven medication is Finasteride.
Finasteride is an oral medication that reduces DHT levels in the body to stimulate hair growth.
With DHT being blocked, the hormone cannot attach to your hair follicles. This prevents hair loss and promotes hair growth.
Finasteride works well in tandem with Minoxidil to regrow hair. However, you must use Finasteride continuously to keep results.
Plasma Injections
Another option to regrow your hair is plasma injections.
Plasma injections or Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) use your own blood to stimulate hair growth.
The reason why this works is because your blood has growth factors in it. And these growth factors can help your scalp produce new fresh hair.
The process for PRP includes drawing blood, spinning the blood to isolate growth factors, and then injecting the growth factors across your scalp.
This option is slightly more expensive and requires multiple sessions, but has shown to produce results for hair.
Low Level Laser Therapy
Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) uses lasers to boost your scalp and promote new hair growth.
Furthermore, LLLT prevents the buildup of DHT on your hair follicles. So many acronyms.
LLLT devices come in the form of laser wands or laser hair caps that you can wear. With a laser hair cap, you can cover your bald spot and regrow your hair at the same time!
DHT Blocking Shampoos
Shampoos that block DHT on your scalp are another great option for hair regrowth. However, they are not as effective as Minoxidil or Finasteride.
DHT blocking shampoos contain ingredients such as zinc, B12, or Ketoconazole to disrupt DHT’s effect on your hair.
Herbal Supplements
If you want to opt for natural remedies for hair loss. There are options for you.
Herbal supplements such as saw palmetto can block some of the DHT activity on the hair follicles.
Also, multi vitamin supplements like Nutrafol provide different beneficial ingredients that can contribute to hair growth. This supplement helps improve your body and grow your hair from the inside out.
Fact Checked by our Director of Dermatology – We know that understanding how your skin and hair work can seem scary, so my team and I devote our time to thoroughly researching every single topic and product we write about. We hope you find our reviews helpful and informative.
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