There are numerous causes of hair loss that aren’t necessarily caused by genetic factors. Other causes can be stress, pregnancy, hair care regimens, and more serious conditions and diseases. Once you determine what is exactly causing the hair loss, then that’s when treatment options become easier to combat.

When researching about hair loss and possible causes, the letters “DHT” are most likely to pop-up in the search engines – DHT hair loss, also called dihydrotestosterone, plays a major role in genetic hair loss in both men and women. DHT is a male sex hormone where an enzyme synthesizes DHT in the adrenal glands, the testes, prostate and hair follicles. This can occur for both men and women when this hormone is present. Although it affects more men than women, as nearly 85 percent of men experience hair loss, women are just as much affected by genetic hair loss.

DHT hair loss, or male pattern baldness and female pattern baldness, is essentially caused by the fact that hair follicles are very sensitive to DHT. DHT causes miniaturization of the hair follicles, and causes overall thinning and as it worsens, causes complete hair loss.

When this DHT gets to the dermal papilla (the most important part of the hair follicle) it stops the natural growth pattern by hindering the essential nutrients to the follicles for growth.

So Why is This Important for Treatment?

It’s important to know that DHT hair loss is a genetic condition in order to determine what hair loss prevention treatments and products will work to combat it. Obviously, if your hair loss is from stress, a treatment that targets the DHT would not be beneficial. A hair loss treatment that contains DHT blockers is typically much more effective since it contains certain ingredients that target this unwanted production of DHT in the body that is causing hair loss.