Different Sensitivities of Hairs to DHT within the Follicular Unit in Women
The balding pattern in women suffering from androgenetic alopecia is different from the male pattern, which makes it more difficult to diagnose. Women lose their hair throughout the whole scalp, which is known as diffuse hair loss, and in the early stages it is less recognisable. Diffuse hair loss makes women bad candidates for hair transplantation as it is impossible to tell which hair follicles are not going to be affected by miniaturisation in the future. In men, hairs at the back and on the sides of the head are not susceptible to balding and can be used for hair transplantation. However, the latest findings show that female pattern baldness does not affect all hairs within the follicular unit equally. A follicular unit can contain between one and four hairs. The research shows that the average number of terminal hairs in a follicular unit in women not affected by hereditary baldness is three versus two in women suffering from hair loss. These findings indicate that a certain hierarchy exists within the follicular unit determined by the susceptibility of individual hairs within each unit to the harmful effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) attacks, which results in uneven hair miniaturisation.