A research study at a university in Norfolk, Virginia, found that 84 percent of men suffering from hair loss were preoccupied with the loss. They described feelings of helplessness, vulnerability and jealousy from men with full, healthy hair. Men who had started losing hair in their early twenties were more likely to have problems with low self-esteem.

Male pattern hair loss is due to a hormone imbalance. The medical term for male pattern baldness is androgenetic alopecia. This term will help you understand the factors involved in excessive male hair loss. Androgen refers to one of the many hormones that control the appearance and development of male characteristics. One example is testosterone. Genetic refers to heredity, the inheritance of genes from either the mother or the father. Alopecia simply means hair loss. So you could say that male pattern hair loss occurs because of male hormones that are affected by genetic inheritance.

DHT (testosterone and 5-alpha reductase) is a naturally occurring hormone that helps in sexual development. Genetic switches cause changes in hair follicles in certain men after puberty, at androgen-specific receptor sites in the follicles that regulate healthy hair growth. As DHT levels increase as men age, binding to follicular receptor sites increases. This causes an imbalance in the biological processes of the more sensitive hair follicles. Slowly, the follicles begin to break down while DHT builds up at the site, causing the hair to thin and shorten again, eventually becoming so thin and short that it is no longer visible.

The Hamilton-Norwood scheme divides male androgenetic hair loss into different stages, which are assigned to seven levels. This schematized progression classification was developed by James Hamilton in 1951. O'Tar Norwood modified and expanded it in 1975.

Men lose their hair in different ways depending on their genetic predisposition. Male pattern hair loss usually involves receding at the temples, loss on the top of the head, and extensive thinning of the hair. These patterns are identified on the so-called Norwood scale, which classifies different types of hair loss.