You see it happening slowly. A photo from a year ago clearly shows more hair. In the mirror, your hairline is a fraction higher than it used to be. Or the hair on your crown is starting to thin, becoming softer, less visible.
For most men, this has one cause: DHT.
Not stress, not brushing too hard, not the wrong shampoo. DHT. And the striking thing is: almost every man has this hormone, but not everyone loses hair because of it. I'll explain how below.
What exactly is DHT?
DHT stands for dihydrotestosterone. It is a hormone that your body produces from testosterone, via an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase. DHT is a potent androgen, a male hormone, and plays a role in various bodily processes, from the development of male sexual characteristics to the distribution of body hair.
The problem lies specifically in the hair follicles on your head. In men with a genetic sensitivity to DHT, this hormone binds to receptors in the hair follicles, initiating a process called miniaturization. The hair follicles become smaller. The growth phase of each hair shortens. And the hairs that still emerge become finer, thinner, and lighter, until they eventually disappear completely.
This is what doctors and dermatologists call androgenetic alopecia. In common parlance: male pattern baldness. About 95 percent of male hair loss falls into this category.
Why some men are affected more than others
It's not the amount of DHT in your blood that determines whether you go bald, but how sensitive your hair follicles are to that hormone. Someone with relatively low DHT levels can still have significant hair loss due to genetics, while another with higher levels maintains a full head of hair.
This sensitivity is hereditary. The genes that contribute to this come from both your father and your mother. The well-known folk wisdom that hair loss is only inherited through the mother's side is incorrect. It is an interplay of multiple genes, and the pattern can vary from generation to generation.
What also plays a role is the density of DHT receptors in the hair follicles at certain places on your head. This explains the classic pattern of male baldness: a receding hairline, thinning hair on the crown, while the hair follicles on the sides and back of your head are much less sensitive to DHT. These hair follicles often remain, even in men who experience significant baldness.
When does it start?
DHT-related hair loss can start early. Some men notice it in their twenties, others only in their thirties or forties. There is no fixed age. However, the earlier it starts, the stronger the genetic predisposition generally is.
A signal that many men recognize: the hairline at the temples begins to recede slightly. Or more hair falls out when washing or drying than before. The hair on the crown appears thinner in certain light. These are classic early signs of androgenetic alopecia.
Once miniaturized hair follicles are difficult to restore. That makes early support valuable, not because you can cure hair loss, but because you can slow down the decline and keep existing hair follicles active longer.
What DHT does to your hair at a cellular level
Without delving too deeply into biology: the way DHT causes hair loss is not that hairs fall out acutely. It's a gradual process. Each hair cycle consists of a growth phase (anagen), a transitional phase (catagen), and a resting phase (telogen). After that, the hair falls out and a new hair begins to grow.
What DHT does to sensitive hair follicles: it progressively shortens the anagen phase. Where a hair normally grows for two to six years before falling out, for DHT-sensitive hair follicles, that can shrink to a few months. Each new hair that grows is also slightly thinner and shorter than the previous one. Over the course of years, this results in the pattern men recognize as baldness.
This process begins insidiously. It doesn't happen overnight. Many men only realize years later that it had been going on for a long time, which also explains why early action is so beneficial.
What can you do?
The options can broadly be divided into two directions: inhibiting the production of DHT, or supporting the hair follicles so that they suffer less damage from that hormone.
- Finasteride is a medicine that blocks the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase. This reduces the conversion of testosterone into DHT. Blood DHT levels drop by 60 to 70 percent. This is effective, but it is a prescription medication with possible side effects, including hormonal effects in some users. This is something to discuss with a doctor or dermatologist.
- Minoxidil works differently: it improves blood flow to the scalp and extends the growth phase of hair follicles. It does not directly inhibit DHT, but it can slow down the decline and stimulate hair growth in some men.
- Plant-based active ingredients such as Redensyl, Procapil, and Baicapil work at different points in the hair growth cycle and can support hair follicles, extend the growth phase, and reduce sensitivity to signals that drive hair loss.
For men who want to do something without medication, the plant-based ingredients are the most common alternatives. The Hairborn Growth Serum combines Redensyl, Procapil, and Baicapil and 7 other strong active ingredients in one formula that you apply daily directly to the scalp, ensuring the active substances reach where they need to work.
Misconceptions about DHT
- "More testosterone automatically means more DHT and thus more hair loss." The connection exists, but it's not that simple. Men with higher testosterone levels don't automatically go bald. It always comes down to the sensitivity of the hair follicles, which is genetically determined.
- "Creatine causes hair loss." Creatine has an indirect effect on DHT conversion, but again, this only plays a role in men with a genetic predisposition. Without that predisposition, creatine does nothing to your hair.
- "Stress causes baldness." Stress can cause hair loss through a different mechanism, telogen effluvium, where more hairs simultaneously leave the growth phase. This is temporary and reversible. But stress does not cause androgenetic alopecia. Stress does not create a genetic predisposition that isn't there. It can, however, temporarily accelerate an existing process.
Being honest about expectations
DHT-related hair loss is not something you can completely solve with a serum or supplement. What you can do: slow down the process, keep existing hair follicles active longer, and improve the quality of the hair that is still there. For many men, that is already significantly valuable, especially if you start early, when hair loss is not yet far advanced.
If you notice your hair thinning, the first thing that helps is: don't wait. Not because there's reason to panic, but because hair follicles that have been inactive for a long time are harder to activate. Acting early is simply more effective than acting later.
Do you want to know which products can help? The Hairborn Growth Serum is designed as daily support for men who want to keep their hair follicles active: without exaggerated promises, but with ingredients that show positive results in research.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get your DHT sensitivity tested before you start?
Yes, there are genetic tests that look for sensitivity markers for DHT, but these mainly provide a risk indication, not a guarantee or prediction of the exact course. Family history remains one of the most useful indicators in practice, even without a test.
Why do the hairs on the sides of your head often remain?
The hair follicles on the sides and back of the head naturally have far fewer DHT receptors than the hair follicles on the crown and at the hairline. As a result, they hardly react to the hormone, even in men with significant hair loss elsewhere. This is also why hair transplantations often use hair from this zone.
Can DHT stimulate body hair while your scalp hair falls out?
Yes, DHT actually plays a stimulating role in body hair, beard growth, and chest hair, while simultaneously shrinking the hair follicles on the scalp in sensitive men. This is not a contradiction; the hormone simply works differently on different hair follicles, depending on the number and type of receptors there.
Is there a link between DHT sensitivity and muscle mass?
DHT does play a role in muscle development and overall androgenic effects in the body, but a direct, strong correlation between muscle mass and the degree of hair loss has not been demonstrated. Two equally muscular men can therefore react very differently to DHT regarding their hair, depending on their individual receptor sensitivity.
Can you lower your DHT levels with diet?
Diet has no strongly proven effect on the conversion of testosterone to DHT. Some foods and supplements are associated with this, but the evidence is limited and not comparable to the strength of medication like finasteride. A balanced diet supports overall hair health but does not change the DHT sensitivity of your hair follicles.
Why doesn't finasteride work for some men, despite DHT reduction?
Finasteride lowers blood DHT levels, but the extent to which it stops hair loss also depends on how far the miniaturization of the hair follicles has progressed. In hair follicles that have been inactive for a long time, even a strong DHT reduction may do little to reverse the process, simply because there are fewer active follicles left to respond.
Is DHT sensitivity different in men with a full beard?
No, the sensitivity of scalp follicles to DHT is separate from how your facial hair reacts to DHT. A man with a full beard can still experience severe hair loss on his head, because these are different follicles with a different receptor density.
Can high testosterone levels from exercising accelerate hair loss?
Exercising itself does not increase your DHT sensitivity, but certain performance-enhancing substances, especially illegal anabolic steroids, can increase DHT production and thus accelerate hair loss in men who are already genetically sensitive. Regular training and legal sports supplements like creatine do not demonstrably have this effect.
Does DHT sensitivity change with age?
The underlying genetic sensitivity itself does not change with age, but the cumulative exposure to DHT over the years ensures that the effect on the hair follicles slowly builds up. This explains why hair loss often increases as you get older, even though the predisposition has been there from a young age.
Is there a difference between DHT-related hair loss and baldness caused by another hormone?
Yes, there are other forms of hair loss that have nothing to do with DHT, such as telogen effluvium due to stress or deficiency, or alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder. These forms have a different pattern and course than the gradual, patterned miniaturization characteristic of DHT-related hair loss.
