How Genetics Plays a Role in Balding

Plenty of issues can contribute to hair loss: Your diet, your health, your stress levels, your environment, and even your hormones can play a role. While you can control some factors — or at least modify them, such as your diet or your stress level — other factors are beyond your control, including your genes.

Yes, genetics plays a big role in baldness, particularly male pattern baldness and female pattern baldness. But contrary to what you might have heard, you can’t blame it all on the genes you inherit from your mother.

At Brunswick Internal Medicine Group  in Kendall Park and Metuchen, New Jersey, Inderjit Singh Kainth, MD, gets to the root cause of hair loss so he can prescribe therapies to help. 

Alma TEDTM hair restoration is especially effective in countering the effects of inherited pattern baldness. Here’s how this type of baldness happens and what Alma TED can do to help.

The link between genes and baldness

Inherited baldness isn’t just common — it’s the most common cause of hair loss, caused by your genetics, the aging process, and other contributing factors. 

Male pattern baldness

For years, a myth persisted that you inherit your “baldness genes” from your mother — if your maternal grandfather is bald, you probably will be, too. But that’s not true: Lots of genes contribute to hair loss in men, only a few of which come from your X chromosome. In fact, one study found that about 80% of balding men had a father who was also bald.

Still, one gene that’s definitely implicated in male pattern baldness — the AR gene — is inherited from your mom. This gene makes follicles more sensitive to testosterone, leading to shrinking follicles and reducing hair production.

Female pattern baldness

Female pattern hair loss also involves multiple genes. But like male pattern baldness, the complete genetic picture associated with hair loss is not well understood. Researchers also aren’t sure how those genes are affected by other factors, such as health, environment, hormones, or age-related changes. 

Primarily occurring during menopause, female pattern baldness causes general hair thinning with most hair loss focused in the center of the scalp near the part. Male pattern baldness follows an “M” pattern, with the sides of the hairline receding before the center area eventually thins as well.

Restoring thinning hair

Alma TED is an innovative hair-loss treatment that uses ultrasonic energy, suction, and air pressure to transfer healthy follicles from an area of your scalp with lots of hair to an area where hair is thinning. The special suction technology is designed to remove healthy follicles more gently than traditional methods, and transplant them more accurately, as well.

With Alma TED, there’s less tissue damage, less bleeding, and less scarring compared to other hair transplantation methods. These factors combine to improve the viability of transplanted follicles, avoiding damage that can interfere with your results.

Short for transepidermal delivery, TED can be used in combination with nutrient-rich hair-growth products to give follicles a healthy head start. The pressurized air helps these products penetrate more deeply to ensure those nutrients reach their targets and support healthy follicle function. 

With Alma TED, there are no incisions, and there’s no need for anesthesia, either. Each session takes about 45 minutes, and you don’t have to worry about downtime afterward, making it a great solution no matter how crowded your schedule may be.

Find a solution for your hair loss

With Alma TED, you enjoy naturally thicker hair without invasive surgery and without relying on cosmetic products or hairpieces. To find out how this treatment can help in your battle with genetic hair loss, request an appointment online or over the phone with Dr. Kainth and the team at Brunswick Internal Medicine Group today.