Age vs Hair Cycles

Hello Dr. Rassman

I am a 22 year old male who has been having chronic telogen effluvium for almost a year. Now I am finally correcting the underlying condition, and hopefully the 60 % of hair I have lost will grow in.

During this time my hair has gone through short truncated anagen cycles (maybe 2 or 3), does this mean the hair follicles have aged for many years so that genetic balding will start a lot sooner than it is supposed to?

In other words: is it the number of hair cycles or the person`s actual age which signals the onset of male patterned baldness?

I think many men who experience CTE or TE are worried about this, hope you can give a definite answer.

Thanks

Some doctors believe that hairs have a certain number of hair cycles in their lifetime. That would indicate that you are correct — more cycles might mean acceleration of genetic hair loss. Drugs like Propecia and minoxidil are thought to prolong these hair cycles, theoretically keeping the number of cycles lower over a given number of years.