Is Female Hair Loss Caused By DHT?

I just saw this press release from Hair Club that said female hair loss is caused by DHT, and scalp massages are a “good way to prevent hair loss”. Is any of this correct? Here’s the press release (and thank you)

Press release

The part of the press release that you’re questioning says, “The most widespread hair loss among women is female pattern thinning, or Androgenetic Alopecia. This is a condition caused by a build-up of Dihydrotestosterone or DHT that eventually kills both the hair follicle and the hair itself.”

I can understand why you’d be skeptical. To my knowledge, there is no real connection between DHT and female hair loss, except in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or other virilizing conditions. DHT is linked to male pattern baldness (MPB), but that isn’t what the press release is about. If Hair Club has some new insight, I’d love to see the source.

As for scalp massage being a hair loss prevention technique, that is also not correct. I don’t know where that info came from, but I’d have to wonder if this was simply an overzealous PR agency that used common-yet-untrue myths to fill out a press release. So while rubbing your head won’t help you keep your hair, some of the other information in that press release is right — chemicals and tight braids can cause hair loss in women, along with hormones, stress, pregnancy, and disease.

Stuff like this is likely how false hair loss information gets propagated across the internet, resulting in hair loss sufferers buying into treatments that just aren’t valid. I just hope when folks do their research, they’ll be able to identify the truth from the sales pitches.