Questions About Genetics and Hair Loss

If someone has a mother’s father that is bald, will that person then be bald? Does this linkage dictate male balding genetics?

No, I do not believe that this is the case. The expression of the balding genes are not well understood and that is why it is so difficult to predict what will happen to any particular individual with balding in his family line.

Is it true that a man could escape the balding risk if his mother doesn’t inherit the MPB gene from her father and instead inherits genes from the mother’s side?

Again, there is little predictive value from knowing just two generations and certainly no value in knowing or determining what one might inherit from the mother. We have not really identified the genes that are responsible for genetic balding and I believe that there are many of them working together.

When we look at the fathers side of the family to predict any sort of inheritance pattern concerning MPB, should we exclusively just look at the male’s father and grandfather?

Again, the genetic patterns on inheritance are clearly not understood. If one inherits the father’s genes associated with MPB, you can not assume that the son will have the same hair loss pattern of his father. I have seen sons that have exactly the father’s pattern and a brother that has no balding what-so-ever.

If I am not bald by the age of 50, does that mean that I have escaped my father’s balding pattern.

Not necessarily, but practically that might be the case. On occasion, male pattern balding starts after 50, but that is unusual if there are no signs of it (no miniaturization anywhere in the scalp) seen.

What happens with women’s hair loss? Does it follow the types of patterns that are found in a woman’s mother, sister or grandmother?

I have seen many women with generalized thinning (woman’s version of the balding process) and they have reported many women in their families that have had the same problem. There appears to be a link between women who show thinning and their mothers, grandmothers, and sisters, many of whom will also have hair thinning/balding. As I think about it more (while answering your questions), I only remember women to women links from taking the history of women. Men have rarely reported that their mothers have had thinning hair, but I know that my mother did have considerable thinning after menopause and I have genetic balding (I was transplanted in the crown), and my brother has it but has not elected to get the problem addressed.