Thickness of Hairs

First off i just want to congratulate you on your blog. You’re doing a splendid job. It helped me tons in these two years of my battle with MPB.

My question relates to thickness of the hairs. You had mentioned previously in several posts that the thickness of hairs is standard for each hair in the non balding areas (the horse shoe pattern hair remaining that will probably outlive us). However i did a test and plucked some of these hairs in this region and not all of them have the same thickness. I didn’t use a microscope or anything but it it is quite clear to the naked eye. I am also sure that i am not thinning in these areas because my MPB is very very early and just in the corners of the hairline and none of my family members went past NW 3-4.

So to sum it up is it possible that some hairs on the head might be thinner than others? Is this normal? thank you

Yes, you are correct! Hair thickness varies all over the head as each hair is going through its cycle of growth/rest/fall (anagen/catagen/telogen). For non-balding men and women, you should have about 90% of hairs in a growth phase with relatively thicker hair and about 10% should be in a relatively thinner state. Then there are vellus hairs which are found in the follicular units. These vellus hairs are always thin and that is normal. So it is perfectly natural to have thinner hair in the back of the scalp (permanent, non-balding zone). If you are balding, this ratio will be dramatically different. Keep in mind this is a relative comparison with respect to your own hair at different areas of your scalp. This is in essence the miniaturization study that we have been advocating.

When technology catches up to us, we will have an instrument to accurately map all the hairs and its states on our scalp. As an aside, you should know that this horseshoe rim of hair is often impacted in women and in men who develop DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia).