Yes, you are a product of your parent’s genes, and male pattern balding, or androgenic alopecia, is inherited.

Biology does not mean destiny these days and options are available for hair restoration products such as medical supplements – Minoxidil or Propecia; wigs and hair pieces and procedures such as hair transplants.

Unless you can change your parents, there is not much you can do about your genetic makeup. To set the record straight, here are 5 of the best balding myths, explaining causes for baldness.

I do not know about you, but I was devastated when I found out I was losing my hair at the age of 50. But as I look back on it, I was slowly losing my hair over the past 20 years. So how come I started losing my hair gradually and did not notice it, but then all of a sudden it started coming out faster and was much more noticeable.

The most common form of hair loss in men is by far male pattern baldness (the scientific term for this is androgenic alopecia.) When you suffer from this condition, the hair on your head progressively gets thinner and thinner (this may take years) until it is lost completely. It is called “pattern baldness” because hair is usually lost in a well-defined “M” shape.

There is a variety of causes contributing to hair loss. However, according to medical studies, in males the predominant cause is the excess level of the androgenic hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT.) DHT plays a role in the development of male secondary sex characteristics but an increased level of DHT leads to so-called follicular miniaturization, by which the hair shaft width is constantly decreased and the hair becomes thinner. Previously it was thought that baldness was inherited but there is no definitive proof that this is the case.