Recently, I’ve come across quite a few articles about hair miniaturization and thought that it would be a good to share what I’ve learnt on my blog.

Miniaturization is the process where the thickness of one’s hair shaft shrinks, or becomes thinner and thinner over time. Causes include age, genetics and hormones. The process of miniaturization is slow, with hair shafts first losing 10% of their diameter and gradually increasing to 20% and so on.

When your hair follicles become thinner, hair will gradually become finer and less coarse. This is usually detectable only after a period of time - after 50% of normal (non-miniaturized) hair is lost - which would explain why many men/women do not seek help until significant miniaturization has already taken place.

Although it seems disheartening as miniaturization is not immediately obvious, doctors have discovered that mapping the scalp hair for miniaturization is critical in establishing the guidelines for the treatment of hair loss.

By mapping your scalp, the miniaturization and density on different areas on the scalp will be measured and will provide a ‘roadmap of data’. This will allow different treatments such as Propecia to be documented and measured for its effectiveness.

Hair Miniaturization

An image of the miniaturization process.
Source

If you are balding, you should have your scalp hair mapped for miniaturization to estimate the pattern of hair loss now and for future loss. Doing so will also enable doctors to measure the starting point for miniaturization so that changes over time can be recorded and followed.

This is just a summary of what I’ve learnt from reading various articles. If you would like to find out more, please check out these links:
http://www.baldingblog.com/2006/08/04/miniaturization-2/
http://www.androgeneticalopecia.com/hair-loss-biology/hair-loss-fiber-men-women.shtml
http://www.baldingblog.com/2006/08/31/miniaturization-and-hair-loss-more-than-meets-the-eye/

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