Hair loss is one of the most common health conditions affecting all races, age groups and both sexes. The common name describing all types of hair loss is alopecia. Alopecia can be caused by a number of factors and it can be temporary or permanent. The hair loss condition best known to most of us with its typical horseshoe balding pattern, affecting mostly male population, is genetically determined and it is called male pattern baldness. Its main cause is dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is a metabolite of the male hormone testosterone attacking and destroying our hair follicles. DHT causes a slow death of hair follicles through their gradual miniaturization.

Male hormone testosterone is also present in female bodies so that women can also produce DHT and thus suffer from hereditary form of hair loss called female pattern baldness. Female pattern baldness does not have its characteristic horseshoe balding pattern as women are losing their hair around their entire scalp. Some women, however, can also be losing hair mainly on the top and in the front of their scalp. Female pattern baldness is, due to its diffuse balding pattern, more difficult to recognize than the male form of this disease.

It is often assumed that the main reason why somebody is losing their hair is the excessive amount of DHT in their body. However, this is not true. Women are also losing their hair and they definitely do not have too much DHT in their scalp. The main reason why somebody is losing hair is susceptibility of some hair follicles to the harmful attacks of DHT. It is not exactly known why hair in some people is more susceptible to these attacks than in others and why hair loss mainly affects the hair on the top and in the front of our scalp. Therefore, most treatments for male pattern baldness available today are focusing on protecting our hair follicles from DHT, be it through reducing the DHT levels in our scalp or binding to the receptor sites in hair follicles and thus preventing DHT from binding to them and causing harm.