Male pattern baldness treatment in Nottingham

Male pattern baldness symptoms

Receding hairline or thinning crown?

Male pattern baldness (the medical name is androgenetic alopecia) happens because some of the hair follicles on the top of your head are sensitive to a hormone called DHT. Over the years, DHT gradually shrinks those follicles, leading to miniaturisation. Each new hair grows back a little finer and a little shorter than the last, until eventually the follicle stops producing any visible hair at all. The follicles at the sides and back of your head aren't sensitive in the same way, which is why they usually keep their density. Common signs include:

• Your hairline moving back at the temples, often into an M shape

• Thinning at the crown that you spot in photos, mirrors or under bright light

• The top of your head looking see-through when your hair is wet or short

• Hair on top that feels finer than the hair at the sides and back

• A father, grandfather, uncle or brother who went the same way

• Hair loss starting in your 20s or 30s, sometimes in your late teens

You don't need all of these. If two or three sound like you, it's worth finding out properly rather than guessing, and the Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic assessment takes two minutes.

Stages of hair loss

Where you are on the scale, and why it matters

At Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic, when we look at hair loss in men, we're interested in the pattern, how fast it's moving and what stage it's reached, not just one symptom. Clinicians use something called the Norwood scale to describe the stages. You don't need to know the numbers, but it helps to know roughly where you are, because it changes what treatment can do for you.

Our assessment doesn't grade you precisely. Its job is to work out whether this is pattern loss at all, and to send you to a prescriber who does the grading.

Why most men wait five years, and what it costs them

The men we see in Nottingham have usually noticed their hair loss for years before they do anything about it. The reasons are always the same - hoping it stops on its own, not wanting to make a fuss about hair, and the stories about side effects.

But you should know that pattern baldness is progressive, and treatment is much better at keeping hair than growing it back. So every year of waiting is hair that medication can't help with. Nobody is saying you must treat it. But if you think you might want to one day, doing so sooner gives you more hair to work with.

Rule out the rest

Not everything that looks like pattern baldness is

Before you assume you have male pattern baldness, it's worth ruling out two other things, because they need a different first step.

If lots of hair has started falling out fairly suddenly, all over rather than in a pattern, a few months after an illness, a stressful patch, rapid weight loss or a new medication, that's usually shedding rather than pattern loss. It normally settles on its own, and the sensible first step is checking your ferritin (iron stores) and thyroid, not starting a tablet. Learn more about hair shedding.

Some hair loss should be seen by your Nottingham GP surgery first rather than assessed online - if you have smooth round bald patches, a scalp that is painful, burning, very red or has spots, or hair loss that spreads quickly. Our assessment asks about all of these before anything else, and if that's you, we'll say so. Learn more about scalp conditions.

If your hair loss doesn't fit a clear pattern, or you'd like someone to examine your scalp in person before deciding on treatment, a registered trichologist in Nottingham can assess you face to face. We explain what they do, what it costs and when it's worth it.

Explore your treatment options

Hair loss treatment for men in Nottingham

The right treatment depends on your stage, your general health and what you're hoping to achieve. No treatment is automatic, and nothing is prescribed until a clinician has reviewed your full consultation.

Finasteride - the usual first treatment

Finasteride is a daily tablet that lowers the amount of DHT reaching your follicles, which takes the pressure off the ones that are shrinking. For most men it stops or noticeably slows progression of hair loss. For some people, it brings back thickness at the crown. Hairlines respond less than crowns. It works for as long as you take it, and if you stop, your hair gradually goes back to where it was heading over the following months.

It's a prescription-only medicine, and it has side effects worth understanding before you start. A small minority of men report reduced sex drive or difficulty with erections, which usually settle on stopping. Breast tenderness or enlargement is rarer and should be reported. Low mood, depression or suicidal thoughts have been reported, but rarely. You should stop and speak to a clinician if they occur. A clinician will check it's right for you and talk you through all of this. Read about finasteride →

Minoxidil - the add-on treatment

Minoxidil is a liquid or foam you apply to the scalp. It's thought to work by keeping hairs in their growing phase for longer and improving blood flow to the follicle, so it's often used alongside finasteride rather than instead of it. Topical minoxidil is available without a prescription. On its own it's weaker, but it's a common choice for men who'd rather not take a tablet.

Thinking about a hair transplant?

A transplant moves hair from the back and sides to the thinning areas. It suits men whose loss is established and has stabilised, with a good donor area to take from. You'll usually be advised to be on medication before and after, because the transplanted hair keeps going but the hair around it doesn't unless you protect it. Read about hair transplants in Nottingham →

At Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic, we don't offer transplants, hair systems, scalp micropigmentation or specialist dermatology. If you want to see how they compare with medical treatment, our treatments page lays them all out side by side.

What "it worked" actually looks like

Most men in Nottingham who start treatment picture regrowth. For most men, success is something more subtle - your hair stops getting worse. The crown looks thicker in the mirror, the shower drain is less alarming, and the photos from a year ago look similar to the photos from today. Some men do get visible regrowth, mostly at the crown. Hairlines are the slowest to respond and the least likely to come back. At Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic, we recommend you judge the result at six to twelve months, not three. If you're expecting a new hairline in a couple of months, you'll be disappointed. If you're hoping to still have this hair in five years, treatment is very likely to deliver.

The photo you should take today

Whether you start treatment through Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic or somewhere else, take two photos now - one of your crown from above, one of your hairline from the front, in the same light and with your phone held the same way. Then take the same two at three, six and twelve months after starting treatment. Slow change is impossible to judge from memory, and the people who see you every day can't see it either. If you take photos at regular intervals, you'll be able to tell a year on that it worked.

We'll remind you when it's time

We'll send you a reminder at three, six and twelve months, with the two angles to shoot and a side-by-side guide to comparing them.

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How it works

Our Nottingham male pattern baldness clinic

Medication is only prescribed when appropriate following clinician review.

Nobody will know

At Nottingham Hair Loss Clinic, there's no waiting room and no one to bump into. Your assessment and consultation happen on your phone, your treatment arrives in plain packaging, and there's nothing on the outside of the parcel that says what's in it. We don't put photos of you on this site and we never will. Whether anyone knows you're treating your hair loss is entirely up to you.

Hair loss at 20, 25 or 30 - why it starts so young

Male pattern baldness is mostly down to genes, inherited from either side of the family. Those genes decide how sensitive your follicles are to DHT, and that sensitivity can show up from the late teens onwards. It has nothing to do with hats, how often you wash your hair, gel, or any of the other things you'll have been told. It isn't a sign of high testosterone either. Men with pattern baldness usually have normal hormone levels, it's the follicles that react differently.

If you're noticing hair loss in your 20s, you're not unusual - around a quarter of men see the first signs before 21, and half by 50. It's also the age when treatment helps you keep the most hair. The reason early treatment matters more here than in almost any other kind of hair loss is because treatment retains hair far better than it grows it back. And if losing your hair bothers you, that's reason enough to act. It bothers many men. But few say so.

Nottingham male pattern baldness FAQs