Last Updated on November 3, 2016 by Robert Price
DHT is a mystifying hormone. From what I’ve read, it can play a role both in causing cancer and in helping prevent it — usually the former, in older men especially. It’s one of the main reasons your balls and your voice dropped during puberty. Your body hair and beard are brought to you by DHT. And if you’re going bald and you’re a dude, you guessed it: you can probably blame your hair loss on DHT, too.
We all have our own experiences with this strange and misunderstood hormone. It’s seemingly both a hero and a villain. My own experience with DHT is unique — or maybe it isn’t. I’m trying to solve the puzzle, just like the rest of you. So here’s my DHT story.
- I Had Horrible Acne as a Teenager – DHT likely played a significant role in that, though not an exclusive one. I’m talking the horrendous, disfiguring, cystic variety of acne, for the record. I still get a fair share of zits to this day, too, as a 31-year-old man! But yet…
- Plenty of Ladies Can Grow Better Beards Than I Can – No offense to any bearded ladies reading this. DHT promotes facial hair, and I literally couldn’t grow a beard if my life depended on it. I can grow a horrible, patchy, multi-colored, orange, blonde, brown, red, and white goatee (the prevailing color is a disgusting orange-red combo). But that’s it. DHT promotes facial hair growth, but not very effectively, in my case. I don’t have much body hair to speak of either. Yet…
- My Voice is Relatively Deep – That’s also courtesy of my frenemy, DHT. Furthermore…
- I have a Penis that Would Make Pornstars envious – Just kidding. Or am I? Of course I am! But like I said, the development of the penis is aided by DHT. And finally, I’m grateful that I’m…
- Not Balding Yet – The horrible acne I had in high school was arguably as bad as balding. Think about it. Would you rather have had the worst acne in high school or thinning hair? I imagine the answer will vary. And for the record, I’m talking about the guy whose acne was so bad, he was totally ostracized. That was me. My hair follicles aren’t DHT-sensitive yet as far as I can tell — the process always starts before you actually notice it, though, to be fair. That means I could be thinning and not even know it!
So what’s your DHT story? I’m genuinely curious! You don’t have to comment about your size, of course. Please don’t actually. I don’t want Google to get the wrong idea here. But leave a comment below and we’ll compare notes.
Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.
DHT is my hero. Why? Aside from all those other good things it did to and for me, it made me bald. I’m one of those very lucky guys with high follicular sensitivity to DHT. Unfortunately, it sure took its jolly slow time getting around to performing its magic. But when it finally rolled up its sleeve and went to work shutting down the unwanted follicles on top of my head, it made up for lost time. I less than two years I went from Norwood 2 or 3 to Norwood 6. DHT sent all that nasty hair on top of my head packing. Good riddance. Thank you, DHT! In case you haven’t figured it out, I’ll spell it out for you. I absolutely LOVE male pattern baldness and have been wishing for it and eagerly anticipating it since I was 5 or 6 years old.