My 88-year-old grandmother is in a nursing home in California. Last week, I went down there to visit her. Here are 4 things I learned about hair loss during that trip.
1. Nearly ALL Elderly People Have Some Degree of Hair Loss
Men and women alike. Many of the women had both diffuse thinning and receded hairlines. My grandma is an exception. Like her Swedish great grandfather, and my 3x great grandfather, she has zero hair loss to speak of and a perfect hairline.
2. Norwood 3 is Probably Your Best-Case Scenario
Former president George HW Bush has been a Norwood 3 for life. On a related note, you may be interested in reading this article: The Bush Family and Balding Genetics – A Case Study
I’m assuming you’re a dude. Which means you’re much less likely to end up in a rest home because men tend to either self-destruct or have heart attacks before they’re put in rest homes. Happened to both my grandpas. But, I saw plenty of elderly men in my grandma’s care center. Most of them were extensively bald — maybe not quite Dr. Phil bald, but effectively bald nevertheless. Norwood 5 or worse. A few of the men seemed to have most of their hair, with no bald spots, and just some recession in the front. Norwood 3, approximately. That’s about the best you can hope for, and as I’ve said before, Norwood 3 ain’t that bad!
3. Your “Permanent” Zone May Not be Permanent, After All
Hair transplant doctors often say that their hair transplantation procedures are permanent. And results typically are permanent, that’s true. But quite a few elderly people also seem to experience thinning in their permanent or donor zones. Sometimes this thinning is regarded as “senile” alopecia, while is an unfortunate term given that not everyone who suffers from the affliction is senile! Time to change that name. I may start some kind of awareness campaign to facilitate that change. More to come.
The horseshoe-like band that Dr. Phil, a Norwood 7, still has is known as the permanent zone. I sometimes call it the Dr. Phil zone.
4. Hair Loss is Not that Big of a Deal
In the grand scheme of things that matter, hair loss is an insignificant concern. Nobody in any nursing home anywhere worries about balding, that I can pretty much guarantee you. Moreover, you’re going to die or end up in a nursing home much sooner than you think. So as I said in my hair loss post on James Dean, forget about it. Dream as if you’ll have hair forever, and live as if you’ll go bald tomorrow. Fight your hair loss, intelligently without getting obsessed, or just let it go.
Two quick words of wisdom before you leave:
- Enjoy your parents and grandparents while they’re around. You’ve already spent more time with them now, through your teens, than you will throughout the rest of your lifetime. The clock is ticking.
- Don’t let your hair loss give you tunnel vision. No need to join countless hair loss forums and despair endlessly. Just read this blog! Perhaps I’m being a bit facetious, but honestly, I think I’m giving you pretty much all the data you need to know, without getting overly clinical or superfluous. I keep things light too, intentionally, because I believe that helps neutralize the psychological and emotional effects that often accompany hair loss. In other words, I try not to be a downer!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday season. Until next time.
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.
About your point #4, for me male pattern baldness WAS a big deal. Because I wanted MPB so desperately, for me. No, I didn’t think about it all the time, as I went about living my life and loving my wife and kids. When I turned 50 and finally realized that I would probably never go bald, I resolved to just forget about it and be grateful for all the other wonderful things in my life. I moved on to other desires, most of which were fulfilled. It had been a good life full of love and fun.
Then suddenly, without any warning, male pattern baldness hit me. Looking back, there had been warnings, but I didn’t realize it at the time. While my attention was elsewhere, my hairline had ‘matured’ significantly. Someone showed me a photo of me taken at a party with my hair, normally combed forward, was pushed back, exposing my very high M shaped hairline. It hit me like a 2 by 4. I had a seriously receding hairline. I was going bald!
I’ve already described to you the wild, mixed bag of emotions I felt, as the guy smirked and said, “It looks like it’s your turn now.” He gave me that photo and I still have it and treasure it. What I had desperately desired all my life was finally happening to me. Or was it? A visit to a doctor and a hair replacement ‘expert’ confirmed my fondest dream. I would soon be bald. As it turned out, male pattern baldness was a big deal to my wife, too. In a good way. She was almost over the top with delight. But I wasn’t quite ready to party, as I was still worried that it would take too long for me to go bald and that I might not go bald all the way to ‘Dr Phil’. I need not have worried, as I began to shed hair, my hairline raced back across the top of my head and a bald spot took over the back of my head. It was all over, except for a still too generous fringe of hair on the sides and back of my head, all within less than two years.
So, it’s true, in the general scheme of things, going bald is no big deal. But it was for me and for the most important person in my life, my wife. She loves my MPB as much as I do. That IS a big deal … to me.