Can Hair Grow Back After Balding?

Can hair grow back after balding? It’s likely one of the most searched phrases among men of a certain age — especially the ones who’ve been seeing a little more of their scalp than they’re used to (and that’s most of them, as male pattern baldness, the most common cause of hair loss, affects as many as 50 percent of men by age 50).

Growing your hair back after going bald is like gluing together a broken vase — you can get it to look somewhat like it did before, but it’s never going to be exactly the same.

There are a few limited circumstances in which hair can grow back after it’s lost — and in rare cases, it can be resurrected after being lost to male pattern baldness.

But balding is usually permanent (though you can definitely slow it down or stop losing more hair). Understanding why and what causes balding is where we should start this conversation.

Before we talk about hair growth, we should talk about why it would be lost in the first place. There are many reasons your hair might fall out.

We lose a substantial number of hair follicles every day as part of our hair’s natural growth phases. You might also experience sudden hair loss as a result of bodily trauma, illness, significant surgeries, major weight loss, and other physiological triggers.

But hair loss covers many potential scenarios. Balding, on the other hand, is a very specific scenario.

“Balding” is a common term for a condition called male pattern balding, male pattern hair loss, or, as the doctors call it, androgenic alopecia.

It’s a genetic condition in which a hormonal imbalance essentially kills hair follicles. A specific form of testosterone called dihydrotestosterone, which we’ll simply refer to as DHT, can affect the blood flow to hair follicles, killing them off.

So, can hair follicles grow back? The answer is maybe. If they’ve been injured due to illness or rigorous grooming, they may grow back, but after years of dormancy, they’re unlikely to return.

Now, practically speaking, going bald suddenly or in odd patterns can be a sign of another illness. In men with male pattern hair loss, the typical pattern is a receding hairline coupled with thinning hair or a bald spot that forms at the crown of the head.

If small, irregular bald spots are forming all over your head or body, then technically it’s not the balding we know as a genetic problem in men — it may be caused by another health issue or type of hair loss altogether, especially if you're seeing patchy hair loss.

Other types of hair loss include:

• Telogen effluvium (hair loss caused by disruptions in the hair growth cycle due to stress, injury, or illness)

• Alopecia areata (hair loss due to autoimmune disease)

• Scarring alopecia (an inflammatory condition that results in permanent hair loss)

• Traction alopecia (a type of hair loss typically caused by hairstyles that tug at the root of otherwise healthy hair)

Lifestyle factors like nutritional deficiencies, including a lack of biotin and fatty acids, medical conditions, and certain medications can also cause temporary hair loss.

If your symptoms don’t exactly mirror male pattern baldness, you may want to check out our guides to these other types of hair loss to see if they’re a closer match.

So you’re probably asking what can be done to reverse hair loss in men with balding. Some men, after all, may not notice changes to their hairlines until those changes become major. Can anything be done to undo those changes?

Not really.

Here’s the thing: complete hair loss from male pattern balding is often permanent hair loss, given enough time.

Men may see limited growth of new hair from using medications to treat their balding, but generally speaking, once a hair follicle has been made dormant and unproductive for long enough, it’s dead. Inactive follicles don’t come back.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, only some men see regrowth of hair from medications. If you want to regrow lost hair, your best shot is to start treatment immediately, which can increase your likelihood of successfully regrowing the follicles you’ve just lost.

For most men, regrowth isn’t guaranteed. In fact, the primary reason to start treatment, arguably, is to prevent further hair loss, which is what most FDA-approved medications and hair loss treatment options are best at doing.

Hair damage that results from androgenetic alopecia and certain types of scarring hair loss are almost always permanent, especially if left untreated for long enough.

If you’ve already started to notice signs that your hair is fading, thinning, retreating, absconding, or otherwise dispersing from your once-crowded crown, it’s time to do something about it — and we suggest doing something with a proven medical treatment.

One of the most effective medications for hair loss on the market today is minoxidil, better known by its brand name Rogaine. Minoxidil is a topical medication that protects and encourages hair growth by increasing blood flow to your hair follicles, which can reduce certain types of hair loss.

With minoxidil, your hair follicles receive oxygen and nutrients, and like plants on the brink of finally being watered, they can really bounce back after a few months of use.

We offer minoxidil foam and minoxidil solution.

Another way to protect yourself from the ravages of male pattern baldness is finasteride. Finasteride (also known as Propecia®) actually blocks the effects of DHT directly, reducing the volume of it in your system.

This lessens the effects of DHT on your hair, which means that you’ll experience less hair loss in general if DHT is the cause of your hair loss.

Yep, we offer finasteride, too, following a consultation with a healthcare provider who can help you determine what treatment option is right for you.

Minoxidil and finasteride also work well together to slow hair loss and possibly regrow new hair — you can find the duo in our topical finasteride & minoxidil spray.

There are other ways to reduce the appearance of baldness. The scientific community has explored everything from hair transplants to laser treatments, and some of these treatments offer modest proof that they’re beneficial — though maybe not worth the costs associated with them.

That last part is up to you. Just how much money do you want to spend restoring your hairline? Just how dependent on your hairline is your self-confidence? Truth be told, many men look great bald. Acceptance isn’t the most profound “treatment” for hair loss, but it can work gracefully for many men.

Your hair may or may not come back after hair loss has struck. The more time has passed, the worse the news generally is, but the only way to know for sure is to get in touch with a healthcare professional. Hair follicles may repair or grow back after injury or illness, but it’s unlikely that they’ll come back after being lost to male pattern baldness.

If you’re seeing more hair strands in the sink, growing them back or protecting the ones you still have is a task for a dermatologist or other healthcare professional to help you with. They can help find the underlying cause of your specific hair loss.

Our hair health resources are a great place to start that conversation. There, you can connect with healthcare professionals who can diagnose and treat hair loss whether it’s due to balding or something else. They’ll also be there to discuss the side effects of prescription and over-the-counter treatments for balding and hair thinning.

Our experts can also recommend lifestyle changes and products to switch to in order to protect the hair you have because it’s easier to hold on to hair than to grow it back.

In the meantime, take balding seriously. Get help soon so that whether you choose to protect what you’ve got or rock a bald top, it’s your choice.