Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Testosterone: an overview of biosynthesis, transport, metabolism and non-genomic actions
- 2 The androgen receptor: molecular biology
- 3 Androgen receptor: pathophysiology
- 4 Behavioural correlates of testosterone
- 5 The role of testosterone in spermatogenesis
- 6 Androgens and hair: a biological paradox
- 7 Androgens and bone metabolism
- 8 Testosterone effects on the skeletal muscle
- 9 Androgens and erythropoiesis
- 10 Testosterone and cardiovascular diseases
- 11 Testosterone and erection
- 12 Testosterone and the prostate
- 13 Clinical uses of testosterone in hypogonadism and other conditions
- 14 Pharmacology of testosterone preparations
- 15 Androgen therapy in non-gonadal disease
- 16 Androgens in male senescence
- 17 The pathobiology of androgens in women
- 18 Clinical use of 5α-reductase inhibitors
- 19 Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and androstenedione
- 20 Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs)
- 21 Methodology for measuring testosterone, DHT and SHBG in a clinical setting
- 22 Synthesis and pharmacological profiling of new orally active steroidal androgens
- 23 Hormonal male contraception: the essential role of testosterone
- 24 Abuse of androgens and detection of illegal use
- Subject Index
6 - Androgens and hair: a biological paradox
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Testosterone: an overview of biosynthesis, transport, metabolism and non-genomic actions
- 2 The androgen receptor: molecular biology
- 3 Androgen receptor: pathophysiology
- 4 Behavioural correlates of testosterone
- 5 The role of testosterone in spermatogenesis
- 6 Androgens and hair: a biological paradox
- 7 Androgens and bone metabolism
- 8 Testosterone effects on the skeletal muscle
- 9 Androgens and erythropoiesis
- 10 Testosterone and cardiovascular diseases
- 11 Testosterone and erection
- 12 Testosterone and the prostate
- 13 Clinical uses of testosterone in hypogonadism and other conditions
- 14 Pharmacology of testosterone preparations
- 15 Androgen therapy in non-gonadal disease
- 16 Androgens in male senescence
- 17 The pathobiology of androgens in women
- 18 Clinical use of 5α-reductase inhibitors
- 19 Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and androstenedione
- 20 Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs)
- 21 Methodology for measuring testosterone, DHT and SHBG in a clinical setting
- 22 Synthesis and pharmacological profiling of new orally active steroidal androgens
- 23 Hormonal male contraception: the essential role of testosterone
- 24 Abuse of androgens and detection of illegal use
- Subject Index
Summary
Introduction
Hair growth plays significant roles in human social and sexual communication. People all over the world classify a person's state of health, sex, sexual maturity and age, often subconsciously, by assessing their scalp and body hair. The importance of hair is seen in many social customs in different cultures, such as shaving the head of Buddhist monks or no cutting of scalp hair by Sikhs. Body hair is also involved; for example, the widespread customs of daily shaving men's beards and women's axillary hair in Northern Europe and the USA. When this is considered, it is not surprising that abnormalities of hair growth, either greater or less than “normal”, even including common male pattern baldness, cause widespread psychological distress.
Androgens are the most obvious regulators of human hair growth. Although hair with a major protective role, such as the eyelashes, eyebrows and scalp hair, is produced by children in the absence of androgens, the formation of long pigmented hair on the axillae, pubis, face etc. needs androgens in both sexes. In contrast, androgens may also inhibit hair growth on the scalp, causing baldness. How one type of hormone can simultaneously cause these contradictory effects in the same tissue in different body sites within one person is an endocrinological paradox. The hair follicle has another exciting characteristic. It is the only tissue in the adult body which can regenerate, often producing a new hair with different features. This is how androgens can stimulate such major changes.
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- Chapter
- Information
- TestosteroneAction, Deficiency, Substitution, pp. 207 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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