I recently received a comment here at The Beard Coach regarding bald patches in the beard.  However this did not pertain to the more common problem of having areas that just never really filled in as well as the rest of your beard.  This gentleman had already enjoyed a good 17 years of a thick, robust beard, only to find that he is slowly developing new bald patches in his beard on either side of his chin.

You can imagine how terrible this would be if it happened to you!

I did a bit of research into the problem and found some valuable information to pass along so that anyone suffering this distressing development can put his mind at ease to some extent.  The condition has a medical name – alopecia areata barbae.  It can happen to anyone at any age and the reasons for the disease’s development have not been pinned down by science just yet.  Here is what wikipedia has to say about the causes.

“Alopecia areata is noncommunicable, or not contagious.^[2] It occurs more frequently in people who have affected family members, suggesting that heredity may be a factor.^[2] Strong evidence that genes may increase risk for alopecia areata was found by studying families with two or more affected members. This study identified at least four regions in the genome that are likely to contain alopecia areata genes.^[7] In addition, it is slightly more likely to occur in people who have relatives with autoimmune diseases.^[6]

The condition is thought to be an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own hair follicles and suppresses or stops hair growth.^[2] There is evidence that T cell lymphocytes cluster around these follicles, causing inflammation and subsequent hair loss. An unknown environmental trigger such as emotional stress or a pathogen is thought to combine with hereditary factors to cause the condition.^[4] There are a few recorded cases of babies being born with congenital alopecia areata; however, these are not cases of autoimmune disease because an infant is born without a fully developed immune system.”

Another interesting study suggests that alopecia areata barbae could also be an indicator of an infected tooth.

“We have found that bald patches caused by tooth infection are not always in the same place. They normally appear on a line projected from the dental infection and can thus can be located on the face at the level of the maxillary teeth, above a line through the lip-angle to the scalp, beard, or even to the eyebrow.”

So it appears that this condition is not preventable due to the lack of understanding of its causes.  That begs the question… is it curable?

The good news is that in the majority of cases, the hair fully grows back on its own.  However, the time frame is unpredictable.  It could be weeks, months, or years.  For severe cases, it appears that a doctor can prescribe a steroid regimen to slow the spread of the bald patch.  Minoxidil, commonly known by the brand name Rogaine, can also be used in a treatment plan.  However, any of the drugs prescribed would carry the possibility of side effects, so it may be best simply to wait it out.

To summarize, although your beard bald spots are a reason to feel upset, don’t feel too upset because they may be the result of increased stress level anyway!  Visit a dermatologist (and perhaps a dentist as well) to get a professional opinion.  It’s not normal for a healthy beard to start falling to pieces, so listen to what your body is trying to tell you in its ever-so-dramatic fashion.

Let’s face the cold truth.   A lot of guys have patchy beards.  Beards that they are not exactly pleased with.  Beards they wouldn’t write home about.  Now, I have a deep love for all beards, thick and thin, but having a patchy beard is a huge deterrent to growing one for a lot of guys.

In an effort to find biological reasons for your patchy beard, and hopefully a nice natural fix, I researched many scientific articles that frankly were a bit over my head.  But I’m a pretty smart guy, and I was able to take away some info and distill it down to the essential reasons why your beard is lackluster compared to the norm.  Hopefully you will take away a better understanding of your frustrating situation and also some hope that the rapid progress in genetic research will someday create a solution.

To the science!

Beard hair growth, unlike the growth of head hair or other facial hair, like eyelashes, depends on compounds called androgens. Androgens are responsible for what are considered masculine features.  The most famous androgen is our old friend we learned about in middle-school health class, testosterone.

Testosterone fueled your conversion from a boy to a man and took you through those hellish emotional changes and awkward physical changes we all had to suffer through.  Now that you are an adult, your manly hormone keeps your muscles firm and useful and keeps your sex drive at a normal level. It is also beard food.

Inside each of your follicles is a structure called the dermal papilla.  The dermal papillae are kind of like the “brains” of your hair follicles.  The ones in your beard follicles respond to the messages that your androgens send and cause the surrounding parts of the hair follicles (called the hair matrix) to do their thing and make some damn beard hair.  Guess what androgen tells the beard hair follicles to activate the hair matrix?  Yep, testosterone.

So why not simply partake in some extra testosterone?  Number one, it’s a controlled substance in the United States.  Number two, there are other factors at work here that are sabotaging your beard growth.

When the dermal papillae of your beard follicles utilize testosterone, they actually metabolize it and create another androgen as a byproduct called dihydrotestosterone.  This substance is like the bigger, stronger brother to testosterone.  It contributes to male characteristics, just like wimpy old regular testosterone, just a lot more.  It didn’t just kick start your pubescent transition to an adult male, it is pretty much the reason that you developed as a male in the womb.

To utilize testosterone and create dihydrotestosterone, your beard follicles need yet another substance, an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase.  This enzyme is necessary for this conversion, and if you have low levels of it, then you have low levels of dihydrotestosterone.  More importantly to the topic at hand, if you don’t have enough 5-alpha-reductase, the dermal papillae of your beard follicles can’t properly use testosterone to tell your hair matrices to make hair.  And if your beard hair matrices aren’t making hair, you aren’t growing a beard.

In case you got a bit lost in the science back there, let me summarize.

Each beard hair is like a little plant whose “seed” is buried within each follicle.  Your beard seeds need testosterone and an enzyme to grow.  The testosterone is like the water and the enzyme is like the germ inside the seed that takes the water and uses it to grow.  Too little water means too little growth, but more importantly, if there’s no germ inside the seed, there’s no way anything is sprouting.

So what’s a guy with too little 5-alpha-reductase to do?  The good news is that it is already the subject of much pharmacological effort.  The bad news is that those efforts are currently working toward the goal of reducing the 5-alpha-reductase levels in normal men.  Why in the world would they do that?  Because of the dihydrotestosterone that it helps produce.  You see, in the crazy mixed-up world of hair, too much dihydrotestosterone causes male pattern baldness!  Yes, the more likely a man can grow a beard, the more likely he will eventually go bald.  Elevated dihydrotestosterone levels may also contribute to an enlarged prostate and even prostate cancer.  Hence the current 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors on the market today.

But take heart, you patchy-bearded soul.  If a medicine can reduce the level of an enzyme, then there’s no reason one couldn’t be created to increase the levels instead.  Maybe an intrepid reader of The Beard Coach will one day start a foundation to fund the development of such a drug.  Until then, don’t fret.  Your patchy beard doesn’t make you less of a man.  You lack no testosterone man fuel.  You simply suffer from a medical condition that one day in the glorious future may be cured.  Then you can gladly take your beard pills and finally grow a one you can take home to Mom.

Sources:
http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v98/n6s/abs/5612065a.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9804329

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119302972/abstract

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-alpha_reductase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrotestosterone

(Note: I am not a dermatologist and there may be giant errors in my understanding.  If any real dermatologists read this, please comment below with your insights. Thanks!)