testosterone and curly hair?

SmilingBluEyes · May 8, 2006

never heard of that....

dang I must have LOADS of it then. My hair is spiral-curly and has been since birth.

Frankly, I do not buy it.

Catfish RN · May 8, 2006

My hair did the same thing.

I have always blamed it on hormones because I started breaking out and my hair went from striaght to frizzy to super curly.

I was around 27 and had 3 kids by then.

I do think that it is related to hormones. I have never heard of anyone else going through it though besides me.. Yea, I am not alone.

penguin2 · May 8, 2006

Well....I've never heard of this one, but I have always had climate controlled wavy hair, now in my later years it seems straighter......

fotografe · May 8, 2006

I developed curley hair at age 37 after having my first child. It is seems hormone related, but I wonder if it is testosterone since it seems to coincide with pregnancy.

My hair did the same thing.
I have always blamed it on hormones because I started breaking out and my hair went from striaght to frizzy to super curly.
I was around 27 and had 3 kids by then.
I do think that it is related to hormones. I have never heard of anyone else going through it though besides me.. Yea, I am not alone.

jameeladf · May 8, 2006

I'm pretty sure your hair stylist gave you some inaccurate information. The testestosterone levels in the body do not change significantly for women as they get older-- the estrogen levels do. When you are young higher estrogen levels help to mute those undesirable male secondary sex characteristics such as facial hair, but once after those begin to drop in middle age the testosterone already present in the body is more readily expressed in those secondary sex characteristics.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

I'm pretty sure your hair stylist gave you some inaccurate information. The testestosterone levels in the body do not change significantly for women as they get older-- the estrogen levels do. When you are young higher estrogen levels help to mute those undesirable male secondary sex characteristics such as facial hair, but once after those begin to drop in middle age the testosterone already present in the body is more readily expressed in those secondary sex characteristics.

This is correct. When menopausal women begin estrogen only therapy they often find that those pesky chin hairs go away. The only thing that changed was the increase of estrogen.

fotografe · May 8, 2006

That explains the chin hairs (lucky to not have any of those!), but what about the original question -- the curly hair? Inversley, my sister with the naturally curly hair went stick straight after her first child.

This is correct. When menopausal women begin estrogen only therapy they often find that those pesky chin hairs go away. The only thing that changed was the increase of estrogen.

Catfish RN · May 8, 2006

I don't know which hormones cause it,( progesterone, estrogen or testosterone) but I for one am still convinced that pregnancy contributed to it. I used to have to get perms, and my hair would not hold a curl,now 4 kids later it takes me an hour and a half to straighten my curly hair!!

Gompers, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

Don't know about testosterone, but I think that hormones definitely have something to do with hair texture. I had pin-straight hair during my childhood, and when I hit puberty it curled up. Same thing happened to a cousin of mine. On the other hand, two of my cousins who were born with curly hair had it straighten out when they hit puberty.

terranbeau · May 11, 2006

It has to be testosterone. I didn't have this much spiral curly hair when I was younger, but it was mostly wavy with a few curls. I hit 13, and all of a sudden I had a full head of perfect curls. Seeing as I'm male, it has to be testosterone. :pumpiron:

CHATSDALE · May 11, 2006

since this information has become available all the curly-haired boys are going to be chased 24-7