Based on your genes you will have different amount of hair follicles on your body. Additionally some people’s hair follicles are more sensitive to testosterone than others. So if you have too little testosterone for your follicles it won’t grow (i. e. before puberty), if you’re in the Goldilocks zone it will rapidly stimulate growth, and if it’s too high then hair will thin and fall out (i. e. male pattern baldness). Generally a patchy beard has to do with low testosterone levels. It’s usually the little scrawny guys that needed steroids for one illness or another growing up. On the opposite end the guys with very high level of testosterone generally have to deal with an enlarged prostate later in life.
You did well in the beginning. "Some people’s hair follicles are more sensitive to testosterone than others" is right. Then what you said fell apart after that though. If the guy has enough testosterone to produce some thick facial hair, that means his testosterone is not low and the reason it didn't grow in fully was due to what you were originally right about--some follicles are not sensitive to the testosterone.
@cavmanier What I’m saying is the amount of testosterone in relation to the sensitivity of the hair follicle. You have two variables that have to align well. Nothing is wrong with the other things I said, you just didn’t comprehend what I was saying.
A patchy beard isn't related to low testosterone though. If a guy has a very thin beard overall, then it may be related to low T. Low T means no hair would be activated. Patchy just means certain follicles weren't' activated due to the follicles--not the T. You can even look at it as a man can a have a thick beard but no body hair or thick body hair and thin facial hair. This is due to genetics with his hair follicles only.
@cavmanier Different hair follicles can have different levels of sensitivity. So the portion that grows are more sensitive and are able to grow at lower levels of testosterone. If their testosterone is boosted slightly the other follicles can potentially activate creating a full beard. Like I said there is a Goldilocks zone where the two variable align and you get good growth. If you go past that Godilocks then then you can start to run into hair thinning and hair loss.
That is according to something you came up with and not the dermatologist.
That Goldilocks idea doesn't make sense when you think about how men usually are really hairy in concentrated areas. There isn't a threshold issue in those areas at all. The genes just don't want hair in the other places. That would be like saying men with back hair meet the threshold for high T. No, their follicles unfortunately just area designed to grow back hair. That will happen as men age, and it's not due to higher testosterone later in life.
@cavmanier It’s not something I came up with for shits and giggles, it’s a very simplified recounting of what is happening for laymen. If you’re interested in more detail you can take time to learn about how testosterone (T) is used in the synthesis of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by 5α-reductase. The more T available in blood plasma, the higher concentrations of DHT will be available due to about 10% (lower before puberty) of total T being converted to DHT. Androgens like T and DHT have a strong connection to masculinization (expression of specific male phenotypess) of humans during prenatal development, puberty, and as we age. When it comes to human facial hair specifically, the first thing you need to understand is that we have hair follicles all over our skin. They are very tiny colorless vellus hairs that are hard to see. When androgen levels rise, these vellus hairs are promoted to intermediate and then terminal hairs.
T tends to prime the hair follicle by androgen signaling and DHT tends to promote the linear growth of the hair. So if T is low, then DHT is also low and as a result your hairs will stay unprimed and linear growth will not be promoted. This is why children and women who have lower levels of androgens tend to be less hairy in specific regions. Androgens also have an effect on the thickness of human skin, thus why male who have higher levels of testosterone have skin that is about 25% thicker than females. When your androgen levels are very high, skin thickening is promoted which is believed to be a potential cause of balding on the scalp. When the skin is too tough and thick it chokes out the hair follicles. So too little and hair follicles are not activated to promote larger more noticeable hairs, too much and hairs gets choked out. Goldilocks doesn’t like her testosterone too hot or too cold, she wants it just right. This isn’t something a dermatologist needs to speak on. While they do specialize in skin, an endocrinologist would have a more comprehensive understanding of the fine details of the subject, but really anyone with a reasonable intelligence and an education in biology would be able to explain this to you.
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