Getting The Scoop On Hair Loss

Amazingly over half of all men and women in the U.S. have experienced some form of hair loss. That is an amazing amount of individuals suffering from excessive hair loss. Approximately 50% of these...

Amazingly over half of all men and women in the U.S. have experienced some form of hair loss. That is an amazing amount of individuals suffering from excessive hair loss. Approximately 50% of these people have experienced hair loss by the time they turn 50 years of age.

There are several different types of hair loss including the most common form, which is androgenic alopecia, which is male-pattern baldness. Another form of hair loss is called, traumatic alopecia, which is when hair loss occurs because it has been torn from the scalp by an accident or some force.

There are many medications that can contribute to hair loss and this is called, drug-induced alopecia.

If an individual suffers from a patchy, hair loss it is called, alopecia areata. This type of hair loss is usually only temporary and the hair can grow back.

Women and men can both experience hair loss but women’s experiences are slightly different than what men encounter. This is mainly because the hair loss women have is usually hormonal based and this usually causes thinning of hair and not baldness. Women can experience thinning of hair several months after having a baby, when they take birth control pills or when they participate in hormonal replacement therapy or during menopause or monthly menstruation because of fluctuating hormone levels.

Usually the first sign of hair loss for a woman is that her braid or ponytail is getting thinner.

Medications can also cause hair loss including medications prescribed for heart, thyroid disease, lupus, acne, and depression. Hair loss can also result from chemotherapy or radiation treatments for cancer.

There is a cycle to normal hair growth and it includes the growing, resting and shedding cycles. Normal healthy hair goes through these 3 cycles on a regular basis. At any one given time a healthy head of hair has 90% of the hair in a growth cycle and 10% in a resting cycle. Each strand of hair has its own pattern of growing, resting and shedding. This pattern can be affected by our environment, the foods we eat, how much water we drink, the medications we take and how much stress we are under.

Many common things can cause the ratio of growing hair to shedding hair to be off including stress, disease, improper diet, poor hair habits, exposure to chemicals, hair trauma, and poor nutritional habits.

There are also rare causes for hair loss which include poor blood circulation, infections such as fungal and syphilis, skin diseases such as lupus, the treatments for cancers, hormonal fluctuations and hormonal medications, kidney and liver disease and shock.

The symptoms of hair loss are obvious such as looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing more scalp than hair or less hair than you are used to seeing, the appearance of more hair in the hairbrush, comb or in the sink or tub drains. You may find more hairs on your pillow or on your shirt than normal or a woman may discover that her braids or ponytails are not as thick as usual.

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