How To Help With Thinning Caused By Health Issues Or Nutrient Deficiencies
Hair loss that comes about from health conditions like thyroid diseases, skin conditions like psoriasis, diabetes, or lupus, will likely get better if the condition is better controlled by medications or lifestyle changes. If you have concerns about condition-related hair loss, ask your doctor about ways to help improve the condition in order to potentially help improve your hair thinning.
Hair thinning stemming from nutrient deficiencies can likely be reversed simply by correcting the deficiency through eating a healthy well-balanced diet or taking supplements.
How Long Does It Take For Hair To Grow Back After Chemo
Chemotherapy is usually used to treat cancer. Chemo is a potent medication that attacks rapidly diving cells, such as cancer cells, but it may also attack the hair follicles in the scalp and other parts of the body, leading to rapid hair loss.
Hair will start to regrow on its own two to three weeks after chemotherapy is completed. The hair may grow back as a soft fuzz at first. After about a month, real hair will begin to grow back at its normal rate of 6 inches per year.
Your new hair may grow back a different texture or color than before. In rare instances, hair loss from many years of strong chemotherapy can be permanent.
What Types Of Health Conditions Can Lead To Hair Loss
Hair loss itself is sometimes treated as a diagnosis, but it is often asymptom of something bigger. “Hair loss can be a sign of an underlying health issue and act as an early warning system,” says Richard Firshein, an expert in integrative and precision-based medicine and founder of the Firshein Center. “The health of hair follicles is directly related to health and the functioning of our endocrine system.”
For conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome , which is often difficult to diagnose, hair thinning is often one of the first tell-tale signs along with acne and body hair caused by the increased levels of testosterone. “Patients with PCOS can have overall elevated testosterone leading to androgenetic alopecia,” explains Henry. Talking about it openly with your dermatologist, OB-GYN, or general health provider can help get you to a diagnosis and treatment plan earlier.
Recommended Reading: How To Help Hair Loss
How To Stop My Hair From Falling Out
Is your hair shedding? Your scalp may be sweaty. Perspiration creates a moist environment that allows the natural fungus on the scalp to thrive. The resulting inflammation and itching can lead to follicle damage, making hair vulnerable to fall-out, says Roberts-Cooper.
One of the most natural ways to stop hair from falling out and thinning? Honey. Research shows applying honey, which is a natural antifungal, to the scalp every other day eliminates fungus in one week, plus leads to a noticeable drop in shedding in four weeks.
To make a honey hair mask: Mix two tablespoons of honey with 2/3 cup of warm water. Massage into scalp and let sit for 30 minutes, then rinse.
Is Hair Loss A Symptom Of Covid
Many people notice hair loss in the months after recovering from a COVID-19 infection. We now know that more than 20% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 lose hair in the 3 to 6 months after discharge. Other studies that include people with milder symptoms suggest that hair loss after COVID-19 may actually be much more common.
There are many reasons why you may lose your hair, and stress is a common cause. The clinical term for hair loss thats related to stress is telogen effluvium. It usually happens about 3 months after a stressful event, and it can commonly last for up to 6 months. Telogen effluvium often happens after other stressful life events such as having a baby or a major surgery.
Cases of telogen effluvium have grown a lot since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic they are up over 400%. And rates of this condition are highest in people of color and other groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
While we dont fully understand why this is the case, it is thought to be related to the stress of having COVID-19. Theres no evidence yet that the COVID-19 virus directly causes this hair loss.
Read Also: Does Diabetes Cause Hair Loss
Follow This Healthy Hair Lifestyle Checklist
- Avoid excess stress.
- Stimulate the circulation to your scalp with a daily finger massage. Also take handfuls of hair and gentle move the scalp to and fro, and side to side, to loosen tension and promote blood flow.
- Use a shampoo containing green tea caffeine which blocks DHT production and stimulates hair growth. Caffeine also reduces smooth muscle constriction around hair follicles to improve blood flow and nutrient delivery.
- Ask your doctor if you need any tests to assess your thyroid function, to measure your serum ferritin levels to look for iron deficiency, or if any other hormone imbalances are likely.
Medications To Treat Hair Loss
Treatment depends on the underlying cause, says Dr. Scott. Sometimes simply addressing a medical condition prompting hair loss will be enough for the hair to regrow. In other instances, a woman might consider a medication like minoxidil , which helps with certain types of hair loss, or another treatment to replace or regrow lost hair.
A newer option being used to treat hair loss is platelet-rich plasma injections. For this treatment, the doctor draws your blood, divides it into its separate components, recombines the blood fluid with a high concentration of platelets , and introduces the resulting preparation back into the scalp.
The science on this isnt totally worked out. We still dont completely understand the mechanism behind PRP, but growth factors contained in platelets can stimulate regeneration of hair follicles and other tissues as well, says Dr. Scott.
In addition, low-level LED laser lights have been found to be helpful in regrowing hair in some cases. Its likely that even more treatments will be developed in the near future.
Read Also: What Vitamin Is Good For Hair Thinning
Do I Need Protein If My Hair Is Falling Out
You need protein in your hair if your hair is porous or limp, lacks elasticity, is falling out, or has recently been colored. To fill in the gaps and cracks, you need a hair protein treatment to strengthen your locks. If you find that your hair is limp and loose with no feathers, you may have a protein deficiency.
Male Pattern Hair Loss
In men, hair loss can begin any time after puberty and progress over the course of years or decades. It starts above the temples and continues around the perimeter and the top of the head, often leaving a ring of hair along the bottom of the scalp. Many men with male pattern hair loss eventually become bald.
You May Like: How To Stop Hair Loss Due To Weight Loss
How To Help With Hair Loss Caused By Stressors
If your hair loss came about suddenly 2-4 months after a strong stressor like surgery, childbirth, significant weight loss, or a serious illness, you may be dealing with telogen effluvium.
Telogen effluvium hair loss rarely lasts longer than 6 months, and once the stressor is removed, the hair often returns to its previous thickness and health.
However, the noticeable hair recovery may appear to take a while as the hair will need time to regrow.
Focus on hair health, stress relief, and nutrient-dense food and supplements to help increase the health of your regrowing hair after telogen effluvium loses.
What Is The Best Natural Treatment For Hair Loss
- Increase your protein intake. Protein is the building block of life and the building block of all tissues in your body, including your hair.
- Take BComplex – Vitamins: B vitamins have many benefits.
- regulating hormones. Many people who begin to lose their hair early or without explanation experience hormonal imbalances.
Read Also: What Is Causing My Hair To Thin
Is There A Way To Make Hair Grow Back Faster
You may take efforts to guarantee that your hair grows and is in good condition:
- Treat your hair with care. When shampooing, massage your scalp. When you shampoo, dont forget to use conditioner. To dry damp hair, dont massage it with a towel. Instead of brushing wet hair, use a wide-tooth comb. Hairdryers should be set to a lower heat setting, and hot styling products should be used rarely. Avoid wearing your hair in tight buns or ponytails daily, and use hair weaves or extensions sparingly.
- When swimming, make sure your hair is protected. Wear a swim hat, rinse your hair immediately after swimming, and cleanse your hair with a swimmers shampoo.
- Include iron in your diet. An iron shortage can cause hair loss. Red meat, beans, lentils, fortified cereals, and green leafy vegetables like spinach are all excellent sources of iron.
- Consume a lot of protein. The hair root requires protein. If you dont receive enough protein, your body will store it by slowing hair growth. Include meat, eggs, seafood, beans, and almonds in your diet to nourish your hair roots.
Use A Topical Treatment
The only topical treatment that has been approved by the FDA for hair loss in women is minoxidil, better known by the brand name Women’s Rogaine . Topical minoxidil is the gold standard standard of treatment, Dr. Zeichner says. It helps lengthen the active growing stage of hairs and promotes healthy delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the hair follicle.
Recommended Reading: What Can Cause Thinning Hair
How Long Does It Take For Hair To Grow Back After Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy, sometimes known as chemo, causes harm to quickly dividing cells. This is how cancer cells are killed. It also explains why some of the adverse effects, such as hair loss, occur. Chemotherapy medicines do not all induce hair loss.
Hair loss can affect both the hair on the scalp and the hair on the body. Hair thinning might be full or partial but it does usually grows back following chemo. The rate at which this happens varies from person to person and depends on the bodily part.
Because scalp hair grows the fastest, it is the first to regenerate after chemo. Within a few weeks of finishing chemo, you may see a soft fuzz on your head. More typical hair may take a month or more to develop. Hair in other parts of the body, such as the lashes and brows, takes longer to recover. You may notice thickness, texture, and color variations until the chemo effects fade off entirely.
The Emotional Impact Of Hair Loss
Hair loss can be traumatic in part because its so visible. You may feel that it reveals to the world that youre a cancer patient, threatening your privacy. And you may have to deal with it around the same time that youre facing other unwanted changes to your body and appearance due to treatment.
Of course, not everyone reacts to treatment-related hair loss in the same way. For some, it can be devastating, especially at the beginning. For others, its a big inconvenience but it doesnt affect them as deeply.
Recommended Reading: How To Grow Hair After Hair Loss
Hair Loss Prevention: How To Stop It Falling Out And Thinning With Stress
Causes, prevention and treatment… we speak to an award-winning hair doctor to get some advice on preserving your precious locks
e are living in stressful times.
For some the mask wearing, hand washing, food hoarding and job uncertainty will cause sleepless nights, for others it might trigger, or exacerbate existing, hair loss.
Its well established that hair loss can be related to emotional stress or anxiety, award-winning dermatologist Dr. Serkan Aygin tells the Standard. When youre stressed or anxious, your body produces whats known as the fight or flight response. This is when your body is making extra hormones to prepare it to deal with whatever it thinks of as being a potential threat. This change in your hormone levels can have effects all around your body. When these extra hormones are made, they can affect the growth patterns of the hair follicles on your scalp.
Theres usually about a three-month delay between the stressful event or time period and the moment your hair starts falling out. So anyone feeling the Covid-19 anxiety, might not actually notice any hair loss until the end of summer.
The good news though, is that hair loss due to stress tends to be temporary. Unless theres another underlying medical reason for your hair loss, it should only last for as long as youre going through that particular period of stress or anxiety, says Dr. Aygin, who has treated over 10,000 patients for hair loss at his eponymous specialist hair clinic.
Yes Women Experience Thinning Hair Too Heres Why And Possible Treatments
At first, I blamed the hairstylists. For several years, my hair had been flat, the cowlick too pronounced, the texture different. I kept switching salons in search of the perfect cut, the miracle product or, ideally, both. Then, as I ticked off my complaints to a new stylist, he ran his fingers through my hair and shrugged. It happens, he said. We get older. The hair thins.
What?
Just a few months later, Ricki Lake, 51, revealed her own struggle with hair loss an irony for the actress who found fame as the star of Hairspray. My fixation kicked into high gear, and I started searching online for answers. I learned that its normal to shed 50 to 100 hairs a day, and that new ones should grow in their place. But a variety of factors, including genetics, illness and poor nutrition, can disrupt that growth cycle, not just in men, but also in women of all ages. The American Hair Loss Association reports that 40 percent of all hair loss sufferers are women.
Genetics is the leading cause of hair loss for both sexes, said Marc Avram, a New York dermatologist who specializes in the condition. The American Academy of Dermatology reports that 30 million women in the United States suffer from hereditary hair loss, compared with 50 million men, though Avram suspects the numbers are much higher.
Don’t Miss: How To Treat Dry Thin Frizzy Hair
How Can I Regrow My Hair Naturally
Another way to grow hair naturally is to massage your scalp. Massage increases blood flow, allowing nutrients to enter the hair follicles. Massaging with an oil such as olive provides the added benefit of moisturizing the area.
Female receding hairlineHow do you know if you have a receding hairline? An easy way to tell if the hairline is receding is to look at the looming M shape on her forehead. Take a fine-toothed comb and comb your hair from the front, parting it towards the back of the head. Hold the hair in place and notice if the hairline rises noticeably at the temples and towards the center.Is it possible toâ¦