Why Am I Experiencing Hair Loss

What Specific Treatments Are There For Hair Loss In Women

Female hair loss treatments include

• minoxidil ,
• hair extensions, and
• weaves.
• Minoxidil is available over the counter and available in 2%, 4%, and 5% concentrations. It may be something of a nuisance to apply twice daily, but it has been shown to help conserve hair and may even grow some.
• Minoxidil tends to grow very fine small hairs wherever it is applied. It is important to avoid running the liquid onto the face or neck where it can also grow hair.
• It is marketed for women at the 2% concentration but may be used in higher strengths as directed by a doctor.

There Are Things You Can Do To Prevent Hair Loss

If you notice your hair is thinning and it bothers you, there are some easy ways to make it appear fuller and simultaneously help prevent more hair loss or breakage. For instance, as SELF explained previously, its important to:

Wash as often as you need tobut no more. Both under- and overwashing can affect the volume and feel of your hair. Not washing enough causes a buildup of product and oil that can weight your hair down. But washing too frequently can strip the hair of its natural oils, making it more dry and prone to breakage. Experts recommend sticking to washing about two or three times per week and adjusting as needed for your particular situation.

Always use conditioner after shampooing. Conditioner makes your hair shinier and helps reduce static electricity, both of which helps thinning hair look fuller and glossier. But remember: A little goes a long way, and too much will weigh hair down.

Try leave-on products. Leave-in conditioners and detanglers help keep your hair moisturized throughout the day and protect against the effects of heat styling that otherwise can cause thinning and breakage.

Use hair masks for deep conditioning. If your hair tends to be dry and brittle, an occasional deep-conditioning mask may be just what it needs to regain some life and strength. These can also help hair look shinier.

Physical Trauma: A Shock To Hair Follicles

When your body is under serious physical stress, the natural cycle of hair growth and resting can be disrupted, resulting in hair loss, often in the form of thinning hair strands may come out in clumps. Any shock to the system, such as being in a severe accident, undergoing surgery, experiencing burns, or becoming very ill, can also shock the hair follicles, resulting in up to 75 percent of your hair falling out, sometimes months after the fact.

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A Less Intensive Approach

Although it can still take months to see a significant difference, many people have had similar results from a combination of supplements, thickening shampoos and illusion-creating haircuts.

After her husband noticed a few bald spots on the back of her head early in the pandemic, Martyna Szabadi, a 34-year-old business consultant who hasnt had Covid-19, experimented with products said to promote hair growth, including various scalp scrubs, a hair serum from the Ordinary and a daily drink of flax seed water. Nothing helped until she began using RevitaLash Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner and taking four capsules of Nutrafol core supplement for women.

After half a year of this combination, I finally have the hair issue under control, Ms. Szabadi said.

Nutrafol supplements also seemed to help Ms. Hill get her hair back on track after she began taking them in July, leaving her with a slimmer part and new hair growth around the crown. It was a boom year for the company, with revenue increasing 60 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to Giorgos Tsetis, the chief executive and a founder of the company.

Mr. Tsetis said that 80 percent of the companys sales increase can be attributed to its two core formulas for women: Nutrafol Women and Womens Balance. They include ingredients like vitamin A, vitamin D, zinc and biotin, the last of which has become widely known as a hair growth supplement despite the fact that dermatologists disagree over its efficacy.

Autoimmune Diseases That Affect Hair

Alopecia areata is often associated with an autoimmune disease, so it’s thought that some forms of hair loss can be caused by one of these medical conditions or is at least somehow related to it. Diabetes and lupus are two autoimmune diseases that can result in hair loss. This type of hair loss may not always be reversible it may sometimes be permanent. But medications and hair restoration surgeries may help compensate for any hair loss.

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What Can I Do About Traction Alopecia

To protect your hair from traction alopecia and prevent further damage:

• Ask your stylist to create looser braids or dreadlocks.
• If you have braids, remove them after three months.
• If you wear a weave or hair extensions, remove them after eight weeks.
• If you have relaxed or dyed hair, make sure these treatments are applied by a professional. If you still notice breakage or hair shedding, avoid chemical treatments completely.
• Minimize heat styling, including hair dryers, flat irons and curling irons. These wear out the hair and can lead to major hair loss.

Why Am I Going Bald

Hair loss can occur for a range of reasons. However, for men, the most common reason for hair loss is androgenetic alopecia, or male pattern baldness.

Male pattern baldness is caused by a combination of your genes and the effects of an androgen hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

In men genetically prone to hair loss, DHT can bind to receptors in the scalp and miniaturize, or shrink, the hair follicles.

This prevents your hair follicles from producing new hairs and results in the gradual loss of hair that many men experience during their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond.

Our complete guide to DHT and male hair loss explains this process and its hormonal origins in more detail.

In some cases, other factors, such as medication, stress or skin infections, could cause you to shed hair. Weve discussed these in more detail in our guide to the causes of hair loss.

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Treatment For Hair Loss

Most hair loss does not need treatment and is either:

• temporary and it’ll grow back
• a normal part of getting older

Hair loss caused by a medical condition usually stops or grows back once you’ve recovered.

There are things you can try if your hair loss is causing you distress. But most treatments are not available on the NHS, so you’ll have to pay for them.

No treatment is 100% effective.

How Long Does It Take To Go Bald

Going bald isnt something that happens overnight. For most men, hair loss develops gradually over the course of years and decades, with your hairline steadily receding and the hair on your scalp slowly getting thinner.

Theres no specific amount of time that it takes to go bald. Depending on your sensitivity to the effects of DHT, you may notice rapid hair shedding or slow but steady hair loss.

Regardless of how rapidly or slowly youre going bald, its important to treat hair loss as quickly as you can to protect your hair and prevent it from worsening.

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What Are Some Tips For Dealing With Hair Loss In Women

There are some things you can do on your own. You might check with your stylist or try some of these:

• Coloring your hair adds volume to the strands, making your hair seem fuller.
• Massaging your head, like when you are washing your hair, can stimulate blood flow to the scalp and hair follicles.
• Getting your hair cut shorter, and having layers added, can make your hair seem fuller.
• Using the right kind of shampoo can also help. Look for a shampoo that adds volume without using sulfate detergents.
• Using the right kind of product at the right time can also help. There are products that add volume that you add while your hair is still wet. However, using too much product can add weight.

Who Are The Leading Experts On Hair Loss

Dr Coen Gho, founder of the Hair Science Institute one of the worlds leading hair transplantation clinics with centres in London, Paris, Dubai, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Maastricht has little doubt that the different lifestyle choices and pressures that come with millennial existence contribute heavily to concerns around hair loss.

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There Are Different Types Of Hair Loss Genetic And Reactive

Genetic:

There’s a chance you’re genetically predisposed to hair thinning, which means you may see a progressive, gradual reduction in hair volume. “In these instances, certain hair follicles are sensitive to male hormones and this sensitivity causes follicles to gradually shrink and produce slightly finer and shorter hairs with each passing hair growth cycle.” Explains Anabel Kingsley.

Reactive:

This means your hair loss is the result of a trigger. “Excessive daily hair shedding is not reliant on having a genetic predisposition, it occurs as the result of an internal imbalance or upset, such as a nutritional deficiency, severe stress, crash dieting or an illness” says Anabel Kingsley.

What Are The Warning Signs Of Hair Loss

It can be hard to tell if youre losing hair especially if your hair loss happens gradually.

Instead, you may notice that your ponytails dont feel as thick, or that your scalp is more visible.

If youre unsure, ask your stylist if they have noticed any differences. This is especially important for women who are experiencing hair loss in areas that are difficult to see without someone elses help, such as the top of the scalp.

If you or your stylist suspect hair loss, make an appointment with a dermatologist. Generally, the sooner you act, the more hair you can save.

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Are There Complications/side Effects Of Treatment

Minoxidil may irritate your scalp and cause dryness, scaling, itching and/or redness. See your dermatologist if this happens.

With Minoxidil you might also see hair growing in other places other than your scalp . Wash your face after you apply Minoxidil and make sure you avoid other areas when you apply it.

Hair Loss Due To Medications

Hair loss is a side effect of a number of medications taken for common health problems. Blood-thinning medications, oral contraceptives, drugs for depression, NSAIDs, and beta and calcium channel blockers can all lead to thinning hair or baldness. Too much vitamin A and vitamin A-based drugs called retinoids can cause hair loss as well. Some chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer are known to cause total hair loss as they work to destroy cancer cells. Just as hair usually grows back after chemo, it should also grow back once you stop taking any medication that causes hair loss.

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Your Scalp Is Itchy Or Flaky

Although an itchy scalp doesnt necessarily mean youre losing your hair, many conditions that can cause your scalp to itch can also cause hair loss.

For example, hair loss is a well-known symptom of tinea capitis — a fungal infection that affects your scalp and causes your skin to itch.

Other conditions that can affect your skin and cause itching, such as seborrheic dermatitis, may cause hair loss if you scratch your scalp too aggressively. Its also common to experience mild itching with alopecia areata hair loss.

With this said, there isnt any scientific research to show that male pattern baldness — the most common cause of hair loss in men — results in an itchy scalp.

What Are The Symptoms Of Abnormal Hair Loss

Hair loss may affect just your scalp, hair on another part of your body or all hair on your body. You may notice increased hair shedding that occurs suddenly, short or broken hair, or patchy hair loss, depending on the cause.

Round ring-like patches either on your scalp or elsewhere may indicate ringworm as the cause. You would be wise to check your cat or dog for the source your vet can easily diagnose the fungus causing ringworm.

If your hair loss is caused by a medical condition affecting other parts of your body, you may also notice other symptoms. These are listed below.

Also Check: Can A Dermatologist Treat Hair Loss

Pull Test And Tug Test

This simple test measures the severity of hair loss. During a pull test, a dermatologist grasps small sections of hair, about 40 strands, from different parts of the scalp and gently tugs. If six or more strands fall out, you have whats known as active hair loss.

This may mean you have one of the following types of hair loss: telogen effluvium, in which hair falls out all over the scalp due to an interruption in the bodys cycle of hair production anagen effluvium, or rapid hair loss resulting from medical treatment loose anagen syndrome, which most commonly develops in young children and occurs when hair that is not firmly rooted in the follicle early androgenetic alopecia, better known as male pattern hair loss or female pattern hair loss or advanced alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease in which the bodys immune system attacks healthy tissues, including the hair follicles.

During a tug test, the doctor grasps a section of hair and holds it with two hands, one near the root and one near the tip, then tugs to see if any of the strands break in the middle. This test gives the dermatologist information about the brittleness or fragility of your hair strands.

A doctor may use the tug test when he or she suspects a hair shaft abnormality, which causes hair strands to thin, weaken, and possibly break.

Hair Cycle Of Growth And Rest

Like your skin and nails, your hair goes through a finely tuned cycle of growth and rest. There are 3 phases in a hair cycle:

• In the first stage, your scalp hair is continually growing. During this anagen phase, your hair grows about 12cm per month. About 90% of your hair is in this stage at any one time. It lasts between 25 years.
• The second stage, called the catagen phase, is when growth stops. About 13% of your scalp hair is in this phase at any one time. It lasts for 23 weeks.
• The third stage, the telogen phase, is a resting phase that lasts between 14 months. About 10% of your scalp hair is in this phase at any one time.

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