Wednesday, November 13, 2013

What Are the Main Causes of Hair Loss in Women?


As we all know, hair changes throughout the course of our lives, becoming coarser, greyer and thinner as we age. In men, significant hair loss is pretty commonplace, with some men beginning to show thinning patches or a receding hairline as early as their teens. In women, hair loss to a significant degree is far less common, but there are a number of different things that can cause it to happen. Whether it is extreme hair loss to the point where the woman in question is permanently or temporarily bald, or patchy thinning, noticing a change in your hair can be a sign of a health problem or the result of all kinds of causes. Here are some of the most common reasons a woman might experience hair loss:

Medication
Most people know that chemotherapy used to treat cancer causes hair to fall out, in many cases completely. The hair does grow back after treatment has finished, but in many cases it comes back a different texture or color to how it was before. Chemo is an extreme example of a medical treatment that causes hair loss, but there are other medicines that can cause changes in the hair. Medications used to treat fairly common things like depression, high blood pressure and arthritis have also been shown to cause temporary hair loss in some patients.

 Hormonal Changes
Hormones regulate the growth of cells in the body, including the hair. Hormonal changes throughout a woman's life, for example pregnancy, the menopause, puberty, and any hormone medication she might be taking can cause thinning of the hair, or other changes. Also, hormone related conditions like thyroid issues can affect hair.

 Medical Conditions
Alopecia is the most commonly known medical cause of extreme hair loss, however other things like scalp infections, skin diseases and diseases that cause scarring can also leave thinning or bald patches on the scalp. Hair restoration will occur naturally in many of these cases when the disease or infection is cured.

 Shock or Stress
Times of serious emotional or physical shock or trauma are prone to causing changes in the hair for a temporary period. This can be something like a dramatic physical change, like rapid weight loss, sudden serious injury or surgery, or an emotional upheaval like a bereavement. Longer term periods of stress, for example if you are unemployed or going through a divorce, can also slowly begin to impact your hair.

 Mental Disorders
There is a compulsive psychiatric disorder that causes people to pull out their own hair. This is called tricholotomania and is in some ways similar to an obsessive compulsive disorder. Hair will grow back normally, but the underlying root of the condition needs to be addressed or the sufferer will keep on pulling their hair out.
Hair Styles
In some cases, something as simple as scraping your hair back into tight hairstyles every day can damage it in places and make it fall out or thin. If you notice the condition of hair in certain areas changing, consider looser styles or alternating different styles to prevent strain on the hair.
If the problem is severe, you may want to book an appointment at a hair loss clinic to talk your worries through with a practitioner and seek a solution.
Gemma Allen suffers from stress induced alopecia.  After visiting a hair loss clinic she gained a deeper understanding of what was causing the problem.