Hair loss occurs in both men and women. If you feel you are losing a lot of hair and losing hope, unmotivated; let’s understand the cause of hair fall first. We humans experience hair fall everyday; it is a natural cycle of hair to fall and re-grow. A normal human being can have about 100,000 hairs growing on the scalp. With such a number of hairs growing it is almost a negligible amount of hair fall we face every day as long as the growth, fall and re-growth cycle continues.
The most known form of hair loss is Androgenic Alopecia or male pattern baldness. Hair fall can occur in both the sexes. So what are the causes of this symptom? Hair fall maybe caused by an over-active or under-active thyroid gland. These can happen in both the sexes; androgen (male hormone) imbalance in men and estrogen (female hormone) in women. In most of the cases, a man starts to lose hair starting from the temple to the entire top of his head. However, a diffuse thinning is suffered by women through the entire scalp.
MEN’S HAIR LOSS
Androgenic alopecia is the most common and frequent hair loss suffered by men. There are also other causes of men’s hair loss like
Alopecia Totalis (total loss of hair from the scalp)
Alopecia Universalis (total loss of hair from entire body)
Anagen Effluvium (type of hair loss related when the body suffers from toxic substances like in case of Chemotherapy agents).
Chemotherapy agents are generally administered to kill cancer cells and are very poisonous. They not only kill the targeted cancer cells but also harms and kills other healthy cells. A patient tends to face a lot of hair fall during the treatment.
Alopecia Aretea (patchy hair loss in small circular area in different areas of the scalp, caused due to an auto-immune disorder)
FEMALE HAIR LOSS
Females suffering from this problem can feel really miserable. Women suffering from it are likely to feel less attractive; being more reserved in their character and strayed from the general society.
When the normal hair fall rate gets disrupted with more hair fall and less re-growth then one is on the way to hair loss. Hormonal changes occurs when women starts or stops using contraceptives or at the start or end of a pregnancy. Sometimes starting of menopause can also promote hair fall in women. Menopause causes permanent changes to in production of hormones in adrenal glands which results in estrogen reduction and increase in androgen which is responsible for such hair loss.
OTHER HAIR LOSS FACTS
→ Poor nutrition causes hair fall. Our hair needs Keratin (a protein) and Collagen. It also needs Vitamin (A, B, C, E), Zinc, copper and other minerals too. Deficiency of some of these basic nutrients can increase the rate of hair fall.
→ Coloring of hair, using of harmful chemicals like propylene glycol, sodium laurylsulphate, triethanolamine (TEA) etc.
→ Excessive stress from work, family problems, personal issues and major illness can also promote help loss.
→ Infections on the scalp like fungal infections can also cause hair loss.
→ Some hair fall maybe due to autoimmune disease like alopecia areata. The hair starts to lose in small round bald patches and gets bigger sometimes. However, it grows back naturally within the year.
→ Many regard baldness as natural and not a disease. There are many ways of restoring the lost hair. Flap Surgery, Scalp Reduction, Transplant are some of the known ways.
In women, Topical minoxidil, injectable cortisone etc. have also been used in re-growth of hair. Hair transplantation, hair styling and scalp camouflage are also some of the techniques used to minimize appearance of hair loss in women.
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