Women absolutely love their hair, and to think about losing it scares them to death. They don't want to lose even one hair. Hair loss in women is becoming a more serious problem than ever before. It is even affecting teenage girls at an alarming rate. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, nearly 30 million women in the just the US have a serious hair loss problem. That adds up to just about 40% of all the people who have lost or are losing their hair.
All women experience natural hair loss. It is normal for people, in general, to lose around 100 hairs a day. This is the hair's way of renewing itself. The hairs that are lost are rapidly replaced by new hairs.
When everything is normal, the hair grows approximately one-half inch in a month. Each hair is on a cycle of growth that lasts for two to six years. When it ends its cycle, the hair rests for a time and then falls out. Then a new hair will grow in the follicle in order to replace the old one. This cycle continues throughout the retiring years.
There is a hormone, called androgen, that can cause this normal hair cycle to be interrupted. Androgen is the root cause of the hair follicle shrinking, resulting in the death of the follicle or causing it to dry up. This alters the hair cycle, and hair is lost. Doctors are puzzled by this event, and they are still looking for the trigger that allows this to happen in women at any age, whereas in men, it doesn't happen until middle age.
If a woman has an undiagnosed medical problem, it can cause her hair to fall out. There is a different kind of hair loss problem that occurs when a woman has an autoimmune problem. The inflammation that results causes the hair to fall out in bunches, and there are bald spots in different places on her head.
Childbirth, surgery, crash dieting or a traumatic emotional event can cause a change in the natural hair growth cycle that will make the hair shed. When a woman brushes her hair, it will often fill the entire brush. Hair loss can also be caused by chronic illness, thyroid problems, anemia or the use of certain types of medication. For this reason, it is very important that a woman have the reason for the doctor to find the root of her hair loss problem.
The first thing a doctor must do is diagnose any medical problem that may be causing her hair loss, and treat it. Specialists in female pattern balding can take blood tests, and if necessary, a scalp biopsy. Once a medical problem is completely eliminated, the hair loss can be treated in a simpler, more normal way.
Women have several options they can choose. Incredibly, the option that is the most difficult for women is just to accept the hair loss as being normal and not worry about it. The fact that a woman's hair is so important to her makes this extremely hard to do. She, also, has the option of using a hair thickener or a wig. There are different medical therapies that can be tried, and if nothing else works she can choose hair-replacement surgery.
A woman's hair is her shining glory and is a symbol of her womanhood. For a woman, the thought of losing her hair is difficult to accept. Always consult your doctor, and try to find the root cause of your hair loss before attempting any other remedy.
