Female Baldness

When most people refer to hair loss they relate it as a condition that only affects men. However, almost 40% of women experience some type of hair loss, which can cause anxiety and affect self-esteem. If you are a woman suffering from hair loss, the fact you should know that most causes can be stopped or treated with the help of a dermatologist.

The fact is that everyone’s hair loss varies from 50 to 100 strands a day. Usually the body replaces the hair loss with new growth, but when your body stops or lessens hair production, you are left with less hair. Sometimes your body will resume hair growth on its own, but sometimes the hair will not grow again.

Causes of Hair Loss

There are many identified causes of hair loss. In heritable hair loss it may happen gradually over a period of time and many times it happens suddenly, perhaps due to illness, diet, medication or childbirth. Even the hair style you chose has an impact and can affect hair loss.

Among the inherited trait, the female-pattern baldness tends to stop growing new hair. Often this condition is marked as androgenic alopecia. This form of hair loss is common in both males and females, and often is noticed after menopause in women. It is the most common type, affecting millions all over the world. There is no way to avoid androgenic alopecia and there is no cure.

Another condition in which hair loss rate accelerate is called alopecia areata. Scientists believe that alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder where the body attacks its own hair, mistaking it for a foreign substance. Often it may happen to people that are otherwise healthy. Alopecia areata leaves smooth, round patches of hair loss on the scalp and other areas of the body.

Cicatricial alopecia is a rare disease that can develop in healthy people. It destroys a person’s hair follicles, replacing them with scar tissue. This, in turn, inhibits new hair growth.

 

Other Causes

Hormone:  Women who experience hormone fluctuation such as that in pregnancy notice hair loss around the time when hormones return to pre-pregnancy levels but regain the hair growth-loss cycle over time. Menopause is another hormonal surge that may cause the temporary loss of hair growth.

Health Issues: Hair loss may be a symptom of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and lupus, or the result of a fungal infection (ringworm, also known as tinea capitis). Medications, including chemotherapy or blood thinners, may be helpful for you otherwise, but can damage hair follicles.

Lifestyle: Constant pulling from hair that is tightly pulled back in a cap or in cornrows or ponytails can result in hair loss. The experience of a stressful incident, situation or environment also may trigger hair loss.

Treatments

The first step to treating hair loss is to identify its cause. A dermatologist or your doctor can diagnose the source and then recommend the best treatment for you. Hair loss resulting from health or lifestyle issues may be helped by changing damaging habits or adjusting medication that is less likely to trigger hair loss. When these changes do not work, hair loss may be treated with medication to stimulate hair follicles.  Hair transplants are also an option. If treatment does not work, consider trying different hairstyles or wigs, hairpieces, hair weaves, or artificial hair replacement to help make hair loss less noticeable.

Your first stop would be to see your general practitioner who can perform a medical workup to exclude other reasons for hair loss. Your general practitioner can refer you to a dermatologist for further management. In the case of hair loss it is important to seek reliable information and advice from authoritative sources as there are many bogus treatments that are expensive and do not work