Hair loss is a difficult experience that both men and women go through. While it’s true your many people who experience hair loss are genetically predisposed to lose their hair, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. We will get to some of the remedies for hair loss but first, lets discuss a little more about what hair loss is and what can cause it.
Types of Hair Loss
Hair loss can either be mild hair thinning or completely losing hair. Humans shed hair daily, but there are circumstances where you shed more than the average amount of hair, which may eventually lead to balding.
Here are also the different types of hair loss:
Telogen effluvium
This occurs when your body is coping up with stress. For instance, you may experience hair loss after a major operation or a deadly infection. You are going to experience this between 2 to 3 months of enduring a stressful period of your life.
Disease
It can be one of the symptoms of a disease, including vitamin and mineral deficiency and hormonal imbalances.
Drug Side Effect
There are cases when one of the side effects of medications can be hair loss. A few of examples of drugs that may cause hair loss are levodopa, beta-blockers, and amphetamines. Some medications and procedures that are used to treat cancer is also known to cause thinning of hair.
Traumatic alopecia
Professionals use this term when hair thinning comes from abusive hairstyling methods, involving tight braiding and usage of harmful chemicals.
Tinea capitis
This is when a fungal infection happens on your scalp. You will be left with bald patches on your scalp, this infection is common among children.
Alopecia areata
Professionals do not have a definitive cause for this hair loss type. This is when your immune system fights your own body, which leads to weakening hair. In some critical cases, it may lead to total balding, which is called alopecia totalis.
Androgenetic alopecia or hereditary pattern baldness
This is common among men and it runs in the blood. Hereditary factors play in this type of hair loss that involves hormones and aging. While it is reported women experience this as well, it is not a common occurrence.
Manifestations of Hair Loss
On average, you lose 50 to 100 strands of hair a day. If your hair loss exceeds this number, it’s a sign that something is wrong with your body. People often notice something is wrong when there is an unusual amount of hair on brushes and bathroom drainages.
A dermatologist have to examine your medical history, nutritional results, and hair style techniques to identify the cause of hair loss. In some cases, you need to undergo medical tests to find out if you have a fungal infection.
Preventing Hair Loss
Experts recommend to keep up a healthy nutritional dietary plan, decrease stress, and to follow a healthy hair care regimen to prevent hair loss from happening.
Hair Loss Treatment
Treatment depends on what caused the hair loss. If you are taking drugs that may speed up hair loss, your doctors will advise you to stop its maintenance.
Following a healthy diet is vital and living a stress-free lifestyle is a must to slow down hair loss. Your doctor may prescribe you medication that speeds up the growth of hair in cases of extreme hair loss.
The Causes and Misconception of Male Pattern Baldness
There are nearly eighty million individuals who are a victim of hair loss. While several factors may have caused hair loss, male pattern baldness is the number one contributing factor to hair loss. 90% of men have it when they hit 50 years old.
WHY PEOPLE LOSE THEIR HAIR
Male pattern baldness is connected to Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which a natural hormone that can be found in men. This has a crucial effect on hair follicles as it reduces hair production and makes new hairs shorter and frailer.
In more extreme cases, DHT may even stop hair development, slowly making your head bald. There are surgical hair loss treatments that can help your regrow hair, such as Bosley.
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HAIR LOSS
There are several misconceptions about hair loss due to misleading information. One of the common beliefs is the saying hair loss comes from the mother’s gene, which is not the case.
We are going to bust some of the common myths surrounding hair loss below:
- Hair loss is inherited by both sides of the family, not only from your mother.
- Hair loss does not stop as you age, it gets worse as you age.
- Wearing hats or helmets do not promote hair loss.
- Regularly massaging scalp does not decrease hair loss (there is any sufficient evidence to cover this statement).
- Sun exposure does not cause hair loss, it only damages hair but does not result in permanent hair loss.
HAIR LOSS TREATMENT
There are several hair loss treatments available to prevent and stop hair loss. What’s more, some treatments may even regrow hair. The more popular non-surgical treatments are Propecia and Minoxidil.
You can also use alternative laser treatments as well, like the popular LaserComb for laser hair growth. It uses low-level laser light tech that allows hair follicles to restore. You have to spend at least twenty minutes a day using the device to efficiently comb through your hair.
Currently, laser technology continues to grow. A laser light helmet or laser cap is the more advanced sibling of LaserComb as it has high laser light concentration that focuses on affected patches on the scalp.
