Womens Hair Loss: Causes

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Facts about womens hair loss How thinning hair effects a woman Common causes of hair loss in women

Facts

Mistakenly thought to be a male only disease, more than 30 million adult women in North America experience thinning hair and hair loss. One out of two women will experience hair loss at some time in their life. However, only 13% of them will experience hair loss before the onset of menopause. In addition, between four million and eight million women in America suffer from a hair pulling disorder that causes permanent damage to the hair follicle.

Effects

Unlike men's hair loss, which is well known and socially understood, hair loss in women has long been taboo forcing women with hair loss to suffer in silence. A woman's hair can define many things - her personality, attractiveness, success, health, social status and even her family tradition. As such, the psychological damage caused by hair loss and feeling unattractive can be just as devastating as any serious disease, and in fact, can take an emotional toll that directly affects physical health.

Causes

The most prevalent type of hair loss among women is Androgenetic Alopecia (also know as female pattern baldness, female pattern thinning, female pattern hair loss, or female pattern Alopecia) - an irreversible condition that can cause diffused thinning on all areas of the scalp. Unlike male pattern baldness, the hair thins all over the head, but the frontal hairline is maintained. There may be a moderate loss of hair on the crown, but this rarely progresses to total or near baldness as it may in men.

Like male pattern baldness, female thinning occurs due to a chemical known as Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) that builds up around the follicle and eventually kills the follicle and the hair. A follicle's resistance to DHT is genetic, often skipping a generation, and can be inherited from either the mother's or the father's side of the family.

The causes for hair loss in women go well beyond genetics. Women can experience patch baldness called Telogen Effluvium caused by stress, poor nutrition, adverse scalp conditions, medications as well as hormonal changes from pregnancy, menopause and certain eating disorders. In this case, the hair will usually grow back once the cause has been rectified.

Some hair loss is actually self-induced resulting from the use of harsh chemical relaxers (Scarring Alopecia), and localized trauma to the hair follicles (Traction Alopecia) from tight hair styles like braiding, cornrows, or ponytails.

Lastly, a great number of women suffer in varying degrees from an obsessive-compulsive disorder called Trichotillomania (chronic hair pulling) that can cause permanent damage to the hair follicle.

While the effects of hair loss for women can be seem overwhelming, there are now viable treatment options that can slow or stop hair loss or even gain the appearance of a full head of hair.