| Is your hair thinning and falling out? Do you notice more strands of hair in your hair brush after you get done brushing your hair in the morning? How about more hair in the tub or shower drain after every shower? These could be signs that you need to look into female hair loss causes.
If some of the older women in your family have been victims of female pattern baldness, you may also be in line to suffer the same fate. If you know what the causes are then maybe you can put some prevention tactics into action and decrease the predisposition to becoming bald like your mother and grandmother or aunts did.
Some causes are due to medical reasons. The three main medical reasons are Androgenic Alopecia, Telogen Effluvium, and Alopecia Areata.
Androgenic alopecia, or female pattern baldness is the leading cause of hair loss in women. Androgenic alopecia can affect any woman at any point in her life, especially if she has a familial predisposition to hair loss. This means it is hereditary and more likely than not you will experience hair loss just like mom and grandma. In androgenic alopecia, what happens is the hair follicles become very sensitive to the androgens in the blood stream. Androgens enter the androgen receptors in the hair follicle and tell the hair follicles to produce less hair. Your hair then becomes thinner and soon the follicles die off and you are left with less hair.
Telogen Effluvium is the second of the most common female hair loss causes. This condition is caused by an increased amount of stress in your life, unusually high amounts of prolonged stress causes your hair to become thin and fall out. You may notice this type of hair loss when you become pregnant. With all the changes your body goes through with being pregnant, all the hormone fluctuations can cause hair thinning or loss. Usually though, with the resolution of the prolonged, high stress, your hair will grow back just fine.
Alopecia areata is the the third most common cause of hair loss in women and may be linked to immunodeficiencies in the woman's body. If the immunodeficiency is identified, treated and gets resolved then so does the hair loss and hair grows back.
Other medical reasons a woman may lose her hair are vitamin and mineral deficiencies, including iron deficiency which causes anemia. Thyroid dysfunction and liver problems can cause thinning hair. Chemotherapy treatments for cancer will make a woman lose her hair but this is only temporary. When the course of chemotherapy is complete, your hair should grow back. Any of these conditions can be temporary and when treated correctly and are under control, your hair can and will grow back. Menopause is also a big reason why some women lose their hair. Just like with pregnancy, menopause causes all sorts of hormonal fluctuations and hair becomes thin and fragile.
If you hair loss becomes severe, talk to your doctor about female hair loss causes and ask to be tested for any of the above conditions to rule them out. You may just need to learn how to decrease the stress in your life to get your full, head of hair back. |