Hair loss is normal, as stressful as it can be to see your hair clogging the shower drain and sweeping long strands of hair every day. We shed at least 80 strands of hair per day on average, so it’s natural to find a good number of hair strands lying around your house. However, anything significantly more than this may be influenced by certain triggers, and it is critical to determine why.
You can determine the possible causes of hair loss by examining the appearance of your hair loss. If you’re losing full strands of hair with rounded ends, the cause could be natural or biological, such as pregnancy, medication reactions, hormonal imbalances, or genes. Broken strands with damaged ends, on the other hand, indicate hair loss caused by breakage caused by extreme heat styling, chemical treatments, extreme humidity, and prolonged heat exposure. Before you undergo treatments like Micropigmentation North Carolina, it’s better to know what causes your hair loss.
Common Causes of Hair Loss in Women
Hairstyle
Traction alopecia is hair loss caused by pulling on your hair repeatedly. If you frequently wear your hair in a tight ponytail, bun, or braids, especially if you use chemicals or heat on your hair, you may develop this condition.
Vitamin Deficiency
Vitamin D is an important nutrient that is required for good health. It boosts immunity, keeps bones and skin healthy, stimulates cell growth, and aids in the formation of new hair follicles. Vitamin D is primarily absorbed through sun exposure, but you can increase your intake of nutrients by taking supplements and eating certain foods.
When your body does not get enough vitamin D, it can cause a variety of symptoms, including hair loss. A lack of vitamin D has been linked to alopecia, also known as spot baldness, and a variety of other health conditions. Bone softening, low bone density, osteoarthritis, heart disease, and cancer are examples of these.
Crash Dieting
The connection between crash dieting and hair loss has been studied since the 1970s
To grow properly, your hair requires a sufficient amount of calories and nutrients. As a result, when your body does not receive what it requires, side effects such as hair loss can occur.
Many studies have linked hair loss to rapid weight loss, calorie restriction, nutrient deficiencies, and psychological stress all of which are common in people on crash diets.
For example, a 2015 study of 180 women with diffuse hair loss discovered that iron deficiency and psychological stress were the most common causes of hair loss. Crash diets were the root cause in eight of the cases
Crash diets, for example, can result in deficiencies in essential fatty acids, zinc, protein, and overall calories, all of which can lead to hair loss
Restrictive Diets
Restriction diets that eliminate entire follow-calorieike crash diets, can cause hair loss due to nutrient deficiency or stress.
Iron, zinc, protein, selenium, and essential fatty acid deficiencies have all been linked to hair loss.
Hair loss has also been linked to very low-calorie diets.
Significant stress, which is sometimes associated with restrictive dieting, has also been linked to hair loss.
Over-processed Scalp Hair
The most infamous sign of overprocessed hair has less to do with how it looks and more to do with how it can’t look. Overprocessed hair is notoriously difficult to style.
Hair breakage can begin in areas where over-processing has severely damaged the hair. Patches of hair may fall out if your scalp has been burned by over-processing. Hair can also become “gummy,” which means it becomes thin and stringy.
You may notice a lot of split ends if you have hair damage on the bottom. Because of the excess weight of the split ends, your hair may hang limp. This can cause your hair to appear “uneven.”
Finally, over-processed hair is more likely to look “frizzy” or wild.
What Causes Anagen Effluvium Hair Loss?
Anagen effluvium can be caused by any insult that impairs the mitosis of hair follicle keratinocytes. When cell division in the hair matrix is disrupted, the hair becomes narrower at the base and more prone to breakage just above the keratinization zone. The necrotic matrix produces plugs of melanin, keratin, and inner root sheath that are extruded through the follicular opening. Tracheomalacia is the medical term for this condition.
An infection, a drug, a toxin, radiation, or an autoimmune disease are the most common causes of anagen effluvium.
An infection can halt hair growth in a specific area, resulting in a single or multiple bald patches. Loose hairs can be easily extracted from an infected area that is swollen, boggy, and crusted.
What Causes Telogen Effluvium Hair Loss?
Telogen effluvium is a type of nonscarring alopecia marked by diffuse, often acute hair shedding. Telogen effluvium is a reaction to metabolic stress, hormonal changes, or medications. Acute febrile illness, severe infection, major surgery, severe trauma, postpartum hormonal changes, especially a decrease in estrogen, hypothyroidism, discontinuing estrogen-containing medication, crash dieting, low protein intake, heavy metal ingestion, and iron deficiency are all common triggering events. Many medications have been linked to telogen effluvium, but the most common are beta-blockers, retinoids (including too much vitamin A), anticoagulants, propylthiouracil, carbamazepine, and vaccinations.
What Causes FPHL (Female Pattern Hair Loss)?
Female pattern baldness is usually caused by an underlying endocrine disorder or a hormone-secreting tumor.
If you have other symptoms, such as an irregular period, severe acne, or an increase in weight, consult your doctor.
Bottom Line
FPHL is a little-known organization. Over 14 percent of females over the age of 50 experience significant hair loss. Satisfactory management of this condition necessitates an understanding of the possible underlying causes, physical comorbidities, differential diagnoses, and therapeutic modalities available. It also necessitates an understanding of the potential psychological impact of hair loss on affected individuals, as well as sensitivity during patient consultations.
Without treatment, the condition worsens. The current pharmacological treatment prevents further progression and can even stimulate partial regrowth.
Regardless of the medication used, the response is slow and requires patience and persistence on the part of both the patient and the clinician. The cosmetic effects of this condition should not be underestimated, so cosmetic aids and surgical options, in addition to pharmacotherapy, should be discussed with these patients.
