Hair loss basics

People—regardless of their age, gender or status—can experience hair loss due to several factors. If you’re among those who are experiencing this issue, it’s a must that you know the basics of hair loss to give you an idea what to do. Knowing the basics can help you determine the status of your condition, can give you an idea when to seek medical attention, can help you decide which hair loss treatments to use and can even help you prevent it if you’re prone to the condition.

Among the misconceptions about hair loss is that age solely causes it. While it’s true that age primarily causes it because of the cells that are already giving up, there are other factors that might cause it. These include heredity especially if your family has a long running history of baldness, taking in certain medications for a specific condition and an underlying medical condition that weakens the person overall system such as cancer and other terminal illnesses.

A person who’s undernourished can also experience hair loss being he or she is not getting the right nutrients to keep the hair grow healthy. People, who are into switching hairstyles that puts too much pressure on the scalp, might also experience hair loss because the pulling on the hair such as those in braids or dreadlocks can weaken the roots of the hair.

Aside from the probable causes, the next thing that you should pay attention to is the symptoms. Several people experience the greater effect and burden of hair loss because they didn’t pay to much attention to it when it was just beginning.

Experts say that it’s common for people to lose at least 100 strands of their hair daily.

People who are losing more than a hundred strands per day should analyze what might cause it. Once the cause is determined, she or he can do some lifestyle changes to improve on it. If these modifications in lifestyle didn’t work, one should visit a doctor immediately to know what causes this abnormal amount of hair loss.

Knowing the signs and symptoms

When a person loses at least a hundred stands of hair per day, it’s considered normal. But when he or she loses more than that estimated amount along with glaring symptoms such as thinning of the hair, a hairline that’s receding, and bald patches in some areas of the head, then you might be suffering from hair loss.

Studies show that androgenetic alopecia can affect both men and women but the manifestations differ in some ways. Among men, the thinning of the hair starts at the temples as well in the crown. In the long run, it’s expected that they’ll be either completely bald or partially bald. In women, lesser hair loss is expected and though there’s also receding hairlines along the forehead and temple, they’ll not completely go bald as men do.

The pattern baldness in males are known to start at such an early age even before their teenage years. This condition may be characterized by a receding hairline—especially at the temples—and hair loss at the top of the person’s head. Eventually, the person can be completely or partially bald. The symptoms of hereditary pattern baldness in men include thinning or loss of hair stands starting in the front or forehead, at the crown, down to the sides of the person’s hairline.

When it comes to temporary hair loss, the most common is called “alopecia areata” wherein the baldness starts from a small and round patch and will grow in size; the “telogen effluvium” which occurs suddenly and characterized by thinning without patches; “traction alopecia” that’s caused by changing hairstyles whith out too much pressure on the scalp and creates bald spots especially between the rows of the hair, and “trichotillomania” which is caused by a mental issue wherein the person can’t help him or herself from pulling out the strands of hair from the scalp and in other parts of his or her body.