Everyone loses hair. It happens during your morning shower, while you’re blowing it dry, or when you give it a quick brush—and that’s normal.In fact, it’s normal to lose between 50 and 100 hairs a day, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. That’s just hair going through its cycles, and there will be a new one to replace it.Contrary to popular notion, hair loss is not just a condition that men face: up to 40 percent of women in America also experience it.Some women begin to experience hair loss as they age, particularly during menopause. It can be distressing and negatively affect self-esteem, but there are many strategies and treatments to manage hair loss in women. The medical term for baldness is alopecia. Complete baldness of the scalp is alopecia totalis. Continue reading to learn more about hair loss causes and treatment strategies in women.
What Causes Hair Loss?
The reasons for hair loss are many. When hair loss begins suddenly, the cause may be due to illness, diet, medicine, or childbirth. If hair loss is gradual and becomes more noticeable with each passing year, a person may have hereditary hair loss. Certain hair care practices also can cause noticeable hair loss.
Hereditary Hair Loss: This is the most common cause of hair loss. It affects men and women. About 80 million people in the United States have hereditary thinning or baldness.
Giving birth: After giving birth, some women have noticeable hair loss. Falling estrogen levels cause this type of hair loss. The hair loss is temporary. In a few months, women see their hair re-grow. Read “Hair loss in new moms” and learn tips from dermatologists to help your hair regain its normal fullness.
Menopause: Hair loss is common during menopause. This loss is often temporary. Hair re-grows with time. If a woman is 40 years of age or older, she should not expect her hair to have the fullness that it did when she was younger.
Stress: Experiencing a traumatic event (e.g., death of a loved one or divorce) can cause hair loss.
Medicine:
- Some prescription medicines can cause hair loss. These include:
- Blood thinners.
- High-dose vitamin A.
- Medicines that treat arthritis, depression, gout, heart problems, and high blood pressure.
- Birth control pills: Some women who take the pill see hair loss. Sometimes, the hair loss begins when a women stops taking the pill. Women who get this hair loss often have hereditary hair loss.
Anabolic steroids (steroids taken to build muscle and improve athletic performance) may cause hair loss.
Excessive Styling: Too much shampooing, styling, and dyeing can harm your tresses. Heat and chemicals weaken the hair, causing it to break and fall out. Often, it’s a combination of treatments—keratin, coloring, and blow-drying, for instance—that does the damage.
Dramatic weight loss: Sudden weight loss is a form of physical trauma that can result in thinning hair. This could happen even if the weight loss is ultimately good for you. It’s possible that the weight loss itself is stressing your body or that not eating right can result in vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Loss of hair along with noticeable weight loss may also be a sign of an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.
Vitamin B deficiency: Although relatively uncommon in the U.S., low levels of vitamin B are another correctible cause of hair loss.