Hair Loss: Women May Also Experience It

Hair loss in women at a regular daily rate is considered a normal pattern, but if you'd take a closer look at it, it should not be something you should shrug off nonchalantly. Hair loss is serious problem and, like all problems, there are several tested solutions to hair loss, women too ought to know. Being aware of the type and cause of hair loss is the efficient road to getting the proper treatment for it.

There are four more prominent types of hair loss: androgenetic alopecia, traction alopecia, alopecia areata and telogen effluvium. Also referred to as women who suffer from "pattern hair loss," women who experience androgenetic alopecia are perhaps the most numerous. This condition belies a tendency to produce very little volume or an abundant volume of the weak type of androgens in her body, which often causes the hair to thin in a specific area of a woman's scalp. It is characterized by excessive thinning of scalp hair at the onset while retaining a thick hair density on the front and side crown of the head. Hair does not shed; more often, thinning just occurs in the middle area of the scalp and this worsens through the years. There are solutions to this hair loss problem in women, and hair transplant or laser treatment are, by far, the most popular ones.

Traction alopecia, on the other hand, is caused by the woman's choice of wearing her hair pulled back in tight ponytail, pigtail or bun. This is, therefore, controllable by merely changing the hair style to something that is looser but equally fashionable and trendy. If she wears her hair loose, and she gives her scalp the gentle massage by brushing it in the manner prescribed in the proverbial "hundred strokes at night" with a blunt-tipped hairbrush, her thinning hair will stop shedding and go back to its normal luxurious growth.

Alopecia areata is characterized by round patches of balding spots on random areas of the scalp, surrounded by an otherwise thick growth of hair. This occurs when the body system fails to recognize the hair follicles in those areas and attacks these with inflammatory cells, causing the hair in those patches to fall off. Since women with alopecia areata are not sick at all, the body system does not find any necessity to produce compromising immune system for these attacks. Topical ointments and injectable steroidal solutions to reduce inflammation and synthesize the scalp are very effective solution to this particular problem; when applied regularly over a specific period of time, these applications send electric signals to the immune system to trigger it to allow hair to grow back in those bald patches.

Telogen effluvium is shedding of hair at the stage when it is already fully developed. This is not genetic in nature of origin; this occurs when there is massive thyroid imbalance caused by a lot of factors, including chronic illnesses like cancer, diseased liver, common physical and emotional stress. This type of falling hair could also occur as a side effect of drastic treatments to combat the aforesaid chronic diseases, like chemotherapy, cobalt radiation, oral contraceptives, heart pills and other medications intended to correct the thyroidal imbalance. For solutions to this type of hair loss, women need to find the cause of its occurrence. Other topical or injectable steroidal treatment are very seldom necessary - when the diseased organs are properly addressed and eventually treated, the hair grows back as effusively as before, sometimes even more luxuriously.