Hair loss gradually follows after thinning and weakening of hair strands. Though hair loss is a normal phenomena caused due to ageing or completion of life span of hair strand, but when we are concerned about hair loss we actually are concerned about excess of hair fall due to various known and unknown factors. The hair loss does not harm us directly but it decreases the aesthetic beauty of human being. The presence of hair on the head adds to the beauty of facial appearance. That is why we should take care of it and treat hair loss from the very beginning since the symptoms shows its sign of appearance.

Hair loss problem

To begin with, let us study a little deeper about normal hair growth, hair loss causes.

Normal hair loss or hair fall

The normal hair loss of average human being is roughly 50 – 100/day due to normal hair growth and shedding cycle. The new hair replaces the old hair strand that completed its life-cycle and comes out of the same follicle.

Normal hair growth facts

• At any period of time about 90% of total hair present on our scalp are engaged in growing phase which persists for about 2 to 6 years.
• 10 percent of the remaining hair present on the scalp during any time period persists in their resting phase which stays for 2 to 4 month after completion of growing stage.
• At the end of this resting phase, that 10 percent sheds off with completion of its entire life span.
• After shedding of old hair, a new hair replaces that space after growing from the same follicle and the growing cycle starts again.
• The replacement for hair loss is not instant but within a time-span of 6 months.
• The average growth of a healthy hair strand is about 1 and half-inch per month. But the growth rate gradually slows with the ageing of human being.
• A healthy scalp with no hair falling problems usually losses at an average rate of 50 – 100 hair strand daily due to completion of life span of the hair.

Causes of hair loss or hair fall.

When we talk about hair loss, we are actually talking about excessive hair fall which causes different pattern of baldness on human scalp. So, it is necessary to know about the causes of hair loss or hair fall.

The hair loss causes are differentiated as below.

• Hair loss due to human ageing: After reaching the age of 30 (sometimes before it) both men and women starts losing hair.  This type of hair loss is more common in men than in women.
• Hair loss due to poor cosmetic grooming: Among the several factors involved in hair loss, styling and poor grooming practices turns out to be another common factor. There is a general trend of treating hair with chemicals for hair coloring, bleaching etc. If the chemicals used is of poor quality then they cause damage to hair which eventually break off or fall out temporarily (temporary hair loss).
• Styling or traction alopecia:  This type of hair loss is more common in women as they use to weave braid or pony tails by tightly pulling their hairs back which causes tension on scalp and damages hair follicles is permanent.
• Hereditary hair loss: This is the most common cause of hair loss through out the world where a person inherits this from either of mother or father side family. Women with this hereditary hair losing problem develop thinning hair but does not turns into complete baldness. In this type of genetic hair loss, the baldness is not due to excessive hair fall but it is due to insufficient amount of hair growing back to replace the shed off hairs.This problem manifest itself during teens, twenties or thirties. Medical science has not yet success to treat this type of hereditary problem.
  Hereditary hair loss is associated with few factors
  • Gender: This is more common is men than women.
  • Hormone: Hereditary hair loss is also known as Pattern baldness. It is associated with testosterone.
    Since testosterone is male hormone so more men experience pattern baldness. while women having more testosterone tend to lose (or, technically, fail to re-grow) more hair as they age.
• Chemotherapy: Patients suffering from cancer and undergoes chemotherapy suffers hair loss within 6 to 8 weeks of therapy. Most patients how ever notice the growing back of their hair within 6 to 8 months after therapy.
• Stress: Hair loss may also results from severe stress. This may be due to physical or emotional stress associated with illness, surgery, injury etc. and causes two types of hair loss telogen effluvium and Alopecia areata.
  Telogen effluvium:

  This is less severe type among these two types of hair loss. It generally manifest itself few months after the event of stress and persists for couple of months. Under this condition, the hair stops growing and enters into dormant stage or resting period. The normal hair growth regains within 6 to 9 months.

  Alopecia areata:

  The proper reason of alopecia areata is unknown but it is assumed that under this condition the human body itself makes antibodies to attack its own hair. This type of disease attacks children and adults. This type of hair loss causes smooth, round patches about the size of a coin or larger. In rare cases the result will be complete loss of scalp and body hair. The only relaxation in this case is that hair regrows after some time.

• Pregnancy, child-birth and usages of child control pill: Though pregnancy is the most beautiful state of women’s life but there is a frustrating stage of it when women starts losing a considerable amount of hair 6 to 8 week after giving birth. This condition of losing hair lasts for 6 to 9 months long. But in general the normalcy restores after that. This problem happens in an attempt by the body to recover from the 9 months of pregnancy.
• Environmental Toxins and poisons: These days our environment is over saturated with toxins and poisonous gases. If we don’t care of our cleanliness of hair and leave it in dirty condition, we would very likely to get suffer with hair loss. Those who works in exposure to poisonous industrial gas poses threat of suffering hair loss.

Though hair loss is a common issue that we can’t avoid but the best part of our life is that medical science has achieved much success in this context by understanding the types and causes of hair fall to treat it and there are several treatment and alternatives present there to fight hair loss and add to our aesthetic beauty of life. So, it’s better to fight hair fall than leave it on its fate.

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