Women Hair Loss Explained. It is a well-known fact that majority of women experience significant hair loss at one point in their lives, and once it starts it can have a devastating impact on them.
The struggle around hair loss and its detrimental effects are very real, which is why we wrote a blog covering medical facts behind female pattern baldness, its effects on mental health, and the solutions you can seek to treat hair loss.
What Causes Hair Loss in Women?
There are many. The trigger point is when you start to lose more than 125 hairs per day. Women who are predisposed to pattern baldness usually manifest symptoms beginning in their 40s, but a good number of female patients experience hair loss much earlier in life.
Traction Alopecia is one of the most common causes among women who keep their hair arranged in tight buns, braids or ponytails, for example. This is an irreversible condition. It can be treated through a surgical intervention but more about this as you read along.
Other causes such as vitamin deficiency, diet (rapid weight loss), stress, chemicals/ dyes, hormonal changes and smoking can lead to drastic increase in hair shedding due to telogen effluvium, most of which is temporary condition and can be reversed with change in lifestyles and vitamin supplements.
The main causes of hair loss in women by far, however, are androgenic alopecia and alopecia areata. Both of these conditions, like Traction Alopecia, are irreversible.
Like in men, the most common cause of female pattern baldness is the hormone known as Dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Nearly 40% of hair loss patients are women who are predisposed to higher sensitivity to DHT, and find themselves losing hair at a significant rate as the hormone interferes with the normal growth cycles of their follicles.
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition that causes large bald patches to appear along the scalp. Science has yet to determine the precise cause of this disease, but it has been linked with other autoimmune conditions such as lupus and thyroid dysfunction.
What is the relationship between Hair loss in women and Menopause?
During menopause, you may see one of two things happen with your hair. You might start growing hair where it wasn’t present before. Or, you might see your hair thinning. One cause may be changing levels of hormones during menopause. Estrogen and progesterone levels fall, meaning that the effects of the androgens, male hormones, are increased.
During and after menopause, hair might become finer (thinner) because hair follicles shrink. Hair grows more slowly and falls out more easily in these cases.
Your hair loss expert will do a thorough examination and take a detailed history to help you deal with changes in hair growth. You may be directed to have your iron levels or thyroid hormone levels tested. Your medications might be changed if what you take is found to affect hair loss or growth.
Solutions to Female Hair Loss
There are many different solutions based on type of hair loss.
Behavioural changes such as stress management and improved dietary practices can help women who suffer from telogen effluvium. Likewise, women who suffer from traction alopecia see small improvements when they avoid tight ponytails and similar hairstyles.
Patients who suffer from alopecia areata can seek treatment in the form of corticosteroid injections to prevent the immune system from attacking hair follicles, boosted by the application of Minoxidil to promote hair growth. It’s worth noting, however, that patients respond differently to treatments for alopecia areata –what works for some may not work as well for others.
Finally, female pattern baldness and traction alopecia is commonly treated through hair transplantation surgery. By extracting donor hairs from a portion of the scalp that’s unaffected by the condition and reinserting them into the affected areas, the most common form of women’s hair loss can be reversed, permanently.
There is only one tried and tested way to correct female pattern baldness i.e. female hair transplant.
Consulting a hair restoration expert is the best way to determine the cause of hair loss in a patient, and to plan a safe and effective treatment.
