Hair Loss Advice and Information

Is hair loss normal?   Everyone normally has some hair loss every day. In fact, it is normal to lose up to about 100 hairs a day. However, some people can lose a lot of hair early in life because it usually runs in the family, inhereted from a parent or grandparent or because of disease, medications, stress, injury, or damage to the hair.

Signs and symptoms The medical term for hair loss is alopecia. Pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia), the most common type of alopecia, affects roughly one third of men and women. It's typically permanent. Another type of alopecia, alopecia areata, can be temporary. It can involve hair loss on your scalp or other parts of your body.

What causes hair loss?   The most common cause of hair loss is genetics you inherit the tendency to lose hair from either or both of your parents. This is called male pattern or female pattern hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia. (Alopecia is the medical term for hair loss.) About half of all people have this type of hair loss by about 50 years of age.

Alopecia areata With alopecia areata, baldness usually occurs in small, round, smooth patches. You may lose only scalp hair, or you may lose body hair as well.

Hair loss may lead to baldness when the rate of shedding exceeds the rate of regrowth, when new hair is thinner than the hair shed or when hair comes out in patches.

Causes About 90 percent of the hair on most people's scalps is in a two to six year growth (anagen) stage at any given time. The other 10 percent is in a two to three month resting (telogen) phase, after which time it is shed. Most people shed 50 to 150 hairs a day. Once a hair is shed, the growth stage begins again as a new hair from the same follicle replaces the shed hair. New hair grows at a rate of approximately one half inch each month.

Your hair loss may have started with a few extra hairs in the sink or in your comb. But now you can't look in the mirror without seeing more of your scalp.

Some people prefer to let their baldness run its course untreated and unhidden. Others may cover it up with hairstyles, makeup, hats or scarves. And still others choose one of the medications and surgical procedures that are available to treat baldness. Before pursuing any of these treatment options, talk with your doctor about the cause of and best possible treatments for your hair loss.

Baldness typically refers to excessive hair loss from your scalp and can be the result of heredity, certain medications or an underlying medical condition. Anyone men, women and children can experience hair loss.

What causes alopecia areata -  Alopecia areata is classified as an autoimmune disease, but the cause is unknown. People who develop this type of baldness are generally in good health. Some scientists believe that some people are genetically predisposed to develop alopecia areata and that a trigger, such as a virus or something else in the environment, sets off the condition. A family history of alopecia areata makes you more likely to develop it. With alopecia areata, your hair generally grows back, but you may lose and regrow your hair a number of times.