Beauty and Makeup Blog

There’s A Misconception Out There that hair loss is normal for a man and abnormal for a woman. True, hair loss is more common in men than in women - and society does make it easier for a bald man to feel attractive than it does for a bald woman. Still, women do suffer from hair loss.

However, female hair loss is usually a bit different from male hair loss. Unlike men, most women don’t get those shiny, bald patches that are completely devoid of hair. If we’re going to lose hair, we’re more likely to experience diffuse thinning. Like men, our hair loss can be the result of simple genetics, but it can also be triggered by a number of other things ranging from stress to illness.

According to conservative estimates, hair loss affects more than 60 million Americans­two-thirds of which are men. Genetic hair loss is the most common form of male and female hair loss. If you have genetic hair loss, you don’t shed hair faster or more heavily than anyone else, but your new hairs simply do not grow at the same rate as your old hairs are being shed. The medical term for this inherited condition is androgenetic alopecia. There is no permanent cure for it, although many women find they can stop its progression - or even slightly reverse its progress - with hair loss medications.

In many cases of diffuse hair loss, more than 50 percent of the hair can be lost before the results are readily apparent.

Good health for healthy hair

Nutritional deficiencies can also cause temporary hair loss. The question constantly argued among hair loss experts is how many citizens of First World countries have diets poor enough to cause hair loss? While I can’t answer that, I can tell you what deficiencies lead to thinning hair. Iron deficiency (known as anemia) contributes to hair loss. Anemia isn’t uncommon in women, especially those of you who lose lots of iron-rich blood through heavy menstrual bleeding. Thinning hair is also a symptom of anorexia and bulimia - sufferers usually do not consume anywhere near the dietary requirements of fats, carbohydrates, and protein.

Illness forces your body to conserve resources, prompting it to route nutrients away from “superfluous” appendages such as hair so that they can be used by vital internal organs. Depending on how long the illness - and how long strands have gone without nutrients ­hair can fall out. Fortunately, this form of hair thinning is usually temporary and the hair will soon grow back.

Most people shed between 50 and 100 strands of hair each day; most also Wow between 50 and 100 new strands each day.

Tagged under:bald patches bald woman female hair loss male hair loss stress

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