Losing your hair can be very distressing – but there are solutions out there.
Losing your hair can be very distressing – but there are solutions out there.
A lustrous head of hair is often associated with femininity, so hair loss or thinning can be one of the most upsetting and frustrating conditions for a woman. Knowing the possible cause is the key to reversing it – and some causes might surprise you.
Your Hormones
Changes in hormones can trigger a high percentage of hair than normal to enter the resting phase, during which it falls out. So you may find an alarming amount of hair in your hair brush and a general thinning over the scalp. These changes can happen naturally around menopause or after pregnancy but may also occur if you change your contraceptive method. “The loss normally happens about three months after the hormonal change and will reverse once the the body adapts,” says David Salinger, executive director of the International Association of Trichologists. However some types of progesterone-based contraceptive pills, including those containing levonorgestrel or norethisterone, mimic male sex hormones. “This can trigger genetic hair thinning in predisposed women,” explains David. If you’re on a Pill that contains these hormones and losing hair. It’s a bit more complicated to fix, so see a trichologist who can investigate your hormone history.
Dental Infections
If you’ve just gotten a bald patch and it’s in line with a painful or infected tooth the two might be linked, say dental researchers at the Medical university of Plovidiv, Bulgaria. It’s believed that white blood cells from an infected tooth mistakenly attack nearby hair follicles, causing them to go into a resting phase. The good news is, when the Bulgarian researchers treated the infection, the hair grew back. They now suggest anyone presenting with a single patch of hair loss to have a dentist check their teeth, just in case there is an undiagnosed infection.
Insulin Resistance
This is a condition where your cells lose sensitivity to insulin, so the body produces more of it. It’s most commonly associated with symptoms like fat around the middle or the development of type 2 diabetes. But it can also trigger hair loss, says trichologist Anthony Pearce from Bowral, nSW. Normally, in women, insulin helps convert testosterone to oestrogen,” he says. “But when insulin is high this process is suppressed, leaving high levels of male hormones in the body. This can trigger the hair to thin or fall out, in the same way as in men, behind the front hairline or across the top of the scalp.”
If you’re experiencing thinning and have symptoms such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and weight gain around the middle, it might be worth asking a doctor to check your insulin/blood glucose levels.
Marathon Running
It might be healthy for your heart, but excessive exercise is a stressor to the rest of your body. “And stress and hair loss are inexorably linked,” says Pam jameson-Smith from Melbourne’s Trichology Technology. “There is experimental data that shows that high stress levels increase levels of hormones linked to all types of hair loss,” she says. In most cases, the hair will come back once the stress passes.
Divorce
Speaking of stress, when it comes to emotional upheaval, the break-up of a relationship is the most common cause of hair loss in women, according to studies done on twins by uS cosmetic surgeon Bahman Guyuron. He found that marriage stress or the death of a partner specifically manifested in loss of hair down the parting and that twins in stable marriages tended to have more hair overall than those with more marital upset. If you’re a twin, watch out also for alopecia. “There’s an extraordinary type of hair loss where two closely related people actually suffer alopecia together,” says Pam. “One example of this was a pair of twins where one was severely stressed and developed alopecia, and soon after the other also suffered hair loss in the same place.”
It’s also been seen in married couples. As with the condition of exercise stress, once emotional stress eases the hair naturally returns to its previous state.
Vitamin Deficiency
Cairo university researchers have found a link between low levels of vitamin D and hair loss, and this is something Anthony also sees regularly in his clinic, “It is linked to poor thyroid function which commonly manifests in hair loss,” he explains. For it to work, the thyroid hormone T3 must enter deep into the cell’s nucleus and vitamin D is the transporter that makes this happen. If you have a vitamin D deficiency this can’t occur and the thyroid can underperform.” Anthony suggests having both vitamin D and thyroid hormones examined by a trichologist if you suspect that this might be a cause as it’s a delicate balancing act to reverse things without medical help.
Going Vegetarian
Low protein and low iron intake are both linked to an increased risk of hair loss. “And both can occur if you go vegetarian and don’t do it well – and I rarely see people in my clinic who are doing it well,” says Carolyn evans from Absolique Hair Health Clinic in Brisbane. Diet-based hair loss normally manifests as a thinning all over the scalp rather than patchy hair loss, and it can develop months or years after the diet change. If you eat a restricted diet, getting your iron levels checked is the first step to potentially finding a cause of hair loss.
HELP FOR HAIR LOSS
cleanse your tresses with derma-rx Trichology purifying Shampoo. With revitalising ingredients, this shampoo will strengthen your hair from root to tip and also controls dandruff.
One of the components in l’oréal’s Serioxyl fuller hair Kit, this bodifying conditioner contains glucoboost, a derivative of omega 6 that nourishes the scalp for fuller and healthier hair growth.
Suitable for women who undergo stress from pregnancy or menopause, every component helps to stimulate your scalp’s micro-circulation and provides essential nutrients to encourage keratin production, hence promoting thicker, fuller hair.
This enriching tonic increases blood circulation and clears harmful free radicals on your scalp. Ingredients include japonica fruit extract that regenerates hair follicles and olive fruit oil that boosts scalp immunity and fights damage.
Aveda invati Solutions Scalp revitaliser will energise and rehabilitate your scalp follicles with ingredients of turmeric and ginseng. Spray five times and massage the product into scalp.
