Jul 20
by Sarah Rowe

Many people still believe that hair loss is predominantly a complaint that men suffer from. But this is just not the case, as today you will find that 1 in 4 women also suffer from some form of hair loss, this can occur at any stage of their lives as well. In this article, we take a look at what the main causes of hair loss in women are today.

1. Female Pattern Baldness - This is the most common of all the kinds of hair loss that women are going to suffer from and is the exact same type that men suffer from as well. The main reason why a woman will suffer from this kind of hair loss, known as Androgenetic Alopecia, is that their body is reacting adversely to male hormones.

Women, just like men, have the hormone testosterone in their bodies (but not at the same levels normally). However sometimes this hormone will convert into DHT, which then affects the way hair grows normally. In most cases, female pattern baldness is not as extreme as it is in men and will often occur much later in life, but it is still the same as the condition in men (male pattern baldness).

2. Telogen Effluvium - This particular hair loss condition is the second most common that women today suffer from. Where as the above you will see hair begin to recede or be lost altogether, this particular condition causes the hair to become somewhat thinner over the whole scalp.

In a large number of cases where women suffer from this particular hair loss condition, it is because they have suffered some kind of traumatic event in their lives. This will usually have placed considerable stress on their body, which has prevented hair from growing normally. Women who become pregnant may often be shocked to notice that their hair begins to thin after child birth. Once things start to settle down, it can normally be expected that hair growth will resume as normal.

3. Alopecia Areata - This is the third most common cause of hair loss in women around the world today. You will find the other two are often located on one particular area of a woman’s scalp; this will result in hair loss to various different areas of the scalp.

In the majority of cases where women are suffering from this type of hair loss disease, is related to their immune system being deficient. Certainly, it is quite common to see women who are undergoing or have undergone some form of cancer treatment to suffer from this kind of hair loss. Although for most women once their immune system returns to normal they will discover that hair begins to grow once more. Some women, one the other hand, may find if the condition is severe enough that the hair does not grow back.

Hopefully by understanding what causes hair loss in women you should be better able to judge whether you are suffering from such a problem or not. With this in mind you should take steps to prevent hair loss and to re grow your hair.

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Jul 20
by Sarah Rowe

There are a number of different reasons as to why a woman would suffer from hair loss in the same way as a man does. Yet even though some women will begin to lose their hair, they do not lose it to the same extent that a man does. Below we look at one reason which is the cause of female hair loss in women today and which is the most common of all the causes.

Although it has always been considered to be predominantly a male problem, today you will find that some women are just as likely to suffer from serious hair loss as well. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, it is a problem that now affects around 30 million women in the United States alone.

For some women the reason that they start to lose hair is because of their genetic makeup. This kind of hair loss comes down to the way that the hormones known as androgens in their body interfere with the natural processes. The hormones, which make up this particular group, are androstenedione, testosterone and Dihydrotestosterone or DHT. All of which both men and women produce, but a woman’s amounts are much smaller than those produced by a man’s are.

For some unknown reason because of a woman’s genetic makeup, there are times when the testosterone hormone in her body comes into contact with an enzyme that makes it convert easily into DHT. When it does this the DHT is able to bind to the receptors deep inside the hair follicles which prevents messages from being able to gain entry and so prevent them from growing as normal.

Over time, there will be a build up of DHT in the hair follicles, this then will begin to cause them to shrink. This in turn results in the disruption of the natural hair growth patterns and often results in hair loss occurring. This will then result in suffering from female pattern baldness or referred to medically as androgenic alopecia.

Even though the cause of this form of baldness in women is much the same way as it is in men, the pattern of the baldness is different. With women their baldness will be somewhat diffused and generally occurs as a thinning of the hair on top of the scalp. On the other hand men will normally start to lose hair completely from specific areas of the head, namely at the crown or around the temple or at the back.

The other main difference between the female version and the male version of pattern baldness is that men usually only start to suffer from it as they grow older. However, for women they can suffer from this kind of hair loss at any stage of their lives. In some cases it may well be that the loss has been caused by some other underlying medical condition that they have.

As well as the above, there are other reasons as to why a woman may suffer from hair loss. Certainly, when it comes to deciding what the cause of female hair loss is in a particular woman it may come down to a number of different factors. With Some women, the cause can be from a traumatic event in their lives, whilst for others it could be down to some kind of medical condition or treatment.

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