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Important Facts You Should Know About Hair Loss

Are you facing hair loss and searching for facts about this condition? When you look in the mirror, do you see more scalp than you would like? Do you want to know what causes it and what to do to stop future hair loss?

Those who experience hair loss see more hair in their comb or brush and even in the shower drain than they would like to see there but the truth is that losing hair is a natural process and even those of us who have healthy hair experience hair loss on a regular basis. Does that surprise you? Children, men and women all experience hair loss. Hair goes through a natural cycle of growth, rest and then it falls out. 90% of your hair is in a growth cycle while 10% is in a rest cycle at any one given time. The hair that is on a rest cycle than falls out. During pregnancy the hair on a rest cycle does not fall out until approximately 3 months after the baby is born. This is why post-natal women often think something is wrong when they find lots of hair in their hairbrush or in the shower when their baby is about 3 months old.

There are other times during your lifetime in which you may experience hair loss because of events in your life or circumstances that happen to you such as when children experience fungal infections of the scalp that result in hair loss, or when medications cause adverse reactions such as hair loss such as when chemotherapy medications are used to treat cancer. Stress from physical trauma such as major surgery can also cause hair loss. Rolling your hair too tightly in rollers or corncribs can damage hair causing hair loss.

Those who suffer hair loss can do one of two things: go bald boldly and beautifully or treat hair loss by using hair medications such as Rogaine or by using new hairstyles, artificial hair or a hat.

There are many types of hair loss based on what the symptoms are and what causes the loss including male-pattern baldness, female-pattern baldness, alopecia areata, and traction alopecia. Hair loss that is termed as pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss. Pattern baldness is usually permanent. Alopecia areata is a temporary baldness.

Male-pattern baldness can occur very early, even in the teens or twenties. Female-pattern baldness is usually seen as thinning hair on the sides, front or crown of the head. It is rare for women to go completely bald.

Temporary hair loss looks like small, round, smooth patches and can occur on the scalp or other body parts that have hair growing such as eyebrows, eyelashes, and in the area where men grow beards. Severe cases can lead to hair loss over the entire body (alopecia universalis). Another condition of temporary hair loss is when hair comes out suddenly and thins out the hair instead of leaving bald patches.

Traction alopecia occurs when hair is pulled too tightly and the hair loss occurs at the area of the scalp where the pulling occurs such as when the hairstyle cornrows is used - the hair loss happens between the rows.