Excessive Hair Loss
Excessive hair loss that suddenly enters the lives is also taken very lightly by many as being one of the signs of aging. But, there could be many other things behind huge hair loss, demanding more attention than they normally get. Pollution, heat, dust and hormonal imbalance, are some of the common causes of hair loss. Many people on the other hand have sleepless nights with this seemingly insignificant problem, to an extent that their extra concern becomes one of the main reasons for their hair loss.
As a matter of fact, some amount of daily hair loss is perfectly normal and natural. Normal human head consists of more than 100,000 hair follicles, which grow within a specific growth cycle. There are three phases of the hair grown, all three being equally important and significant. Any problem in the mechanism of this cycle could be the reason behind the excessive hair loss. There are certain other factors that contribute evenly to the cause of more hair loss, including the gender and ethnicity of the person. Let's discuss this further more.
Excess Hair Loss
In the cycle of normal hair growth, 90% of total hair follicle grow at one go, which lasts for 2 to 6 years, while the rest of them are already at the resting. This resting phase lasts for more than 2 to 6 months. When the resting phase ends, these follicles shed by giving way to the new hair follicle that take their place. This we normally reckon as 'hair loss', which is totally normal and necessary. Most of the hair loss that people experience is natural and shedding more than 50 hair a day is considered to be normal!
As we know, hair shed and new hair take place of the older ones, only to continue the cycle of hair growth. When a person is suffering from hair fall of more than 100 hair a day, he is suffering from hair loss for sure, which actually needs immediate attention of a dermatologist. There could possibly be more than only one reason behind this excess hair loss. While pollution, heat, improper diet and hormonal imbalance, aging, etc. cost you the beautiful hair, there are several other reasons that need to be discussed here.
Reasons for Excessive Hair Loss
There are several reasons, like usage of very tight hair accessories, chronic fever, excessive usage of hair care products, excessive dieting and poor nutritional diet, several skin disorders, etc. These factors are basically responsible for sudden hair loss. This kind of hair loss often gets cured as soon as the root cause of hair loss is evaded, properly. Along with all the above mentioned causes, here are some more serious reasons for hair loss.
Medication and Chemicals
Excessive fear of hair loss leads a person to take 'excessive' care of the existing hair. This increases his/her usage of hair care products containing harmful chemicals. These chemicals work negatively on the hair, along with the medications that one consumes, in order to stop the excess hair loss. As a result, the hair become weaker and fall out easier than one can ever expect.
Hereditary Baldness
Hereditary baldness is also known as androgenetic alopeciam, which is the prime reason behind hair loss in men and sometimes in women as well. This disorder is inherited from either one family of the person, that is the paternal or maternal. While men lose almost all of their hair, women normally do not go completely bald.
Alopecia Areata
Alopecia Areata can be called bald spots, that specifically develop on the scalp, making all the hair in that spot to disappear. This disorder may affect a person of any age from children to adults and can result in total hair loss of the affected area, without leaving any rough spot. In such cases, hair regrowth is possible only after proper dermatological treatments.
Scalp Disorders
Certain scalp diseases, skin disorders and infections actually cause a lot of hair loss. The best example could be scalp ringworm which are caused by a fungal infection. Scalp ringworm cause scaling of the scalp skin, broken hair, swelling, itchy scalp hair loss, redness and oozing from scalp surface. Scalp ringworm are highly contagious and mostly seen amongst children.
Hair Pulling and Hair Scarring
Many people, including adults have a tendency to pull their hair until they come out. With reasons unknown, hair pulling is said to be a coping response towards excessive stress and several other psychological problems. Hair scarring alopecia is one hair disorder leading to patchy hair loss along with pain, inflammation and swelling of the scalp surface.
Telogen Effluvium
Telogen Effluvium is a condition that is caused by excess in the number of hair in the resting, which leads to excessive hair loss. Some of the reasons for telogen effluvium include, cancer treatment, low serum iron, protein deficiency, major surgery, etc. Thyroid disease, menopause, birth control pills, premenstrual syndrome, stress, etc., are the prime reasons for hair loss as far as women are concerned.
How to Deal with Excessive Hair Loss
Hair falling out in a bunch and that too at any time of the day is a sure cause of concern. This needs immediate medical intervention by the dermatologist. The sooner the treatment begins the sooner would be the recovery from the same. The hair loss could also stop naturally once some of the above mentioned situational causes are taken care of. In other cases, special treatments and therapies would be necessary.
As part of the diagnosis, the dermatologist may suggest several medications including vitamin supplements, multivitamins, hormonal therapy like cortisone injections, hair restoration surgery, scalp reduction treatment, hair transplant, scalp tissue expanders, etc. are some of the hair loss solutions that the dermatologist might suggest in order to cure extra hair loss.
A healthy, active and stress-free lifestyle, a balanced diet and plenty of exercise is all that one needs to have a healthy body as well as healthy hair. It is also very important to get to know some proper hair care techniques so that one would always be aware of the harmful things as far as hair care in concerned.
