Before we begin to address the solution to this all too common affliction, an understanding of the fundamental types of hair loss, and their causes, will be crucial to implementation of any successful hair restoration program.

To reiterate, losing hair is normal. Most people lose between eight to one hundred terminal hairs per day from their scalp. This is even true of the majority of people who are experiencing hair loss or thinning, know as alopecia. When the follicles of people suffering from alopecia shift into the dormant telogen period, the hair falls out at the same rate as healthy people. The difference is that the follicle closes up and shuts down rather than reawakening to the active anagen stage. There are some types of alopecia that result in elevated rates of shedding, often losing whole clumps of hair at a time, but his condition is rare and we’ll discuss this is further detail a bit later.

There are several classifications of alopecia, with the most prevalent being androgenetic alopecia, the culprit in over 95% of hair loss cases. Both men and women experience androgenetic alopecia. For men it is often pronounced and dishearteningly visible for the entire world to see, and is commonly referred to as Male Pattern Baldness (MPB). In women, it is usually in an overall thinning of the hair rather the development of any discernible pattern of baldness.

Androgenetic alopecia is widely recognized as genetic trait passes down from either parent. This is why it is know as pattern baldness, since the same pattern tend to show throughout the family tree. The genetic code for hair loss sends hormone messages to the cells in the follicles associated with the family pattern. The hormone massages essentially tell the papilla in these follicles to grow thinner and lesser hair, eventually shutting them down until they grow no hair at all.

Those hormones that direct the hair follicles are the part of an extensive assortment of hormones called androgens. Testosterone and estrogen, present in both men and women, are without a doubt the best know androgens, and play essential roles in the genetic code’s mandate for pattern hair loss. Hormone levels deviate from person to person, and fluctuate at different stage their life.

As the blood carries testosterone to the hair follicle, it interacts with enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, converting the hormone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT restrict the vasodilatation (blood flow) to the papilla at the base of the follicle. In short, it is the culprit androgen hormone that provokes hair loss, hence androgenetic alopecia.

Estrogen is known androgen that obstructs the effects of DHT. Since women have higher levels of estrogen than men do, most women are safeguarded from androgenetic alopecia that is until they reach menopause, when the levels of estrogen take a sudden, sharp drop in the bloodstream. With the DHT newly unimpeded, the onset of hair thinning in menopause women can sometimes be quite dramatic in its rapidity.

Before losing heart, there is one other important factor to keep in mind. The genetic code merely determines a tendency toward DHT’s vasodilatation of the papilla. If unchecked, hair loss will certainly result. However, there are many methods for interrupting this process. Another form of hair loss is traction alopecia, which occurs when the hair shafts are subjected to the constant pulling of tightly braided hairstyles, plucking, tweezing, and waxing. This traumatizes the follicles, and the leads to the hairs falling out before the completion of their growth cycle. Usually, traction alopecia is temporary, taking three to four months for the follicles to this constant pulling will eventually lead to permanent hair loss.

About 1% of the population suffers from condition called alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition in which the white blood cells interpret the hair follicle as an invading tissue that must be expelled from the body. Alopecia areata customarily cause people to lose hair on the scalp in smooth, circular clumps typically about one inch in diameter. In severe cases this can expand to the loss all scalp hair (alopecia totalis), and sometime expand to the loss of all hair on the body (alopecia universals). Typically, this incurable autoimmune complication is temporary, though its duration is entirely unpredictable.

Telogen effluvium is a form of hair loss resulting from sudden severe stress. This can be rather traumatic occurrence because the shedding of hair is always delayed, in most cases three to four months and sometimes as much as six months after the originating stressful event. Example a job termination, divorce, death of loved one. Telogen effluvium strike randomly across the scalp, and is most often noticeable only to the person suffering from the infliction. It is temporary, since there has been no damage to the follicle. Most of the hairs will return once the normal anagen and telogen growth cycles resume.

Perhaps the most important factor in hair is how almost every single one of the conditions described above affect the sebaceous gland and it secretion of the lubricating sebum. What happen 99% of the time, whether the papilla’s production of keratin is disrupted by the genetic balding messages carried in DHT, or the hair shaft has suffered breakage from too much bleaching, sebum begins to build up in the follicle. The follicle then becomes blocked, including further damage to the tiny structure and effectively cutting off any chances for the hair to survive. This, in fact, is the literal root cause of hair loss.

How To Stop Your Hair Loss Now And Strengthen, Restore And Revitalize Thinning Hair Naturally.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under Hair Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.