Solutions For Hair Loss
If you are one of the unlucky fellows who is becoming "follicly challenged" over time, you don't have to sit back and helplessly watch your hair fall out. There are treatments available that will stop your follicles from failing you. Losing your hair can take its toll on your self-esteem and sex appeal, but there are ways to remedy or reverse the damage.
what causes hair loss?
A normal person will lose between 50 to 100 hairs daily, because 90% of hair is in growth phase and 10% is in shedding phase at any given time. However, any significant change that alters the normal growth cycle of hair, or permanently damages the roots of the hair (the follicles), can result in excessive hair loss of over 100 hairs a day, which may be temporary or permanent.
Genetics: About 95% of hair loss from the scalp comes from heredity. If your grandma, grandpa, mom, or dad has lost their hair, you may inherit the genetic tendency to lose yours as well. Balding can skip generations, and its incidence is random in terms of siblings. For instance, one brother could go bald in his 30s and another may keep a full head of hair his entire life.
Stress: Surgery, illness and a variety of mental stressors can cause excessive hair loss. Those with the rare anxiety disorder trichotillomania, often pull their hair out in clumps to the point of baldness.
Age: The aging process causes the breakdown in many of the skin's functions, including hair follicles. Many people over 50 have thinning hair because their hair follicles are less effective and therefore hair grows more slowly. Also, mature hair changes in texture and tends to break more easily.
Trauma to the hair: Although this may not apply to the majority of men, botched bleach jobs, abuse of permanents and over-the-counter hair dyes or straightening products, forceful brushing, styling or combing, and tight hairstyles like corn rows, can break and damage hair, and cause hair loss. On rare occasions, due to friction or hair breakage, wearing a ponytail that is too tight can literally pluck or exfoliate the hairs off your head. However, in this instance, the hair loss will not be as widespread as male pattern baldness and will resolve itself after cessation of ponytail wearing.
Certain drugs or diseases: Lupus, certain autoimmune diseases, and radiation therapy or chemotherapy, all contribute to temporary or permanent hair loss.
Men who notice their hair shedding in large quantities should consult a doctor or a dermatologist. Sometimes hair loss indicates an underlying medical condition for which treatment is necessary. If hair loss is sudden and in concert with other worrisome symptoms, see your doctor immediately.
male pattern baldness
The most common hair loss problem that plagues men of all races from their mid-20s onwards is genetically-triggered male pattern hair loss, medically termed as "androgenetic alopecia." Genes affect the age at which a man begins to lose his hair and the extent, rate, shape, and pattern of hair loss. In most men, male pattern hair loss typically begins at the temples and the crown.
Here's why you're losing it, and what you can do to get it back...
