How to Stop Hair Loss

There are several types of hair loss, and it can affect everyone. It is typical to lose some hair every day as part of your hair’s usual growth cycle. For most people, the lost hair grows back, and you maintain a full head of hair. But illness, hormonal changes, stress, aging, and inherited conditions can interfere with your hair’s growth cycle. More hair falls out, but new strands do not always grow back.

Most healthy people lose up to 100 strands of hair per day. As part of your hair’s growth cycle, new strands grow and take the place of the ones you shed. When you start to shed more strands and fewer or none grow back, the condition is considered hair loss. You may lose hair just on your head or from your body as well. Some types of hair loss are permanent, while others are temporary.

The most common types of hair loss include androgenic alopecia, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and anagen effluvium. Androgenic alopecia is a type of hereditary baldness that can affect anyone such as male pattern baldness or hair loss in women. Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease that results in hair loss from the head and body. Telogen effluvium is a type of hair loss that involves rapid shedding of hair in a short amount of time.

Telogen effluvium typically happens a few months after your body goes through something physically or emotionally stressful.

Telogen effluvium can also result from sudden hormonal changes. Anagen effluvium is a very rapid hair loss that occurs due to certain medical treatments, such as chemotherapy. Androgenic alopecia is the most common type of hair loss. Androgenic alopecia affects an estimated 80 million individuals in the United States. Hair loss is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy.

Alopecia areata affects up to 6.8 million people in the United States. Hair loss has many possible causes. The most common possible causes include hereditary hair loss from genetics, fungal infections on the scalp, hairstyles that pull the hair tightly, haircare that may cause damage due to processing, hormonal changes, medical treatments, nutritional deficiencies, stressful events, and thyroid disease.

People experience hair loss in different ways, depending on the type and what is causing it. Common symptoms include receding hairline, thinning hair all over the head, loss of small patches of hair on the scalp, and loss of hair on the scalp and body. Losing your hair, whether it is temporary or permanent, can be emotionally difficult for many people. Some types of hair loss can eventually lead to baldness.

If you lose significant hair, it is important to protect your scalp.

Wear a hat, scarf, or other head covering when you are in the sun, and apply sunscreen daily. Sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer. In some cases, the cause of hair loss is obvious. For example, if you are losing hair while going through chemotherapy. Other times, your healthcare provider will need to do some detective work to figure out what is causing your balding.

To determine the correct diagnosis, your provider may ask about your family history, look at your medical history, order blood tests, examine your scalp for signs of infection, take a scalp biopsy to check for skin disease. If your hair loss results from medication, hormonal imbalances, thyroid disease, or diet, your provider will address the cause. Correcting the underlying problem is often all that is needed to help stop balding.

Most hair loss treatments are meant to help with androgenic alopecia. These treatments include medication, hair transplant, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Over-the-counter medications you apply to your scalp are usually the first course of treatment for thinning hair. During a hair transplant, your provider carefully removes strands of hair from an area of your scalp where the hair is thickest.

The provider then transplants those strands, embedding them into your scalp where your hair is thinnest.

After drawing your blood for PRP, your provider separates out the plasma. They then inject this PRP into your scalp. PRP treatment can help slow hair loss and encourage new hair growth. You cannot prevent all types of balding, but you can take steps to help keep your hair healthy and minimize loss. To help prevent balding, eat a healthy diet that includes enough calories, protein, and iron.

Find ways to cope with stress. Manage thyroid disease or other medical conditions that could result in hair loss. Avoid hairstyles that pull hair tightly. During chemotherapy treatment, try a cooling cap. Balding can sometimes be a sign of an underlying disease. But balding itself poses no medical risk. Depending on what is causing your balding, it may be temporary or permanent.

Treatments can help people with certain types of hair loss. For conditions like alopecia areata, groups can provide emotional support and even help you buy wigs or find other ways to cope. You should call your healthcare provider if you experience burning, itching, or irritation on your scalp, excessive daily shedding, loss of hair on your body as well as your scalp, and sudden loss of large amounts of hair.

Hair loss from any cause can be emotionally challenging.

Talk to your healthcare provider about what may be causing your hair loss. In many cases, effective treatments exist that can slow balding and help spur new hair growth. Many people find ways to thrive and feel great, no matter how much or how little hair they have.