Hair Loss in Teenagers and Kids

Usually it is adults who suffer from hair loss but sometimes kids and teens also experience it. Losing hair at such a young age is not normal and if you or your kid sees thick batches of hair leaving his or her head, then a consultation with a doctor is mandatory.

Kids and teens are humans, so it is not surprising that the causes for hair loss are not different from the causes in adults. Even stress and hormonal imbalances, which are one of the main reasons for hair loss in adults, are also a factor for hair loss in kids and teens. However, there is one more reason, especially with young kids - pulling their hair on deliberately.

An adult can't understand why children are willing to inflict such a damage (and pain) on themselves but actually many kids do it at some time of their life. Pulling one's hair on deliberately can be just for amusement but it can also be a stress reliever. Very often children do it subconsciously, so punishing them for pulling their hair is hardly the way to go. Luckily, when kids grow, they usually stop doing it. Besides, hair loss due to intentional pulling is temporary and it does not cause permanent damage to one's hair, so you shouldn't worry too much about it.

Sometimes it is difficult to notice that a kid suffers from hair loss because especially with young kids thin hair (thinning of hair is one of the first symptoms of hair loss in adults) is not so unlikely. But if you notice that your kid or teenager loses more hair than it is normal, do not take it easy but take him or her to be examined because hair loss can be a symptom of another, more serious disease, like diabetes or cancer.

A worrying trend worldwide is the growing number of kids and teens who suffer from temporary or permanent hair loss due to chemotherapy. Unfortunately, this might be an inevitable price to pay for staying alive, so if this is the case with your kid or teenager, you will have to accept it but still you may want to ask the doctors about what kind of measures are possible in order to make the ordeal more bearable.

There is no doubt that hair loss is unpleasant at any age but for kids and teens this can be a really shocking experience. While most adults are tactful enough not to make stupid jokes about somebody else's baldness, kids sometimes can be very cruel and joke and ask questions about the missing hair of their friends and classmates.

So, with kids and teens hair loss can be more traumatic psychologically, especially with teenage girls. With all the advertisements of magic shampoos that make your head gorgeous and the shiny hairs of top models, young girls are having hard times to put up with the fact that having such hair is not achievable for them at the moment. With boys it is more or less easier, especially having in mind many popular singers and actors, who shave their heads, so lacking hair can even be regarded as a sign of masculinity. With very small children chances are that there won't be any psychological problems because pre-school children, or even kids in primary school don't care about their appearance, so the fact that part or all of their hair is missing will hardly make any difference.

Similar to adults, treatment of hair loss starts with diagnosing the reason, if it is not known already. If the reason is a disease, after the disease is cured, chances are that hair loss will be forgotten. The same applies to hormones and stress - remove the reason and the hair loss problem will hopefully fade away.

One of the advantages of being a kid, as far as hair loss is concerned, is that you (or better somebody else) can shave your head from time to time and you will not be embarrassed by it. Shaving the entire scull is very stimulating for hair growth and if you do it two or three times a year, you substantially increase your chances to have thick hair, when you grow up. However, if you find shaving one's head too extreme, cutting your hair short regularly is also an option to consider.


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