Hair Loss in Women

Hair loss in women is relatively less frequent than in men but still there are many women, who are affected by temporary or permanent hair loss. Very often women suffer from hair thinning, rather than hair loss. Typically women do not get entirely bald, like men but their hair gets thinner and if it is absent completely, the most common patter is in patches all over the head, instead of over a continuous area, like in men.

It is difficult to say whether a woman or a man suffers more from hair loss but it is certain that generally ladies pay more attention to their hair than men. However, it seems that society is more accepting to bald men than to bald women. This is probably due to the fact that the conservative approach to genders is that women should be beautiful, while men should be powerful. Well, science is advancing rapidly, so even if you do experience hair loss, don't panic - you will hardly have to go bald-headed on the street!

Surprisingly (or maybe quite logically), even women who care a lot about their hair, suffer from hair loss. Well, it depends on what you mean by hair care because if your understanding of hair care is all the activities that will make your hair look more beautiful, rather than healthy, then you are actually killing your hair, instead of caring for it. As already mentioned in this article, hair care is not applying on your head every piece of hair cosmetics you find in the drugstore or in the beauty shop. There are many hair care activities, like dyes and frequently washing your hair that actually help in the long run to make it thinner.

While in many cases the damage you inflict on your hair is temporary only and can be reversed by the right measures, there are some cases when hair loss is permanent. Luckily, the permanent cases of hair loss are not that many, so you can rest assured that if you notice on time that your hair is thickening or whole patches of it are missing and consult a dermatologist, in some time you will have your hair back on your head.

As mentioned many times in these series of articles, hair loss treatment starts with identifying what causes it. As with men, the most frequent, bur certainly not the only, reason for hair loss is hormonal imbalances and the periods in life when these imbalances are triggered are most often during pregnancy and menopause.

Stress is also a common reason. There is data that ladies are more subject to stress than men or to be more precise, ladies suffer more from health implications due to stress. If you are on a diet, which seems to be one of the ladies' lifelong obsessions, this could also be a reason for thinning hair and for hair shedding.

Like in men, hair loss is hereditary, so if your female relatives have had hair loss, it is quite probable that you will not be an exception. Though it is not a rule, but history of gynecological disorders and diseases in the family is also linked to hair loss. However, it is a bit stretching the truth to say, for instance, that hair loss leads to irregular periods, infertility, cystic acne and the like. Most often, if you have hair loss, the reason for this is that you have some kind of disease, not necessarily a gynecologic one, that as a result causes your hair to fall faster than normally.

Ladies are very conscious about their appearance, so it is unlikely that hair loss will go unnoticed. However, due to the peculiarities of the way women lose hair - i.e. all over the head, rather from a continuous area, it might take time to notice it. Generally, it is necessary to lose about 40-50% of one's hair in a given area, in order to notice its absence. Quite often it is the hairstylist, who notices missing hair. Though the hairstylist is hardly the person to recommend you treatment, especially if your hair loss is due to a serious reason (i.e. a disease), he or she can also give you precious advice on how to proceed.