Reasons Behind Hair Thinning
Anyone, man, woman or child, can experience the oncoming of excessive hair thinning. What may begin as a few extra hairs left in the brush can escalate to handfuls of hair being left on the pillow overnight. While a lot of hair shedding is common, the sudden onset of accelerated hair loss can be extremely distressing.
Male and Female Pattern Baldness
The leading cause of thinning hair in men is male pattern baldness (MPB) which can be hereditary. The gene for MPB interacts with a hormone called DHT, which is normally related to desirable masculine traits like muscle growth and deep voice and causes it to over-stimulate hair follicles. The follicles eventually lose their ability to keep up hair growth and the end result is the loss of hair from the crown and a recessed hairline.
Female pattern baldness is also affected by hormones and genes. It is characterised by a thinning of the hair all over the scalp but unlike MPB the hairline and crown aren’t main areas of loss and unlike men, women very rarely experience total baldness through female pattern hair loss.
Telogen Effluvium
It is well known that chemotherapy patients often lose their hair but other forms of stress can cause the same type of diffuse shedding including pregnancy, surgery, poor diet or some over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Human head hair is normally in a predominantly growing phase called anagen, with only 10-15% of hairs being in resting phase or telogen. Telogen effluvium occurs when something triggers a larger percentage of head hair to go into telogen simultaneously.
Telogen effluvium can be short term, long term or chronic depending on the trigger.
Traction Alopecia
Tight ponytails, cornrows and excessive hairstyling can trigger permanent damage to the hair roots and root. Although permanent damage is possible, refraining from constantly pulling hair back into tight styles and stressing the root will permit hair regrowth to return in most cases.
Auto-immune and Inflammatory Diseases
There are lots of autoimmune diseases that directly or indirectly trigger balding. One is Discoid Lupus Erythematosus, a chronic skin ailment that affects the neck, face and scalp. Lupus lesions on the scalp infect and damage hair roots and can trigger permanent thinning hair.
Lichen planopilaris (also referred to as follicular Lichen Planus) is a skin disorder that can also affect the scalp leading to redness, itching and inflammation and scarring of deep tissues resulting in permanent balding.
Alopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune ailment that can affect the hair follicles everywhere in the body. On the scalp it causes patchy hair loss. Individuals spanning various ages can be cultivated AA although it has a greater occurrence inside the 15 to 30 age group.
Fungal and Bacterial Infection
There are a few fungal infections that target the scalp. One is ringworm, which can be an infectious fungal infection, much like athlete’s foot. It may appear anywhere on the body but if present on the scalp will trigger patchy hair loss.
Piedra is another fungus that can weaken the hair shaft and cause patchy hair loss and Folliculitis is an inflammation of the follicles that will, when severe, cause permanent damage to the follicle. It may be caused by a bacterial or fungal infection and brings about patchy hair loss.