48% Of Women Have Thinning Hair!

How your hair grows

Your hair is made of keratin (KER-uh-tin), the same protein that makes up your nails and the outer layer of your skin. The part you see and style is called the hair shaft. It's actually dead tissue made by your hair follicles tiny bulb-like structures beneath your scalp's surface.

We have all heard of someone who has thinning hair problem, but do we really know how extensive this thinning hair problem is? Let us take a look at the figures here..

1. 70 million Americans Have Fine or Thin-looking Hair And it's Growing
2. 4 million more women and 4.7 million more men will have noticeably thin-looking hair by 2005
3. By age 65, 48% of all women report they have thinning hair and 75% of all men report they have noticeably thin-looking hair.
4. Research has shown that the problem of thin-looking hair can begin as early as age 17.
5. The problem will grow more extreme as our population ages.

How does hair loss start?

Hair loss is a normal symptom. 50 to 60 hairs are shed each day from a normal scalp. Losing more than 60 hairs a day is called excessive hair loss and leads to generalized thinning of the hair. Hair becomes fine in texture. Loss of hair in men is often determined by heredity or by the Allopetia Androgenetic hormone. Hair loss in women is often caused by pregnancy, stress, fatigue or medical treatment.

Can Thyroid Disease Cause Hair Loss?

An overactive or underactive thyroid can cause hair loss. One may get her thyroid numbers in order after beginning a regimen of thyroid medication. However, there have been reported cases of women experiencing hair loss FROM the thyroid medication.

Hot Tips!

Coloring: If you inherited a tendency for hair loss, you likely have very healthy hair overall. Therefore, your hair can benefit from permanent or semi-permanent color to give body and volume to hair.

Volumizing Products: Many volume-building hair products contain paraffin, which is beeswax. That's not good for hair, because it builds up and can make hair break.

However, volumizing products sold in salons do help. They won't weigh hair down, and they won't damage it. Mousse, for example, can be applied at the root area for support. Then, begin blow-drying the root area, applying tension with a brush to build volume. Use a light finishing spray to hold it.

What Is Hormonal Hair Loss? Can It Be Controlled?

People lose hair for various reasons. Illness and medication, like chemotherapy to treat cancer, can cause hair loss. Hair loss can also be inherited from a parent. Often, hair thins because it is fine-textured, or because too many harsh chemicals have been used on it, so it breaks easily.

What if I have hormonal hair loss?
The following photos show typical female hormonal hair loss patterns.
Typical female baldness begins with a generalized thinning of the whole scalp. Contrary to male pattern baldness is that no receding hairlines or hair loss on the crown takes place.

A generalized thinning of the hair occurs. It is seldom that a man displays the same type of hair loss pattern as a woman

The thickened hair root prevents the hair bulb from returning back to its place in the skin. Because of this, new hair will be produced, but will not be able to settle. The growth phase will then be disrupted and the hair bulb will continuously produce new hair, which, instead of lasting the normal five years, will only become a few weeks or months old. Now you have constant hair loss!

Personally, I prefer products by L'Oreal, such as Excellence. It's easy on the hair. It never made my hair feel any thinner and adding some auburn highlights to my brown hair always makes me feel like a new person. Because my hair is fine, I never use the enclosed conditioners with hair color products. Hair conditioners often make fine hair feel thinner and unmanageable. On the other hand, if you do want to use some conditioner, use only a fraction of what's recommended! And never use conditioners on your scalp, just put some at the hair ends.

Another great product that I highly recommend is Rogaine. Rogaine has gained a reputation of being able to reverse the hair thinning process!

Bottom line: While we're feeling the way we do during the menopausal years, I think it's important to try anything to help ourselves feel and look better.

Now that you know a little more about what are the causes for hair loss, we urge you to find out more about how hair loss, or hair thinning can be prevented! Yes, it is true, there are many effective products on the market right now which has been proven to be truly effective in reversing thinning hair problems! Come! Find out more!

How Stress Causes Hair Loss?

The problem of thinning hair may be caused by a genetic predisposition that comes from a family history of thinning hair. Health problems such as Hyperthyroid or Hypothyroid conditions; medications such as chemotherapy, any hormone replacement medications including birth control pills are culprits often overlooked.

It is normal to shed some hair each day as part of this cycle. However, some people may experience excessive (more than normal) hair loss. Hair loss of this type can affect men, women and children.

Are you Stressed?

Thinning hair can also be attributed to stress and trauma that can cause constriction of blood supply and poor vitamin assimilation to the scalp and hair. Or, simply from poor nutrition and diet that can include a high consumption of animal fat, high protein and fad diets. Even external environmental toxins and pollutants, such as chlorine, metals, minerals and water pollution cannot be ignored. All these factors can be causing your clients' hair to look thinner.

Under a microscope

The hardening prevents hair growth. The hair cycle slowly becomes disrupted and more hair is shed than normal. In time hair growth stops completely and baldness results. Here you see an example of a hair follicle as seen under a microscope.

Age and hormones

Most people naturally experience some hair loss as they get older. But age, changing hormones and heredity cause some to lose more hair than others.

Female-pattern baldness starts with the replacement hairs becoming progressively finer and shorter. They can also become almost transparent.

It has been recorded that about 50 percent of women experience hair loss have female-pattern baldness! Unfortunately, it is often permanent just as in men. Not all hair thinning and loss must be permanent. There has been various cases of perimenopausal women, for example, experiencing thinning and lost hair who, once their hormone levels become balanced, can experience the thickness of previously thinning and the regrowth of lost hair that occurred during the ebbing and flowing hormonal years.

Hot Tips

Get Wavy! Permanents can help give volume to fine-textured hair -- but hair must be healthy, not dry or brittle. Only a gentle body wave is advised, because tighter waves can damage the hair. Because chemicals in permanents are harsh, a permanent should be only a last resort for fine-haired people.

Can Too Little Protein Cause Hair Loss?

Hair usually grows about half an inch per month, although this slows as you age. Each hair remains on your head for two to six years, and during most of this time is continually growing.

But many factors can disrupt this cycle. The result can be that your hair falls out early or isn't replaced.

A new discovery has been made in finding out what actually causes hair loss, namely: the hardening of collagen. Persons who do not suffer from hair loss have supple collagen and persons who begin showing signs of hair loss have hardened collagen. Collagen hardening interferes with the healthy functioning of the hair roots. The vital exchange process of the hair follicle cycle is disrupted and the hair becomes suffocated.

But What Causes Hair Loss?

Diet: Too little protein in your diet can lead to hair shedding. So can too little iron. Bottom line: Too strenuous dieting can result in hair loss! If you want to lose weight, do it the sensible way, especially if you have a hair thinning/loss problem to begin with.

Childbirth: Some women lose large amounts of hair within two to three months after delivery.

Hot Tips!

One great tip is after washing your hair, dry it in whatever manner you normally do. Then turn your head upside down, give your head a vigorous shake, and once back in a standing position, either "place" your hair using your fingers, rather than a brush or comb. You can also use a hair pick to style your hair. The upside down, shaking, also gives a great deal of fullness to otherwise flat looking thin hair. You'd be amazed at how creative you can be with your fingers without pulling at the root of the hair!

To protect hair, the best practice is to shampoo only when hair is dirty. Because fine hair gets dirty faster, people with fine-textured hair need to shampoo more frequently -- even though fine hair breaks more easily.

For that reason, fine-textured hair benefits from a good shampoo and volume-building conditioner

Can Female Hair Loss Make Me Totally Bald?

View the pattern that affects women only. Loss of female hair is not the same as male hair loss determined by heredity. Female hair loss is temporary and is seldom an advance warning of baldness. Transient loss of hair should not, however, be ignored. It is possible for a woman to suffer from hormonal hair loss leading to baldness.

Some of the most common causes are:

1. Pregnancy
2. Severe emotional stress
3. Under medical treatment
4. Hormonal hair loss
Is there a relationship between hair loss and menopause?

The most common cause of hair loss is low thyroid function, which is common among menopausal women.

Other causes include, but are not limited to: changes in hormone levels, increased testosterone, increased stress, which can either be physical stress, or emotional stress, various medications, scalp/dermatological issues and heredity.

Any time sudden hair loss is experienced, one must consider events which took place up to three months prior to the hair loss, as factors affecting hair loss can often take up to three months to have an effect, i.e., were you diagnosed with something new in the past few months? Did you start taking medication during the past few months? Did you go through a traumatic experience. Subsequently, any treatments for hair loss should be given at least three months to have noticeable effects.

There are of course various ways to solve hair problems, such as:

1. Wig / toupe
2. Hair-weaving (weaving in extra hair)
3. Hair transplant
4. Cosmetic hair treatment courses
5. Therapy

There are only a few products available worldwide which have been conclusively proven to combat hair loss. They are Aminexil, Alopesan 400, Maxilène, Minoxidil and Finasteride. It’s very important for you as a consumer to know this if you are thinking of taking steps to combat your hair loss. Rogaine is another one of the more popular brand names in the hair loss industry.