It’s easy to forget that shedding hair is a natural process. Hair falls out and the healthy hair follicles allow new hair to grow back. Essentially, hair loss is an interruption to this natural cycle where the follicles no longer function correctly, and so new strands don’t replace the old ones.
When there’s an excess amount of hair loss and clumps of it are coming out in your hands or you are finding hair on your pillow each morning, that’s more serious.
What causes hair loss? Is it permanent? How should you respond to it?
Causes of Hair Loss
Hair loss doesn’t just happen for one reason. There are a few:
Hormonal Changes: Women are most affected by this,including significant hormonal changes compared caused bypregnancy, thyroid issues, and menopause.
Supplements and/or Medication: Various prescription meds and over-the-counter supplements have the potential side effect of hair loss. These include medicine for depression, heart issues, cancer, raised blood pressure, and also gout.
High Stress: While less likely to occur just by having a bad day, sustained high stress in life can sometimes create temporary hair loss. In this situation, the hair will gradually return once the stress levels are back under control.
Age: Losing hair can be a sign of the aging process. Hair follicles stop working correctly and hair doesn’t grow onsome parts of the scalp any longer. As this continues, it becomes more and more noticeable.
How to Respond
Don’t stay in denial. Once you’ve spotted it, it’s time to respond.
Assess your lifestyle to see if current life events are causing sufficient stress that it could be a passing issue. If that’s likely, do what you can to relax more, and worry less about current issues that will either pass with time or be resolved. Stop worrying about things out of your direct control, maybe including obsessing over negative news (it can put a downer on the whole day).
See if the hair loss relates to medicine or a change in supplements lately. If you’re taking any medicine, look it up to see what the side effects might be. Verify if hair loss is one of them.
What Can You Do About It?
If it’s established as a short-term side effect from a course of medication or due to stress, you may need to just wait it out. The hair loss will stop eventually and then grow back where it’s been lost.
Another option is to seek hair replacement treatment. A modern one is an FUE transplant. This is where thousands of hair follicles are extracted from a healthy part of the scalp to be grafted onto the part where hair loss is because of age or hereditary factors, rather than only temporary. The more follicles are grafted in, the fuller the hair will look once it’s all grown out. You can see example results at Treatment Rooms London where they specialize in this procedure and have achieved excellent outcomes for their patients.
It’s important not to ignore ongoing hair loss. Determine why it’s happening because this informs you about the best approach to managing it.
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