The American Academy of Dermatology, nearly 30 million U.S. women have hereditary hair loss. Many other women simply experience a marked thinning of the hair (diffuse hair loss) due to stress or other health problems.
Diffuse hair loss occurs when the normal hair cycle is interrupted by a trigger of any kind. These causes include a wide variety of physiological or emotional stress, nutritional deficiencies, and endocrine imbalances.
Hair grows in cycles, with each hair follicle through 10 and 30 cycles during its lifetime. A normal hair cycle consists of four phases: anagen (active growth of hair), catagen (regression), telogen (resting), and the exogenous phase (the release of dead hair).
When the hair is growing normally, each hair follicle goes through cycles independently. This makes the hair density is stable, as some hairs will grow, while others are resting and others are falling. Most people have about 100,000 hairs on the scalp and about 10% to 15% of them are in the telogen phase. The drop from 100 to 150 telogen hairs per day is normal.
The most common type of loss is diffuse telogen effluvium, in which anagen hair follicles in the telogen phase passes soon, resulting in a significant increase in hair loss at the end of the telogen phase 2 to 3 months later.
Telogen effluvium has many causes. These include psychological stress, emotional stress, illness, dietary triggers and medications.
The physiological stress may include surgical trauma, childbirth, high fever, chronic diseases, and bleeding. TE due to physical stresses occur 2 to 4 months after stress.
Medical conditions that can cause diffuse hair loss in women include thyroid disease, liver failure, inflammatory bowel disease, and renal failure, to name a few.
Triggers include dietary vitamin and / or minerals, crash dieting, hunger, Silk n Sensepil chronic malabsorption syndromes.
When hair loss in women is due to a drug, starting around 12 weeks after starting the drug and continues while taking the drug. Drugs that are known to sometimes cause hair loss in women are oral contraceptive pills, androgens, retinoids, beta blockers, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, anticoagulants heparin and warfarin.
Telogen effluvium can be acute (duration <6 months), chronic (6 months or more), or chronic repetitive. The duration depends more often if the trigger is acute and short-term, chronic and ongoing.
Anagen hair detachment is due to the premature termination of anagen hair growth or anagen arrest after an acute metabolic or severe injury. It is most often caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but may be by an underlying disease such as alopecia areata or heavy metal poisoning.
If you experience a noticeable thinning or growing your hair, consult a doctor. See a dermatologist who specializes in hair loss. He or she should take your medical history, blood tests for you, and can even do a scalp biopsy.
Even after the trigger is identified, it is important to understand that hair loss in women may continue for up to 6 months after the trigger is removed or has been treated successfully. A truly remarkable thickening of the hair can take 12 to 18 months.
The treatment includes adequate nutrition. Stopping or changing a drug trigger suspicion. Treatment of any underlying inflammation of the scalp (eg, seborrheic dermatitis or psoriasis). The treatment of any medical condition (ie, thyroid disease, etc.)..
Although not a specific treatment, the application of minoxidil topical hair growth promoter (Rogaine) 2% and 5% on the scalp once a day may be useful in chronic diffuse hair loss telogen and chronic telogen effluvium.











