Three Other Hair Loss Triggers

Is Male or Female Pattern Baldness Really What is Causing Your Hair Loss?

13:01 15 April 2016

If you have started to notice thinning in your hair, a receding hairline or bald patches, then you may write it off as a sign of aging. Male pattern baldness is a very common problem, and female pattern baldness, while far less common, is also a significant cause of hair loss. If your parents also lost hair in a similar pattern to you, this may well be the cause, and so you'll have the choice between accepting it and using approaches to restore hair – whether you go for something dramatic like implants, or something gentler like this scalp treatment for hair growth. 

 

However, male and female pattern baldness are not the only reasons why people lose hair, and some of the other common causes actually reverse naturally by themselves. Here are three causes of hair loss you may not have considered:

 

Physical Stress or Trauma

 

Every hair has a life cycle, and usually, all of your hair is in different phases at any given time. However, when your body undergoes serious stress, it can force more of your hair into the 'shedding' stage of its natural life cycle. This will leave you with thinner hair, and you'll see a lot more hair than usual dropping out when you brush or wash it. In extreme cases, it can even leave you bald. The kind of physical stress that can cause this can vary from accidents and severe illness to even things as common as the flu, and because sometimes the changes in hair don't occur until months later, people don't always connect the two. The good news is that this kind of hair loss reverses by itself over time as your body recovers.

 

Extreme Weight Loss

 

While intentional weight loss is usually beneficial for your health, it does put the body under stress. This can cause hair loss in a similar manner to illness or injury. In addition to this, if your weight loss was caused by a strict diet, you may also have vitamin deficiencies, specifically in vitamin A and the B vitamin group, that can lead to hair loss. Like stress, your hair will return to normal after a while at your new weight, but it is a good idea to take a multivitamin when dieting to prevent deficiencies. 

 

Medication

 

Several groups of medicines, including some very commonly used ones, can include hair loss as a side effect. This can include certain anti-depressants, beta blockers (which are used for heart conditions but also anxiety), and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), such as ibuprofen. Because drugs that can cause hair loss even include those sold off the shelf in the supermarket, many people don't associate their hair loss with medication, however this can often be a cause.

These are just three of the reasons why you may be losing hair, but if any of these are the case, then hair loss is unlikely to be permanent.