Is there Hope For Female Hair Loss? Rochester NY

Concerned about thinning hair? According to the American Hair Loss Council, female pattern baldness affects about a third of all susceptible women. It usually affects post-menopausal women, but can start as early as adolescence. Generally, female hair loss has three causes: a system shock (stress alopecia), auto-immune disease (alopecia areata), or a genetic predisposition to pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia).

How Hair Grows

Each hair follicle spends 4-6 years growing in the anagen phase, rests for 2-4 months in the telogen phase, then pushes the old hair out with a new strand of hair. At any given time, 90% of your hair is growing and 10% is resting. You lose about 100-150 strands of hair a day, slightly less if your hair is already thin.

When Growth Stops: Stress Alopecia

When hair falls out in clumps, it's often because of an interruption in the growth process. Medications like chemotherapy drugs can poison the hair follicle and temporarily stop it from growing. Or a general system shock can cause hair follicles to enter the resting phase out of cycle, leading to batch fall-out. Physical or emotional stress, a thyroid or hormonal change, extreme weight loss, or medications like high-dose Vitamin A, blood pressure and gout medications can all cause stress alopecia.  It can take 2-3 months for stressors to hit and for hair to start to fall out in a general pattern. These growth interruptions are reversible, once the cause of the growth impeding factor is stopped...

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