Tag: Hair Problem

Female Pattern Baldness

Female pattern baldness a.k.a. alopecia in women is the most common form of hair problem that women come across. It involves a typical hair loss pattern, resulting from hormones, aging and genetic predisposition.

Hair loss pattern resulting from alopecia in women

Unlike in men, female pattern baldness does not cause hair loss in a well-defined pattern. The hair starts thinning all over the head though there is no hair line receding. It is rare for alopecia in women to result in total baldness.

In the case of females, the scalp hair loss may begin at any age though usually after 40.
The patterns of female pattern baldness can vary considerably in appearance and may include:

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp often with more noticeable thinning toward the back of the scalp.

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp with more noticeable thinning toward the front of the scalp but not involving the frontal hair line.

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp with more noticeable thinning toward the front of the scalp, involving and sometimes breaching the frontal hairline.

Symptoms of alopecia in women

In normal condition a woman tends to lose around 100-125 hairs per day. Losing more hair than that indicates that the condition is not normal.

The following two conditions indicate alopecia in women

Hair thinning over the entire head

Hair loss at the crown or hair line, from mild to moderate

Causes of female pattern baldness

The disease is triggered by the presence of a male hormone called testosterone in female body. Testosterone is produced by androgen hormone.

Certain women are decidedly more sensitive to testosterone than others. This sensitivity results in hair thinning on their scalp. Testosterone interacts with the enzyme 5 alpha reductase produced by the body. The interaction causes the production of DHT within the hair follicle.

DHT causes production of shorter and finer hairs. When DHT is not received well by hair follicles, it causes reduced blood supply and it causes hair thinning on the scalp.

Diagnosis of female pattern baldness

Women tend to have less obvious hair loss patterns than men and they face non-pattern hair loss more frequently than men. Diagnosis of female hair loss should be conducted by a trained and experienced physician.

The physician diagnoses this hair disease on the basis of hair loss appearance and pattern. He also checks whether other possible hair loss causes can be ruled out. He may also go for a skin biopsy or other procedures to diagnose the medical disorders.

Treatment

The diagnosis of female pattern baldness should be followed by a proper treatment. The patient is usually administered Rogaine. Another medicine is Aldactone, which is useful especially for the women experiencing hair fall after menopause. A modern and popular method used in the case of female pattern baldness is hair transplantation.

Common Causes of Hair Loss

It is very natural for a person to loss 50 to 100 hairs each day under the bodys hair renewal process. But most of the people at least once in their lifetime suffer with heavy hair loss. There may be various reason behind this; like medication, chemotherapy, exposure to radiations and certain chemicals, nutritional and hormonal factors, thyroid disease, skin disease or stress, etc.

In most of the cases hair loss is temporary but in certain cases it may be permanent depending on the severity of disease. Some of the most common causes of hair loss are explained here.

Hormonal

Hormones are stimulant to hair growth and causes hair loss problems. Hormones affect heavily our hair growth. These affect both male as well as female hair health.

Hair thinning is one of the hormonal problems and affects both men and women. Hair thinning in male is specific and follows a pattern from the front through to the crown. Hair thinning in female does not follow any specific pattern.

Hair thinning is caused by androgen DHT or Dihydrotesterone. Everyone has DHT but only some suffers with hair problem, are you wandering, why? This owes to the hair follicles, which have a greater number of androgen receptors for the DHT to attach with. Till date the most effective treatment for the problems of hair thinning is; anti androgens. Anti androgens are preventive drugs that prevent the creation of DHT. In future we may get genes therapy for hair thinning problems.

Childbirth

Many of the females experience hair loss after labor. In such a situation many of the hair enters the telogen or resting phase. Some of the females experiences hair loss within two to three months after giving childbirth.

Hair problem due to pregnancy is temporary and in many of the cases eradicate within time, say 1 to 6 months. This occurs because of diverse hormonal changes that take place within the body during pregnancy.

Birth control pills

The females who are genetically programmed with Androgenic Alopecia, if takes birth control pills at much younger age encounters hair loss. Androgenic Alopecia is caused due to various hormonal changes.

The females who have history of hair loss in their family must consult doctor before taking any birth control pills. This type of hair loss is temporary and may stop in 1 to 6 months. But in some of the cases, it has been noticed that a female cannot regrow some of her hair that was lost due to Androgenic Alopecia.

Deficient diet

A good balanced diet rich in varied variety of nutrients is equally important to your hair health. The person who eats less of proteins or has irregular eating habits suffers with hair loss. Generally to save protein our body pushes growing hair into resting phase. If your hair can be pulled out by the root very easily, then this may be due to lack of a well balanced diet. This condition can be prevailed by eating a diet rich in proteins and other necessary nutrients.

Low serum iron

If some person either may not have access to iron rich food or his / her body may not absorb enough of iron then this may cause hair problems. Women during menstrual period are more prone to be iron deficient. Low iron in the body can be detected by laboratory test and can be corrected by taking a diet rich in iron and iron pills.

However, hair loss problems of any sort are generally temporary and can be solved by taking good nutritious diet and professional help.

Hair Restoration Surgery Costs

You may be facing hair loss, and contemplating a follicular hair transplant. However, just one factor is dragging you behind. The hair restoration cost.

So is it expensive?

Well, you very much have the option to go for an affordable hair restoration. And that too without compromising on the quality. The cost depends on various factors like the clinic, its location, etc.

Hair restoration – A cost-effective method

Certainly nobody can call hair restoration to be a cheap process. But on the flip side, it is certainly a cost-effective process. Why? Because, it offers you a permanent solution for your hair problem.

One might argue that medicinal treatment of hair loss is a cheaper option. Yes, it is apparently so. However, the picture will be different if you calculate the total amount of money spent on medicinal treatment and hair transplant procedure. Why? Because you have to spend money on medicinal treatment for over a long period.

Factors affecting hair restoration cost

There are several factors that affect the surgery cost. For example, the choice of the clinic. There are some clinics that charge per graft implantation, while some others charge even for anesthesia. Clinics follow two types of methods to measure the total cost of hair transplantation surgery – cost per follicular unit transplanted and cost per hair restoration operation. In the first approach the number of grafts can directly affect the surgery cost. In this approach the more grafts used the more costly the operation is. A number of US and Canadian hair transplantation centers offer cost-effective surgery with cost per hair restoration surgery.

Factors behind cost differences

Some of the factors behind cost differences are as follows

->Reputation of the surgeon
->Heavy advertising budget of the clinic, as it will try to make it by charging you heavily
->Attractive surrounding of the clinic, as it needs money to spend on its maintenance
->If the clinic has a huge number of employees, as then the clinic needs more money to pay its employees
->If the hair restoration is not a standard one, but one for correcting burn injury, eyebrow transplantation, etc.

Is there insurance cover for hair restoration cost?

In general hair restoration cost is not covered by insurance, as it is a cosmetic surgery. However, the operation is considered a reconstructive treatment in case it is necessitated by some accident or burn. In that case it comes under the purview of health insurance.

You are better advised to check with your insurance agent about availability and extent of the insurance coverage.

Hair Loss Help

Long, lustrous and silky hair are trade mark of many, especially females. A female’s hair are her best natural accessories to carry and obviously show and even compete with her same sex friends. But if you are amongst those 60% of the females, who is suffering / with hair problems, then you know the shock of being less haired over your head. The major problem is that the hair loss in females is considered as a taboo in society and this adds to salt into bounds of the females suffering with hair loss or hair thinning problems.

Women themselves do not feel comfortable in openly discussing their problems, however, men can openly discuss openly and thus able to try on several treatment options including treatment of hair loss using medications, etc.

You are not the only woman, who is suffering with hair loss and feeling difficulty in openly discussing and finding resolution of hair problems. According to a clinical analysis, one in every four women is suffering with hair problems.

Females also keep worrying, why hair loss happens?

The causes of hair loss in woman can be any, like; harsh hair treatments, hormonal changes during pregnancy, or the menopause. Stress and unhealthy eating habits also lead to hair problems. Sometimes, hair thinning in females may be genetic. The hair thinning as a genetic factor normally occurs between 18 to 24 years of age.

The most common form of hair loss due to genetic or other medical factors is alopecia androgenecia. This is the sort of hair problem in which the hair becomes extremely thin so that one can see through it. Alopecia areta is another form of hair problem that normally starts as tiny bald patches but may result into total hair loss, if not taken care of.

If you can believe it, almost one quarter of the world population is suffering with some type of hair problems. And any sort of hair problems in females affect self confidence and sometimes, may even lead to anxiety and depression.

The first step in settling any sort of hair problems is, distinguishing the nature of hair loss you are suffering with. There are a number of treatment options available for treating hair problems, depending on the kind and severity of problems. Your doctor may suggest you some oil / cream / lotion to apply on your scalps.

If hair loss is due to hormonal or hereditary or due to some other serious health problems then your doctor may prescribe you a variety of medications.

Besides getting aid from a health professional, you also can take care of your hairs to avoid hair loss.
How??

Here are given some tips and tricks to prevent you from bad hair days.

1.Analyze your diet. Nutrition plays a vital role in keeping healthy tresses. Lack of essential vitamins and minerals and proteins etc may switch hair problems. Ask your doctor / nutritionist for help.

2.Opt for loose and comfortable hair style. Give up the hairstyle that introduces tensions in your hair follicles. For example; tight ponytails, chignons and plaits.

3.Avoid layered cuts as these create misapprehensions of more vigor.

4.Do not use in large the heated hair styling tools, such as; tongs and straightening irons, as these may create strain and breakage of hair.

5.Use wigs and hair extensions or use hats, scarves and funky jewellary to draw attention away from your hairs.

6.Ask your hair dresser to monitor your hair growth, but not become obsessed about it.

7.Stress is a major trigger to hair loss. Try to stay positive.