Causes Of Baldness
Anyone, man, woman or child, can experience the onset of excessive hair loss. What may begin as a few extra hairs left in the brush can escalate to handfuls of hair being left on the pillow overnight. While some hair shedding is typical, the sudden oncoming of accelerated thinning hair could be extremely distressing.
Male and Female Pattern Hair loss
The leading cause of balding in men is male pattern baldness (MPB) which can be hereditary. The gene for MPB interacts with a hormone called DHT, which is normally associated with desirable masculine traits like muscle growth and deep voice and causes it to over-stimulate hair roots. The follicles eventually lose their ability to keep up hair growth and the outcome is premature hair loss from the crown and a recessed hairline.
Female pattern hair loss is also affected by hormones and genes. It is characterised by a thinning of the hair all over the scalp but unlike MPB the hairline and crown are not main areas of loss and unlike men, women very rarely experience total baldness through female pattern hair loss.
Telogen Effluvium
It is popular that chemotherapy patients often lose their hair but other types of stress can trigger a similar kind of diffuse shedding including pregnancy, surgery, poor diet or some over the counter and prescription medications.
Human head hair is often in a predominantly growing phase called anagen, with only 10-15% of hairs being in resting phase or telogen. Telogen effluvium occurs when something triggers a larger percentage of head hair to visit into telogen at the same time.
Telogen effluvium can be short term, long term or chronic depending on the trigger.
Traction Alopecia
Tight ponytails, cornrows and excessive hairstyling can cause permanent damage to the hair roots and root. Although permanent damage can be performed, refraining from constantly pulling hair back into tight styles and stressing the root will permit hair growth to return most often.
Auto-immune and Inflammatory Diseases
There are various autoimmune diseases that directly or indirectly cause hair loss. One is Discoid Lupus Erythematosus, a chronic skin condition that affects the neck, face and scalp. Lupus lesions on the scalp infect and damage hair roots and can trigger permanent hair thinning.
Lichen planopilaris (also called follicular Lichen Planus) is a skin condition that can also affect the scalp causing redness, itching and inflammation and scarring of deep tissues causing permanent hair loss.
Alopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease that can affect the hair follicles everywhere in the body. On the scalp it causes patchy hair loss. Individuals spanning various ages can develop AA even though it has a greater occurrence inside the 15 to 30 age group.
Fungal and Bacterial Infection
There are many fungal infections that target the scalp. One is ringworm, which can be an infectious fungal infection, similar to athlete’s foot. It can appear anywhere on the body but if present on the scalp will cause patchy balding.
Piedra is another fungus that can weaken the hair shaft and trigger patchy hair loss and Folliculitis is an inflammation of the follicles that will, when severe, trigger permanent harm to the follicle. It can be brought on by a bacterial or fungal infection and leads to patchy balding.
