Listen up, ladies, female baldness is real and paying even a little attention to your hair might go a long way in maintaining its health.
But what exactly is female baldness?
On the bright side, female baldness is less severe than the one found in men. There are about 50 different hair disorders afflicting both men and women, but it does not mean that all of them will lead to complete baldness. Additionally, it is normal to lose 80-100 hair every day! So all that hair on your brush, they may well be within the ‘normal’ limit.
Also Read: Should You Risk Getting 50 Shades of Hair?
The medical term used for hair loss is Alopecia, but depending on the cause of the loss, all kinds of hair-fall is different.
One of the most common types of hair loss is male or female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia) which is, once again, more severe in men than women. Unlike men, where this kind of balding follows a pattern starting with a receding hair-line and goes up to the crown of the head, hair thins mainly on the top and crown of the scalp for women.
It usually begins with a widening at the center parting of the hair. Some good news though is that progression towards complete or almost complete baldness is rare in women.
Three main causes of baldness in women include age, hormones and genes. Commenting on this, Dr Rajiv Vij, Consultant, Fortis Shalimar Bagh, says:
Other things that can exacerbate hair-fall include stress, poor diet or crash dieting. While stress leads to secretion of male hormones into the body, too much Vitamin A or too little protein also results in hair-fall.
So what should you do if you are losing a lot of hair?
Get your iron and thyroid levels tested in case of abnormal hair-loss. After menopause, the hair-fall may worsen if the body is not treated for oestrogen levels.
If it’s regular hair-fall owing to one of these factors, it can be reversed by improving your diet and fixing the hormonal imbalance.
Now for the bad news. Female pattern baldness is permanent and irreversible. Once lost, the hair does not grow back.
But, you can PREVENT hair-loss. Dr Vij points out:
Just putting oil on your hair is not enough. The key is champi. Yes ladies, grandma was right. You need to massage the scalp to get the blood flow running. There are medicines available, but they need to be taken only under medical supervision.
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Published: 25 Oct 2017,01:35 PM IST