Has your hair been falling out more than usual? Maybe you’re even shedding more than your beloved pet? It may come as a surprise, but it is normal for anyone to lose 50-100 hairs a day. This often also increases naturally with age for both men and women.
However, if you are suffering from temporary or permanent hair loss, you could shed up to 300 hairs a day. When this happens, you will notice significant hair thinning. If the loss is temporary, you can expect it to grow back over time. Nonetheless, there are certain conditions, such as alopecia, where this level of hair loss can become permanent.
Temporary hair loss is becoming more and more common as the pandemic goes on. Whether it’s due to a side effect of catching COVID-19 or from the huge amounts of shock and stress that we are living through, more and more women are coming into clinics and dermatologist’s offices concerned about significant hair loss. Many people don’t release that women can lose their hair as well as men, so it might come as a shock.
Although most hair loss attributed to lockdown and COVID-19 is temporary, some other conditions are permanent. It’s always important to seek medical advice to work out what the cause of your hair loss is. Whether it’s temporary or permanent, you certainly still have options for treatment, so you can get back to enjoying a full head of hair once more.
How Do I Know if This Is Hair Loss?
Hair loss in women presents itself differently, depending on the root cause. Sometimes it comes on suddenly, while other times it will develop gradually. Keeping a diary and tracking any changes in your hair length or thickness can help you and your doctor start to see patterns. Once you better understand what’s going on, you can start to figure out what to do about it.
Here are some signs that you may be losing your hair:
- Gradual overall thinning on the top of the head is the most common type of hair loss. It affects both men and women. In men, it shows up as a receding hairline, but women generally notice it as a broadening of their part.
- Circular or patchy bald spots show up on your scalp and are about the size of a coin. Your skin may feel itchy or painful immediately before your hair falls out.
- You are pulling out handfuls of hair while you are washing or combing it. This could happen after emotional or physical trauma.
What Causes Hair Loss in Women?
There are many reasons that your hair may be falling out, so it’s often wise to get a medical opinion that’s specific to your circumstances. Here are a few potential reasons that can act as a starting point for working out what might be causing your hair loss:
- Female pattern baldness; this is a genetic condition, so you could try asking your relatives if this is a common trend in your family.
- Result of a traumatic hair-styling experience that damaged your hair shafts.
- Various health conditions, such as hypothyroidism, systemic lupus erythematosus, celiac disease, or ringworm. As ever, you should seek advice from your doctor if you suspect you have any of these conditions.
- Menopause, hormone imbalances, or because you stopped taking oral contraceptives.
- Stress and change; major life changes or traumatic events, such as a death in the family, surgery, or a serious illness, could result in hair loss. This type of hair loss is usually temporary.
- Nutritional deficiencies, such as a lack of B vitamins, lack of protein, or crash diets.
- Taking certain medications, such as retinoids, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, antidepressants, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
What Can You Do to Prevent Hair Loss?
If you are concerned by the speed or severity of your hair loss, you should definitely get it checked out by a doctor or dermatologist. Figuring out the root cause and starting treatment sooner rather than later is your best course of action.
Your doctor can help you to determine whether or not this is a temporary or a permanent condition. If it’s temporary, the situation should resolve itself within a year. You can also try a product like Rogaine or get steroid injections until the growth cycle returns, while still keeping advice from your doctor or dermatologist in mind.
Changes to your lifestyle can also be effective in helping to fight hair loss in women. Here are ten actions you can start taking today that will help reduce the effects of hair loss.
If the condition is permanent, then there are other options that you can try too. Just because hair loss is a common problem, doesn’t mean you have to live with it.
What Is an Effective Treatment for Hair Regrowth?
At the Neighborhood Wellness Clinic, we’re proud to offer PRP (Protein-Rich Plasma), one of the most effective, non-invasive treatments for hair regrowth. PRP uses nutrients from your own blood to encourage new hair growth in areas where it’s needed.
So how does PRP for hair regrowth actually work? It’s a three-step process:
Step 1: We’ll draw some blood from your arm and place it into a centrifuge to spin and separate it.
Step 2: After spinning in the centrifuge for about ten minutes, your blood will have separated into platelet-rich plasma, platelet-poor plasma, and red blood cells.
Step 3: We take the platelet-rich plasma and inject it into the parts of your scalp where you want to encourage hair regrowth.
You’ll usually need about three sessions, each done four to six weeks apart, before you see real results from the PRP treatment. For long-lasting results, we recommend maintenance treatments every four to six months afterwards.
PRP treatments work by increasing blood supply to the hair follicle and increasing how thick your hair shafts are. PRP sounds trendy and new, but it’s actually been in use since the 1980s. It’s very safe – since you’re being injected with a product of your own blood, there’s no chance of catching a communicable disease.
Contact Us Today
At Neighborhood Wellness Clinic, we believe you feel your best when you look your best. And that’s what we’re here to help you with – let’s get you rejuvenated and refreshed. Schedule your free consultation with us today!