Most people associate baldness with men. However, women are also susceptible to hair loss. While men tend to lose hair from front to back with hair around the sides remaining longest, women are more likely to have generally thinning hair, balding first on the top of the head. Read on to discover some hair loss facts that are unique to women and others which are common between the two genders.

Fact: Female pattern baldness and male pattern baldness are caused by the same thing.

Androgenetic Alopecia is the medical term for male/female pattern baldness and results from a genetic abnormality, not passed on by any parent in particular. It occurs when excess amounts of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) are present around the hair follicles. DHT binds to hair follicles, causing them to narrow and the hairs growing from them to be thinner. Eventually DHT exposure can cause a follicle to narrow so much that a hair cannot grow from it.

This form of hair loss has different patterns in men versus women. The concentration of specific receptors and enzymes related to hair loss differ between men and women, causing men to first lose hair at their frontal hairline while women lose hair all over their scalp.

Fact: Women normally shed anywhere from 50 to 125 hairs daily.

Hair goes through a growing cycle where it actually grows for 2 to 6 years, slowly becomes detached from the dermal papilla (which supplies it with the nutrients to grow) over the course of one or two weeks, then lies in a resting state for another 5 to 6 weeks until it eventually falls out and is replaced by a new hair. With the average person having about 100,000 hairs on their head at any one time, losing 125 hairs a day is a drop in the bucket.

Fact: Diet can affect hair loss.

Hairs require nutrients to grow and we get our nutrients from the foods we eat. If we don’t get enough protein through our diet (some vegetarian or crash diets can cause this), the body cuts back on activities that require protein consumption, like growing hair.

Fact: After menopause many women have thinning scalp hair.

This occurs because women produce less estrogen after menopause. It has to do with the fact that DHT causes hair loss; DHT is created from testosterone. Women have much less testosterone than men because through the majority of their life they convert it into estrogens. When estrogens are no longer produced, more testosterone is available for conversion into DHT, causing accelerated hair loss.

If you suffer from hair loss as a woman, don’t be embarrassed. Hair loss is a natural process that occurs in thousands of women every year. Determining why your hair loss is occurring can help you to find treatment – and there are many – to either help you deal with your hair loss or actually re-grow lost hair.

Find a natural solution for hair loss here.

Sources:
http://www.ahlc.org/causes-f.htm
http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/429/main.html
http://www.follicle.com/hair-structure-life-cycle.html
http://www.hairlossinformation.com/hair-loss-in-women/androgenetic-alopecia-women.shtml