Signs You Are Having Hair Loss

With over 100,000 hairs on the average woman's head, it may seem odd to think a woman would notice any signs of hair loss unless it is significant, since everyone typically loses at least 100 hairs from their head each day.

Types

• The five basic hair loss types are telogen effluvian (thinning hair due to sudden hair cycle changes), alopecia areata (losing hair in large patches, usually medically related), androgenic alopecia (loss due to genetics), involutional alopecia (normal thinning of hair due to aging) and trichotillomania (loss due to tearing out one's own hair).
  
  
  
  

  General Signs

  • Some general signs of hair loss in women include seeing more hair than normal appear in your hair brush or on your sink or vanity when brushing your hair; the realization that you seem to be having to lift off more hair from the shoulders of your blouse tops and jackets than you did before; or experiencing drain problems in your home because of hair clogging up the shower or tub.
    In addition, another general sign of hair loss is the receding hairline along the side of the face or forehead, which seems to appear overnight, but actually has been slowly moving backwards over a much longer period of time.

  Concerning Signs

  • It's one thing to notice a few extra hairs in your hairbrush; it's another to feel a sudden bald patch beneath that head of hair or to suddenly have your hair come out in clumps.
    Patchy hair loss might not actually be noticeable to others initially, but it is keenly noticed by the woman suffering from it and may represent the beginnings of a serious illness. Likewise, having quarter-sized hair loss spots on the head, interspersed among normal hair growth, can indicate health concerns, too. But the most concerning hair loss observed in women is the one that consumes the whole head: total baldness.

  

  Telogen Effluvium

  • When your hair comes out in clumps as you brush it or wash it, it's a loss you notice right away and is medically called Telogen effluvium. But don't panic. This type of loss is usually due to a stressor you have experienced lately and will typically stop when your stressor is removed or becomes less pressing to you emotionally. The stressor could have been a surgery, a drastic change in diet, nutritional deficiencies or even the loss of a loved one.

  Alopecia Areata

  • This type of hair loss is generally genetic in nature, but the exact cause has not been determined medically; however, it is believed that due to some recent type of autoimmune disease presence, alopecia areata is triggered into action. The good news is that although it may occur off and on during your life; it isn't permanent. Additionally, you don't lose all your hair with this condition; you just lose small quarter-sized patches of it, which can actually even disappear from your eyebrows and other body parts.

  Androgenic Alopecia

  • Heredity is the result of this type of hair loss and, unfortunately, it is permanent. However, it is rare for a woman to experience total baldness from it. Generally, thinning of the hair in certain areas (the sides, the front, or the crown) is the result experienced instead.