How to Battle Against Excessive Hair Loss

You could essentially look at hair loss as falling into two different categories - You lose some hair naturally as part of the normal cycle of hair loss and growth, but it is also possible to suffer from excessive hair loss.

Every hair grows approximately 1cm, which is less than half of an inch every month during the normal growth cycle which lasts between 2 years and 6 years.

About 90 percent of all of the hair on your head is currently growing at one specific point in time. The rest of your hair, approximately 10 percent, is in the resting phase.

After a period of two to three months, the resting hair will fall out and then new hairs will begin to grow in their place. Shedding some hair is completely normal as part of this cycle, but if you are experiencing hair loss that is greater than normal, then you need to know what steps you can take to battle against excessive hair loss.

The first key to leading the battle against excessive hair loss is to determine why you are losing your hair more quickly than you should be. Excessive hair loss is capable of affecting anyone, including men, women and children and people of any age. For example, if you have recently had a major surgery or a major illness, you may be loosing hair as a result of the stress behind the illness or the surgery.

Another thing that may cause hair loss is hormonal problems such as a thyroid gland that is either underactive or overactive. Many women may notice excessive hair loss within a few months of having had a baby. There are also some medications that are capable of causing hair loss.

There are a number of reasons that you may be losing your hair excessively, and you cannot begin the fight against this hair loss until you determine exactly why it is happening.

Another cause for excessive hair loss is improper hair care. Are you using tight hair rollers, or wearing tight hairstyles like pigtails or cornrows? These things may be pulling on your hair unnecessarily, causing traction alopecia. If you stop this pulling before your scalp scars, you may be able to stop the hair loss.

Furthermore, you can also try using organic hair products as a substitute for synthetic ones. As most of those products are hypoallergenic, it allows even those with sensitive skin to use it. The contained vitamins and minerals also strengthen hair and offer vitality.

There is a strong chance that your family doctor will be able to help you battle your excessive hair loss. Your doctor will ask you a lot of different questions about the medicines that you are taking, your current diet, any recent illness that you may have experienced as well as how you normally take care of your hair.

Other questions may be asked depending on your gender, age and situation. Your doctor is also going to want to perform a physical exam to find out if there are any other causes of excessive hair loss. Once you know the real cause for your excessive hair loss, you can figure out a plan to fight it.

Long hairstyles for black woman. Tips

There are many types of braided black hair styles available. Cornrows are small, tight plaits, close to the scalp. Twists are similar: groups of hair strands are twisted into soft plaits that drape.

Hot curlers, hot combs, and color can all damage your hair and using more than one of these can make the problems exponentially worse.

Since straightening your hair removes elasticity from the hair shafts, the straighter your hair is, the more fragile it will become.

1. Start by shampooing and conditioning your hair and then saturate it with a high quality hair setting lotion.
2. Part you hair into 1/4 to 1/2 inch sections and place end papers on the ends of your hair.
3. Roll your hair onto each straw and then secure them using hair pins.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you have completed your entire head.
5. Dry your hair under a hair dryer.
6. Remove the straws and separate each curl using your fingers.

What causes hair loss in women?

It's something that is rarely talked about, and yet is becoming increasingly common. Female hair loss is a problem for millions of women around the world (30 million in the United States alone, according to the American Academy of Dermatology) and its various causes are often quite different from those that result in male baldness.

For decades, doctors believed that the androgenic alopecia that accounts for 95% of male hair loss was the culprit for women's hair loss as well; now it's widely accepted that for women, it can be caused by many factors - including hormonal problems like PCOS, extreme stress, severe illness, thyroid disorders, genetics, negative reactions to medication, and more.



As a woman, losing your hair can be as traumatic as it is embarrassing.

"We don't even like to use the term "androgenic alopecia" in women anymore - instead we call it female pattern hair loss - a broader term that encompasses many possible causes, some of which are likely to be directly linked to an excess of testosterone, and some of which are not," Dr Ted Daly, an American dermatologist specialising in the treatment of female hair loss, told WebMD.
Indeed, while the hereditary androgenic alopecia is still the most common cause of hair loss in women, there are many other types of alopecia that are not caused by the presence of male hormones (androgens) at all.

Traction alopecia, for example, is caused by excessive pulling on the hair's follicles, usually from tight hairstyles like cornrows, or from using hair extensions. Similarly, alopecia areata is not caused by male hormones either, but by the woman's own immune system attacking the roots of her hair follicles, which causes the hair to fall out.

Then there's the hair loss that follows significant changes in the woman's body, such as those that occur during childbirth, severe illness or extended periods of major stress.

This is known as telogen effluvium, wherein the hair that has been in the growing or transitional phase will shift to the resting phase. Given that around 90% of your hair is in the first two phases at any one time, having it all shift to the resting phase means that it will be coming out in handfuls.

And of course, there's the hair loss associated with chemotherapy and other harsh medications, which is known as anagen effluvium. This hair loss occurs when the cellular-level mitotic or metabolic activity of the hair follicle is impaired by the medication the patient is taking, causing the hairs that are in their growing phase to fall out.

There are plenty of other forms of alopecia, some with known causes and others that still have doctors scratching their heads. What is certain, however, is that when it comes to female hair loss, a self-diagnosis will not do. Any woman who is experiencing the distress of hair loss should take herself to the doctor immediately.

"The number one rule of treating hair loss in women is getting the correct diagnosis - if there is an underlying physical problem it has to be corrected first," Dr Michael Reed, an American dermatologist, told WebMD. Doing so will often take away the need for additional hair loss treatment, he says, as the root cause of the hair loss will have been identified.