Hair loss (hair thinning)

• Overview
   
• Causes
   
• Treatment
   

Strong, shiny hair is recognised as a natural sign of well being, so if you experience hair loss, it’s not surprising that you may be concerned.

Recent studies on the quality of life in men and women with thinning hair show that excessive hair loss can have major psychological effects. While men may feel less attractive and older than their peers, women with thinning hair typically have both social and emotional concerns¹.

If your hair seems to be thinning, you may feel self-conscious and try to camouflage thinning hair, while getting frustrated that you can’t always style your hair as you would wish. However it’s very likely that no-one else notices your hair is thinning nearly as much as you do.

There are things you can do to deal positively with the situation. To appreciate exactly what’s happening to your hair, it helps to have a basic understanding of the structure and lifecycle of the hair.

The hair structure²

The hair follicle encases the lower part of the hair shaft and contains blood vessels that nurture new hair growth.

When you are born, all your hair follicles are present and, through your lifetime, each follicle will grow and shed single hairs in a repetitive cycle of growth and resting phases.

The growth phase for each hair lasts two to three years, then the follicle enters a resting phase when the hair does not grow. After three to four months of resting, the hair is shed and a new growth cycle begins.

Normally about 80 to 90 percent of follicles are growing at any time and about 75 follicles shed their hair every day. However, some hair follicles have a growth phase that’s shorter than normal and produce hair shafts that are unusually short and thin. These follicles are said to be miniturized.

Women with thinning hair have a mosaic of variable-diameter hairs in the affected area of the scalp, meaning that the miniturized hair follicles cause a visible thinning of hair density³.