What are the Main Causes of Hair Loss?

Hair loss can be temporary or irreversible, and it affects your scalp or the entirety of your body. Causes of hair loss include aging, genetics, hormonal changes, and illnesses.

Knowing what's causing your hair loss enlightens you on whether it can grow back with or without treatment and if the balding spots need urgent care to prevent irreversible damage.

Read on to learn about the major factors behind hair loss.

Main Causes of Hair Loss

The leading causes of hair loss include:

Genetics

Men and women who suffer from androgenic alopecia inherit polygenic traits from their parents. This means that both parents passed on the attribute to the offspring (the person who developed hair loss). 

The typical onset of hair loss due to genetics begins later in life. In women, it starts as bald patches or a general thinning of hair, while men notice a receding hairline and alopecia patches in the center or side of the head.

Hereditary hair loss causes hair follicles to shrink, break, and eventually stop producing new hair strands. Hair loss may occur during adolescence or the teenage phase when genetics is at fault. 

You can always reverse hair loss due to genetics using treatments that help stop or slow balding. Start your treatment as early as possible for the best results.

Age 

One of the main causes of hair loss is aging; as you grow older, your hair fails to grow as fast as it used to when you were younger, and neither does it retain its average life cycle. Hair grows about six inches annually, 0.5 inches a month, and remains alive for two to seven years.

As you age, your hair develops a shortened life cycle, causing hair to fall out. But these strands are immediately replaced with new hair. The process continues as this new hair falls off before it attains a longer length.

Your hair needs special attention if you intend to keep hair loss at bay as you age. Even if your hair doesn't fall off, you can expect the color and texture to change. If you notice hair loss due to aging at the early stages, you can use suitable treatments like minoxidil and finasteride to regrow and improve the health of your hair follicles.

Medication

Alopecia is a common temporary side effect of some medications. Certain drugs, especially those used to treat arthritis, high blood pressure, depression, and heart problems, cause hair loss. 

Blood thinners like warfarin, antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft, cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lopid, and Bata-blockers induce hair loss.

Chemotherapy and other forms of cancer treatment also cause hair loss. The procedure causes total or partial baldness in patients within a few weeks of starting treatment. Abruptly ending your medications before time is a bad idea and can result in more severe health problems. Instead, wear a cooling cap before, during, and after each chemo or radiation session.

Diet

Your hair follicles are among the most rapidly dividing cells in your body, so it shouldn't be surprising that what you eat and how you eat them could cause hair loss. 

The hair needs nutrients in balanced proportions to grow well and stay healthy. If you notice alopecia, assess your diet to see if nutrients like iron, zinc, proteins, fatty acid, B vitamins, folate, riboflavin, and carbohydrates are deficient. Suppose they are, best to balance your diet.

It is also normal to experience hair loss after extreme weight loss due to diet changes or bariatric surgery. Reverse or prevent hair loss due to an unfavorable diet by taking supplements that provide micro and macronutrients. Note that excessive and unbalanced nutrient intake could also result in noticeable hair loss.

Underlying medical conditions

Hair loss could be an indication of underlying diseases and infections. For instance, fungal infections lead to high fever and hair loss in men. Bacterial and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like syphilis cause patchy hair loss on the scalp, genitals, eyebrows, beards, and underarms. 

Severe medical conditions like lupus, anemia and thyroid diseases also result in baldness and hair thinning.

To resolve this hair loss, consult an expert to diagnose the underlying medical condition and advise you on the best treatment. If you do not see positive results three weeks after completing your treatment, speak to a pharmacist about minoxidil or apply essential oils infused with pumpkin seed to your scalp.

Hormonal Imbalance

Hair loss can arise when the hormone levels deviate from the norm in men and women. As you grow older, you become more susceptible to mood swings, unhinged emotions, and other biological processes due to hormonal imbalances.

In males, once there's a decrease in testosterone production, there may be hair loss on the scalp, jaw, ears, and nose. While in women, some types of birth control pills or the onset of menopause cause them to develop thinning hair on the scalp.

Use oral and topical medications to reduce hair loss due to hormonal imbalance. Limiting meals like caffeine, red meat, and processed meals that encourage hormonal imbalance is also advisable. 

Lifestyle

It's a good idea to avoid unhealthy habits and activities that negatively affect your hair's health and cause stress. Your lifestyle or daily habits may contribute to hair loss. Smoking and getting less than six hours of sleep daily sometimes inhibit healthy hair growth.

Not to mention your exposure to unhealthy environmental factors in plastic containers, air fresheners, cosmetics, and canned foods.

Another unhealthy habit is occasionally pulling your hair, medically known as trichotillomania. Once you quit these habits or remove the stressor, your hair will regain its normal fullness.

How To Get An Accurate Diagnosis and Treatment for Your Hair Loss

Before you can adequately go ahead with your hair loss treatment, we advise you to consult a trichologist. They can expertly examine your scalp, conduct biopsies, and look for the safest treatment options to halt hair loss progression. In addition, they can point out if your hair loss is a symptom of more severe disease.

Hair Transplant Pro can remove the stress of searching for a licensed dermatologist and trichologist. We specialize in concierge services and medical tourism for hair loss patients in Mexico, the United Kingdom and Greece, and Turkey. Contact us to link you with the best hair clinic for your hair type in our 25 world-standard hair clinics.