Where Did Your Hair Go?

By Steve M. Seo, LAc, PhD

Hair loss, also known as alopecia, is typically related to heredity, aging, and testosterone. Other causes of hair loss may include female hormonal changes, i.e. thyroid disease, childbirth, or birth control; serious illness or fever; medication such as chemotherapy; excessive shampooing and blow-drying; emotional or physical stress; nervous habits such as hair pulling or scalp rubbing; burns and radiation therapy. Here are some additional details about the major causes of hair loss.

Genetic Predisposition

A genetic predisposition of hormonal balances or imbalances, as well as the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), can be inherited from either your mother's or your father's side of the family. Also, women can inherit the problem just as well as men.

Stress and Trauma

Usually, it's not mild job or life stress that triggers hair loss, more likely it is extremely serious stress to the body that causes hair to stop growing and fall out. These types of stress can be initiated by some types of medications, diabetes, thyroid disorders and even extreme emotional stress, but also can be caused by everyday life events like childbirth, miscarriage, and surgery.

When the body undergoes extreme stress, as much as 70 percent of your hair can prematurely enter the resting phase, called the telogen phase. Three months later, these hairs begin to fall out, causing noticeable hair loss called telogen effluvium.

The person will not become completely bald and the thinning will be fairly unnoticeable. However, it's this three-month delay and the fact that the trigger seems so unrelated that causes confusion on the part of the patient concerned about hair loss.

Fortunately, in most cases hair will begin to grow back within six months. In a very small percentage of people, however, telogen effluvium may only be the trigger for more long-term hair loss.

Nutrition and Diet

Rapid weight loss, liquid protein diets, and high consumption of foods that are over processed, low in nutrition, and high in animal fats can negatively affect the body's level of amino acids and vitamin assimilation.

Medications

Thin-looking hair can be a side effect of taking certain medications, specifically hormone replacement therapy drugs, birth control and estrogen pills, chemotherapy and thyroid disease treatments, and even blood pressure, diabetic, heart disease, and acne medications.

Environmental Toxins

Many experts cite the mounting problem of environmental pollutants and estrogen mimics to be a cause of the increase in women experiencing excessive daily hair loss.