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What Causes Hair Loss?

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What Causes Hair Loss?

One of the most common questions hair restoration experts face is, “What causes hair loss?” Is your hair falling out? Do you worry about this loss and how to stop it? Below, we explore the basics of hair loss and how this common problem affects more people than you think.

Facts About Hair Growth and Hair Loss

Hair loss comes after hair growth, of course. You cannot experience one without the other. In fact, the average growth of scalp hair occurs at about a half-inch each month. But each hair eventually falls out naturally, typically after several years. When one strand falls out of a healthy follicle, a new hair grows in its place.

You may notice some of your strands left in your comb each day. Or maybe shampooing leaves hair on your fingers. Towel drying hair can result in multiple strands left on the cloth, too. But this hair loss is all part of the healthy cycle of life for your follicles. That is until the loss becomes excessive.

Below are some interesting facts about hair growth and loss as part of the hair life cycle:

  • 90 percent of your hair is growing right now
  • Healthy hair grows over the course of two to six years
  • 10 percent of your hair is in a dormant phase of two to three months, after which it will shed
  • After shedding a hair, your follicle grows a new strand to repeat the cycle
  • The hair on your scalp grows a half-inch each month, with this rate slowing as you age

How Each Follicle Grows Hair

Hair follicles are part of your skin. Each follicle works around the clock to attach old skin cells together information of a strand of hair, thanks to associated stem cells. A small bundle of muscle fibers also attached to each follicle creates the outward projection of hair from your skin’s surface. These muscle fibers also cause follicles to protrude slightly from the skin, noticeably so when you get “goose pimples.”

Sebaceous glands – like those found throughout your body except on your palms, lips, and soles of your feet where you do not grow hair – supply sebum into each follicle. This sebum is a waxy or oily fluid that lubricates each hair and your skin, itself. It is sebum that makes your hair shiny, soft, and pliable.

What causes hair loss?

People concerned about their own hair falling out frequently scour the web in a search for solutions. What they find typically includes a wide range of product recommendations. Most of these fly-by-night products prove worthless. You can also find long lists of foods to eat, vitamins to take and other dietary supplements touted to help your hair grow, shine, and stay healthy. But the reality is that most hair loss requires a professional’s help for actual treatment and the results you seek.

There are a number of reasons for hair falling out. Top reasons for what causes hair loss include:

  • Thyroid gland disorders
  • Intense stress
  • Heredity
  • Hormones
  • Chemotherapy
  • Certain medications
  • Dehydration
  • Autoimmune disease

Everyone experiences hair falling out at the rate of about 50 to 100 scalp hairs each day. This is a tiny number when you realize that your scalp grows about 100,000 hairs at full production. But abnormal circumstances like those listed above can cause hair to fall out more quickly or not regrow as it should. This results in thinning or bald patches where you once grew hair, such as on your arms, legs, eyebrows, eyelashes or scalp.

Who loses their hair?

Everyone experiences natural levels of daily hair loss, as said before. But excessive or abnormal hair loss affects men, women, children, and babies from all walks of life and across every geography. Men suffer this loss most of all, particularly in middle to later stages of life and as part of genetic male pattern baldness called androgenetic alopecia. About 80 million adults in America suffer this type of baldness, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

Get Help When You Notice Excessive Hair Falling Out

If you notice yourself questioning what causes hair loss, you probably think you are losing more hair than you should. Or maybe you notice fewer strands growing where they once grew thicker. These fears and questions make a consultation with a hair restoration specialist important.

Time is of the excessive when it comes to stopping this loss and regrowing healthy hair. Through a consultation, you learn whether you have an excessive loss, what causes hair loss on your own scalp, and treatments to restore natural growth.

AZ Hair Restoration provides consultations for concerned patients just like you. Simply call our Apex, NC or Raleigh, NC locations to set up an in-person or online consultation. Get the answers you need about your hair loss and treatments available to you. Call us today at (919) 830-3778 for Apex or (919) 615-0577 for Raleigh appointments.