Thinning hair is my nightmare!
Every spring I lose significantly more hair than normally, and I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that it’s perfectly normal for hair to fall out. The things get a little bit out of hand when you observe that you’re shedding visibly more hair than you used to.
What Are the Causes of Hair Thinning?
Hair shedding is strictly connected with its life cycle. It all starts with the anagen stage, so when the life of the hair begins. The follicle that sits a bulb is the birthplace of a new, thin and short hair, commonly known as a baby hair, that week by week gets stronger, longer and thicker. Later the hair stops growing, and this phase is called katagen, to finally fall out when reaching the telogen phase. The old hair is replaced by new, healthy and strong hair, and the whole circle starts again.
You don’t need to understand exactly what happens in the follicles of your hair, yet there is one thing that is worth bearing in mind. Hair falls out, and that’s a fact.
How To Tell if You’re Losing Too Much Hair
The problem begins if there is too much hair that falls out daily. But how will you know that this is hair loss that you’re dealing with, not this perfectly normal hair shedding? After all there is no way for you to count the hair because it falls out at different times of the day, e.g. during shampooing, when you sleep, so not only when you comb the strands. However, it’s advised to start taking a hard look at the hair when:
- after every shampooing you see that there is more hair stuck in the drain than normally.
- your brush collects more hair than it normally used to.
- there are a few hairs between your fingers after running them along the strands.
- you notice that there is visibly less hair growing on your head, when hair seems to be thinner.
Causes of Hair Loss
The reasons for hair loss (this excessive one of course) are numerous. It’s hard to enumerate all of them, so therefore I’ll list you the most common and important ones.
1. Excessive stress
Are you stressing out over your work? Are you going to sit an important exam soon? Are you anxious about a job interview that you have scheduled? All of this has an effect both on your hair and skin, making them look worse. It was proven that stress contributes to hair thinning, so perhaps it would be beneficial for your mental and physical condition to take a rest from time to time and take things easy. This won’t only make you feel better but look better too.
2. Hormonal imbalance
It’s also common for hair to fall out during some periods in life such as puberty, pregnancy and menopause. This is all connected with hormones that play a key role in proper hair growth. For the same reason losing more hair than normally is also connected with (and is a symptom of) hyper- or hypo-activity of thyroid gland. Therefore it’s a good thing to develop a good habit of checking the hormone levels regularly.
3. Bad diet and anemia
Irregular meal timings, consumption of highly processed food, too little vegetables and fruit, an unbalanced diet – this is another thing that contributes to excessive hair loss. If you don’t supply the hair with the substantial quantity of nutrients (vitamins, minerals, omega acids) then it gets weaker and damage-prone. This is why one of the causes of hair thinning is anemia, which is a disease caused by deficiencies of vitamins such as iron or zinc.
4. Certain diseases
You lose more hair also when your scalp has a disease such as psoriasis, spot baldness, dandruff or fungal infection. But this is not all! Different systemic diseases and taking some drugs can also contribute to hair thinning out. And this is another reason why getting a full-body check-up regularly is so crucial.
5. Genetics
Unfortunately, excessive hair loss and the fact that the hair is fine and thin is often the genetics. Whether we like it or not, the way the strands look is written in the genes, which means that the tendency to hair thinning and premature baldness may be hereditary.
6. Improper daily hair care routine
I can’t skip one of the super important issues, which is hair care. Applying hair products that leave scalp and strands dehydrated (e.g. shampoos formulated with harsh cleansers, alcohol-based scalp lotions) combined with lack of hydration and using no hair masks and hair oils – this all has a massive impact on the hair, making it weaker, thus falling out in excess. You must realize that your hair needs your attention, otherwise it will be dry, dull, brittle and breakable. And of course you will lose more of it that you might have if you used the right hair treatments.
7. Seasonal changes
Lastly, I have a few words concerning an interesting issue, that is why you lose more hair in the autumn and winter. In short, it’s strictly connected with the amount of sunlight that aids in producing D vitamin in our bodies. Another significant factor concerns the food products you consume during that time, which for obvious reasons lack fresh vegetables. Additionally, your hair may be simply fed up with the cold/freezing weather and being constantly hidden under a hat.
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