Hair Loss – Where Do You Classify Your Hair Loss?

Introduction

Hair loss can be classified into two distinct classifications - Environmental and Heredity. If you are losing your hair, it is important to understand the differences so you can stop your loss of hair and start re-growing your hair. Let's define these two terms so we can understand the difference:

• Environmental- this is defined as hair loss that is caused by external factors, e.g., medicine, which are conditions you can control.
• Heredity- Conditions that are beyond your control, e.g., female pattern baldness, which are unavoidable.

Lets go through some conditions that can cause hair loss from each of these terms.

Environmental

Some conditions that fall into this category and how you can reverse your hair loss and re-grow your hair are:

Medicines- some medicines can cause you to develop hair problems. the one that comes to every ones mind is chemotherapy. but there are many other drugs that can cause you to lose your hair such as birth control pills, acne medicine, steroids, thyroid medicine and many more.

Once you stop chemotherapy you hair usually starts to grow back. In the other cases, your doctor should be consulted to change your medications.

Diet - If you have a balanced diet you should not have any problem with your diet causing your loss. but if your diet consists of large amounts of saturated fats and large amounts of salt, you can experience your hair falling out. look at changing your diet to one with unsaturated fats, such as wild salmon, and eat more dark green leafy vegetables.

Stress- You may not realize it but stress may be causing your loss. this happened to me and I did not realize it. when I was working I could not figure out what was causing my hair to fall out, then I retired and my hair loss stopped. Then I realized it was the stress of my job causing my hair loss.

If you believe that stress is causing your hair loss, you need to determine what the stress riser is and remove it. some of the stress risers could be divorce, your job, death in the immediate family and even pregnancy.

Heredity

Some your loss of hair that can be a result of this condition are:

Androgenetic Alopecia - This is the most common type of Heredity causing hair loss in men and women in the United States today. this is also known by the common term male and female pattern baldness.

In the late 20th century the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approve two drugs to help with male and female pattern baldness. One, Minoxidil, was approved for use by both men and women to treat hair loss caused by this condition and has been shown to be between sixty and seventy percent effective.

Alopecia Areata - Alopecia areata is a condition that is caused by your immune system acting on your hair follicles. It is identified by patches of your hair falling out and affects mainly young adults and teenagers, but can affect older people also.

Usually this condition goes away without any treatment, but you should visit your dermatologist for treatment if you suspect you have this condition. Your dermatologist may prescribe special shampoos or conditioners to treat this problem

Conclusion

If you are suffering from hair loss, you should visit your dermatologist to determine if it is caused by Environmental or Heredity. In most cases it can be treated and stopped.

Hair Loss - Where Do You Classify Your Hair Loss?