I recently heard from someone who said, in part: "over the last few months, my hair has been falling out and thinning.
At first, I thought I had seasonal shedding and I didn't worry too much about it.
But, I think that it's been going on for too long because now I'm starting to notice that I am also thinning.
I don't have nearly as much hair as I used to and the texture of my hair is different than it used to be.
I'm not sure how to handle this or what to do.
" The sentiments in this message are very common.
Hair loss is a common issue that happens across the board to both men and women of all ages and nationalities.
The higher the age, the more common the hair loss, but even young people can be and are affected by hair that is falling out or thinning.
Possible Causes Of Hair Fall And Thinning: I'm certainly not a doctor or expert.
But in my opinion, often the first place to look in this situation is in any changes to your hair or health regimen.
This is advisable not because it's overwhelmingly probable that you'll find something, but because this is an easy and quick first step.
If you've changed your shampoo, hair dye, or styling products, this can sometimes be the culprit because of its effects on your scalp.
Likewise, if you've had a change in your medications, this can sometimes cause shedding or thinning.
So, an easy place to start would be to see if you've made any changes that you can undo.
Obviously, you'd need to discuss medication changes with your doctor, but if you suspect a product is negatively affecting your scalp, then you can certainly discontinue it's use to see if this stops the hair loss.
The next place to look would be your overall health.
Many medical conditions affect your hair.
These include autoimmune issues, hormonal issues, scalp issues, infections, or yeast, to name only a few.
Sometimes, finding the cause of your hair fall means ruling different things out until you find the culprit.
But often, if you can successfully address the medical issue, you will also see an improvement in your hair.
The next set of possibilities fall under the hair or scalp condition umbrella.
Telogen effluvium (TE,) androgenic alopecia (AGA,) and alopecia areata (AA,) are probably the conditions that are most widely known.
TE is often caused by changes or stress to your body.
Examples are having surgical procedures, giving birth, having severe vitamin deficiencies, coming off of severe diets, or severe emotional or physical stress.
AA is an autoimmune disorder that can present with patchy hair loss, diffuse hair loss, or in severe cases, total hair loss (including a loss or eyebrows and eye lashes.
) AGA is by far the most common type of hair loss.
The prevalence of this increases when we age but even young people can show signs of AGA.
This is when your follicles become overly sensitive to the androgens that your body produces every day.
As the result, the hair falls out at the follicle and regrows compromised, miniaturized hair.
This is often when you start to see the thinning.
Early Treatments For Hair Fall And Thinning: Obviously, the best result is going to come when you are able to successfully pinpoint the cause of your hair loss and then treat it early.
However, this is easier said than done sometimes.
Because very often, you'll first have to rule things out and this takes time.
And hair loss conditions like TE are often a waiting game to see if the hair loss stops on it's own.
Nonetheless, people often think that nothing can help their hair loss because they are treating the wrong condition.
Treating for TE or a medical condition isn't likely to slow or stop your hair loss if what you really have is AGA.
Because early treatment can be quite important, you can always try what many of the treatments have in common which is lessening the inflammation that is often seen with most types of hair loss and trying to encourage healthy and regular regrowth through stimulation.
This might at least help the situation while you are trying to pinpoint the appropriate cause and treatment.