Understanding Women’s Hair Loss
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| Understanding Women’s Hair Loss |
Many people believe the old wives' tale that women are free from balding; after all, you would rarely see bald women. Balding is believed to happen only to men. Studies conducted on hair fall, however, contradict this belief. According to the survey conducted by the American Academy of Dermatology, 30 million American women are plagued by hair loss concerns.
Hair loss is a self-esteem-lowering concern. Bald men would often be the butt of jokes. People are kinder to women with thinning hair as their baldness will not be commented on. However, the furtive glances and the whispered comments would be really nerve-racking and would make anyone feel insecure.
Coping with hair loss is harder on women than on men. This is because women consider hair as a basic and essential part of the achievement of overall beauty. Notice how infomercials regarding hair products would focus on women as the target consumer. It is therefore necessary to understand the causes of hair loss in women to be able to provide the most possible treatment.
In women, hair fall can be triggered by physical or emotional stress. Hair loss can also be due to an illness, surgery, or undergoing a medical procedure such as radiation or chemotherapy. Hormonal changes and ingesting some medications are also causes of hair fall. Moreover, a woman may notice excessive hair fall after giving birth. The good news about these causes of hair fall is that once the stress is dealt with, once the hormonal imbalance is corrected and once the person has stopped taking the medication, excessive hair fall will also stop.
Androgenic alopecia or female pattern baldness is typified when the hair slowly thins throughout the scalp. Hair loss will occur gradually over the years. Androgenic Alopecia can be treated with Rogaine, a drug used to treat high blood pressure. When applied to the scalp, the drug will stimulate hair growth and will slow hair loss. Propecia is also an oral medication for androgenic alopecia. Aside from the fact that only 60% of women who tried these medications were able to cure hair loss, these prescription drugs may have dangerous side effects, especially for pregnant women. The drugs can cause deformities in the fetus.
Hair loss treatment for women therefore would bend towards surgical procedures. There are several hair transplantation procedures…all getting the desired result of making the hair denser to cover the balding spots. As with all surgical procedures, hair transplants are not guaranteed to be free from complications. It is therefore necessary to choose a skilled surgeon to perform the surgical procedure.