Hair Loss Factoid

* It is normal to lose 50-100 hairs from the head each day
* Each hair on the head grows for about 3-5 years before being shed
* 40 million men and 20 million women suffer from hair loss
* Scalp hair grows at a rate of about 1 cm (just under 1/2 an inch) a month
* We each have about 100,000 hairs on the scalp
* In the United States, there has not been an elected bald President since the television age began.
Major Causes of Hair Loss and Fallout

DHT Excess
Sebum Buildup
Scalp Disorders
Genetic Pattern
Male Pattern Baldness
Hair Loss Woman
Stress and Drugs
Diet and Health
Environment

How Hair Grows

The portion of the hair that we can see is called the shaft. Each shaft of hair protrudes from its follicle, which is a tube-like pouch just below the surface of the skin. The hair is attached to the base of the follicle by the hair root, which is where the hair actually grows and where it is nourished by blood capillaries. Like the rest of the body, hairs are made of cells. As new cells form at its root, the hair is gradually pushed further and further out of the follicle. The cells at the base of each hair are close to the blood capillaries, and are living.

As they get pushed further away from the base of the follicle they no longer have any nourishment, and so they die. As they die, they are transformed into a hard protein called keratin. So, each hair we see above the skin is dead protein. It is the follicle, which lies deep in the skin, that is essential in growing hair. Also, the thickness of each hair depends on the size of the follicle from which it is growing.

Hair growth is not a continuous process: it has several stages.

* ANAGEN PHASE. The first phase is the growing stage. Hair grows at about 1 cm each month, and this phase lasts between 2 and 5 years.
* CATAGEN PHASE. As this phase begins the bulb detaches from the blood supply and the hair shaft is pushed up.
* THE TELOGEN PHASE. This is followed by a resting stage, during which there is no growth. This phase lasts about 5 months.
* At the end of the resting phase, the hair is shed, and the follicle starts to grow a new one.
* At any moment, about 90% of the hair follicles of the scalp are growing hairs in the first phase; only about 10% are in the resting phase.
* If a follicle is destroyed for any reason, no new hair will grow from it.

How baldness occurs

If any of the stages of hair growth are disrupted, the individual may become bald. For example, if follicles shut down (meaning that they stay in the resting phase, and then shed the hair) instead of growing new hairs, there will be less hair on the head. Another reason might be interference with the formation of new hair cells at the root during the growing phase. If follicles have been destroyed (ie., a burn, loss of layered skin or trauma), there will be baldness in that area. An individual can also look bald if the hairs are growing but are so fragile that they break just as they emerge from the follicle.

Male-pattern baldness

Receding hair is loss of hair at the sides of the forehead. It happens to most men eventually - usually at or after middle age, but it can start at any time after puberty. Some men also have loss of hair on top of the head, and eventually only the sides and back of the head have hair, forming a horseshoe shape. This is known as common baldness, androgenic alopecia or male-pattern baldness.

Surprisingly, if you were to view a balding scalp under a microscope you would see that there are the same number of hair follicles as before, but each is shrunken, producing hairs that are fine, short and pale. You would also note that a higher proportion than usual of the follicles are in the resting phase. Three factors are at work in male-pattern baldness: male hormones, genetics and ageing.

The main male hormone is testosterone. Both men and women have testosterone in the blood, but men have higher levels. The skin of the scalp converts testosterone to another substance called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Hair follicles in areas that are destined to become bald seem to be especially sensitive to DHT, and shrink when exposed to it. Follicles on the sides and back of the head are not affected by DHT.

Confusingly, DHT is necessary for growth of the beard and hair on the chest. This explains why bald men can have bushy beards and hairy chests. Nobody knows how DHT produces opposite effects on hair growth on different parts of the body.

Heredity (genetics) is important. If you have relatives with thin hair or who are bald, you may well develop the same problem. This tendency can be inherited from either the mother's or the father's side of the family and can skip generations.

Ageing makes baldness more likely. Forty percent of men have noticeable hair loss by age 35, and 65% by age 60. Most elderly people have thin, fine hair even if they are not noticeably bald.

HAIR LOSE IN WOMEN

Hair Loss In Women

Hair loss is not just a problem for men alone. One out of every four women in the United States experiences it, and for that one woman, hair loss can feel like a first class cosmetic disaster. Under no uncertain terms, we believe that stopping female hair loss and growing new, healthy, vibrant hair is possible.

The incidence of hair loss in women is almost parallel to that in men. However, in women, the degree of hair loss is usually not as extensive as it is in the male population. Luckily, women's genes do not express the trait to the same severe degree as men. There is the same amount of thinning in terms of numbers of women compared to men, but the degree of hair loss is usually not as severe as it is in the male population.
Women are more protected by estrogen for a period of time, but the cause is the same. It's just that they have it happen later, it goes more slowly, and the pattern is such that it's easier to cover it up than it is for men. It's said that we have to lose 50 percent of our hair in any given area before it starts to be noticeably thin, but a lot of women notice it long before then. There are very few people with delusions of hair loss. They can just tell by the texture, by the body, that it's not the hair it used to be. Finally, though, it gets to the point where they begin to see scalp and not hair. Especially in women, right behind the hairline they tend to get a round or oval-shaped area that gets very, very thin, and those women seek treatment.

Most women lose their hair for the same reason that men do...so-called genetics. It's commonly referred to as female pattern balding, as opposed to male-pattern balding, but both refer to what is called androgenetic alopecia, which means hair loss caused by a sensitivity to male type hormones, which men and women both have.

Your body naturally produces the hormone testosterone. It happens in everyone. When testosterone combines with androgen receptors, then mix with the Sebum/dirt substances that are impacted in your follicle, it creates a powerful substance called DHT. DHT is the real enemy of hair growth and retention. When formed, DHT causes the follicle to begin shutting down, and basically, the follicle dies a slow death. What makes this worse is that your bodies immune system senses the follicle is dying, and as part of its defense system, tries to further shut it down and get rid of it (as it would a cold or flu). What effect does a dying, clogged follicle have on an actual hair strand? If you pulled out a hair strand from your follicle, and looked at the root end of the hair strand under a microscope, you would see the hardened sebum/dirt substance on the root of the strand (We encourage you to do this so you can see for yourself!!). What you are seeing is just a small amount of this material. The rest of it is in the hair follicle. At the root of every strand of hair is a bulb. On a healthy strand of hair, the bulb is nicely rounded. This healthy round shape is like a strong root, the larger the bulb, the more firmly your hair is rooted in your follicle.
When Sebum builds up in the follicles, it deteriorates the bulb of the hair. Slowly, the bulbs get smaller, less round, and because of this, your hair is not rooted as well and the hair strand falls out. Then another hair strand grows from the follicle, but this hair strand is thinner and weaker than the last one. Because of Sebum cloggage and the fact that the dying follicle can not provide nutrients, the new hair strand must fight its way through the follicle, causing the hair strand to be thinner and the bulb smaller. This process repeats itself, with the next hair getting thinner and the bulb smaller each time the old one falls out. This is why most men and women experience thinning hair as they are losing it. The unfortunate ending is a hair follicle so damaged from Sebum, bacteria, and DHT production that the follicle dies.

By effectively cleaning out the Sebum and dirt buildup from your follicles, you can stop your hair loss and give yourself the best chance to grow new hair without the use of drugs or chemicals.

The second most common cause of hair loss in women.

Telogen effluvium, which is where the hair goes into a resting or shock phase after any type of insult. The most common cause of this type of resting hair shedding is pregnancy. Three to six months after delivering a child, many women will notice a great degree of hair loss as the hair cycles into a resting phase because of the physiologic insult of pregnancy.

This can also occur quite commonly in women who are on crash diets and lose a great deal of weight over a short period of time, or after acute illnesses, such as an acute infection. Anything that puts stress on the body can cause the body to recycle its hair into a resting phase and cause acute hair shedding, called telogen effluvium. Because the body is able to compensate for this insult, usually three to nine months after the insult, the hair will begin to regrow, and usually in most cases between 90 and 100 percent of hair regrowth can be expected.

The third most common cause of hair loss in women.

The third most common cause seen in clinical practice is a condition called alopecia areata. Areata is Latin for "round" or "circumscribed", which means that people suddenly see bald spots here or there, or little, tiny short hairs that are broken off. Sometimes it's noticed by the person cutting their hair. It's often related to some stressful event, and it's believed to be some type of immunologic imbalance. The immune system goes after its own hair for some unknown reason, causing them to go into the resting phase and slow down their growth so they break off or come out. A lot of times, it regrows by itself. In fact, most people who have it don't come to the doctor. It just goes away by itself.

But a small number of people have very severe problems. Some people will lose all the hair on their head, and some people lose all the hair on their body. It's quite a common condition.