Causes Of Female Hair Loss

There are a number of different reasons for why a woman may find that she starts to lose her hair. Yet although some women do suffer from hair loss, it is not to the same extent that men do. In this article, we look at one reason that is the cause of female hair loss and is the most common.

Yet even though we still think that hair loss is predominantly a male problem, today quite a few women are likely to suffer from some form of serious hair loss. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology around 30 million women in the United States alone are troubled with hair loss of one sort or another.

One of the main causes for a woman to start losing her hair is because of her genetic makeup. All of us have hormones known as androgens, which work in perfect harmony with all other hormones in the body. However, for some women because they have a genetic predisposition these hormones can actually interfere with the way the body functions. One particular hormone that is part of the androgen group is testosterone, this can cause problems for certain women.

Normally this sits in the woman's body quite happily but unfortunately for some women because of their genetic make up it converts into DHT. Now DHT or Dihydrotestosterone binds to the receptors found deep within your hair follicles and prevents messages from being allowed to access the follicles that tell it to grow. Therefore, this in turn prevents normal growth and regrowth and this is when women will start to notice that they are losing more hair than usual.

Over time, there will be a build up of DHT in the hair follicles, this then will begin to cause them to shrink. This in turn results in the disruption of the natural hair growth patterns and often results in hair loss occurring. This will then result in suffering from female pattern baldness or referred to medically as androgenic alopecia.

Yet although the cause of female pattern baldness happens in the same way as male pattern baldness, the actual pattern that the hair loss takes is different. For women the hair loss is more diffused and will occur across the top of the scalp. Where as for men they can suffer from it in a variety of different places either the crown, temple, or at the back of the scalp.

As well as this difference in the two types of baldness, the other is that it only occurs in men as they grow older. Whilst for women they can start to suffer from female pattern baldness at any stage in their lives. For some women who get it when they are young it is because they may well be suffering from some other medical condition.

Along with the reason above, as to what can be the cause of female hair loss in women, there are other factors that may be the cause of this problem. Some women may, as previously mentioned, may have an underlying medical condition. Whilst for others the reason that they have begun to lose their hair is that they have suffered some kind of traumatic event in their lives.