10 Factors that Cause Hair Loss

15 May, 2015 | Hair Loss | Author : Shveta Virmani

The most common type of hair loss visible amongst men and women is genetic in nature and known as androgenetic alopecia. Under this condition, the hair loss occurs gradually and hair loss increases with increasing age. But it’s not always necessary that hair loss may be genetic in nature, it may be caused by other factors as well. Let’s find out what these other factors may be, that have the potential to cause hair loss.

Medications

There are certain medications which may be prescribed by the doctor that may lead to hair loss as their side effects. These medications include blood thinners, vitamin A supplements, few medications prescribed for arthritis, antipressants, some medicines prescribed for specific heart problems, blood pressure medications and contraceptive pills. If you believe that the medications prescribed by your doctor may be causing hair loss, then it’s time that you request him to change with an alternative medicine which wouldn’t cause hair fall.

Thyroid Disease

If you are suffering from thyroid disease then hair loss is bound to occur since it’s one of the symptoms of the disease. Thyroid gland is known to control metabolism and growth of the body and any malfunction of it causes extensive hair loss. It’s possible to cure this type of hair loss if appropriate thyroid disease treatment is taken.

General Anesthesia and Surgical Procedures

If you have undergone some major surgery that also involved application of anesthesia in recent past, then you are bound to face its consequences in a few months in the form of hair loss. That’s because of the simple reason that your body undergoes physical stress due to surgery, which alters the life cycle of the hair present on the scalp. Hence, hair loss proceeds after a while the surgery has been done. Since this type of hair loss is caused due to physical stress, it’s likely to stop after a few months automatically on its own and return back to the normal condition.

Anemia

Iron deficiency in the body is known to cause anemia. People who suffer from anemia are prone to face hair loss. It’s basically occurs when an individual loses too much blood, doesn’t fulfills the body’s iron requirement or faces problems in absorbing iron. Low iron levels in bloodstream are known to cause hair loss amongst individuals.

Personal Care Appliances

It’s not advised to often use those personal care products that let you achieve that funky hair style that you wish to flaunt in public. That’s because these appliances use high heat levels to style your hair in turn damaging them and leading to breakage. A few appliances that damage hair are blow dryers, flat irons and curling irons. These appliances damage your hair the most when you use them to wet hair because what they do is that they boil the water present in your hair shaft, which makes them brittle in nature.

Childbirth

After giving birth to a child, the estrogen levels in women fall relatively low which causes the shedding of hair. This hair loss occurs for around 3 months after childbirth and normally temporary in nature. Once estrogen levels are restored to their normal levels, the hair stop shedding.

Diet

If your body doesn’t get the required amount of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients essential for growth and healthy body, hair loss starts to occur as a result. If there is no protein in your diet then it can cause damage to healthy hair. Protein deficiency leads to inability of production of new hair follicles, thus leading to noticeable hair loss in a time frame of 2-3 months. People who follow very strict weight-loss diets are also likely to experience hair loss which is often visible when an individual has lost more than 15 pounds of weight. Following a balanced diet can resolve this type of hair loss.

Stress

In some individuals, hair loss may be caused due to severe psychological stress. If you have gone through some trauma or stress that’s disturbed you internally in recent past, then it’s likely you will face hair loss a couple of months later. This type of hair loss is temporal in nature and normally stops within a short time frame. It usually takes around 6-8 months to recover from hair loss caused due to psychological stress.

Trichotillomania

This is a type of mental disorder in which individuals feel an urge to pull out their own hair, which usually results in hair loss. They may pull hair from their scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or even other areas within this mental disorder. To prevent hair loss in this situation, it’s necessary to treat this disorder which is the root cause of the problem.

Fungal Infections

There are certain fungal infections which can affect the scalp and cause hair loss. Ringworm which is common amongst children is a fungal infection that can result in scalp becoming scaly and lead to hair loss in patches. It’s possible to overcome such hair loss by applying antifungal medications on the affected areas of the scalp.

This brings us to the end of our discussion on the various non-genetic factors that may lead to hair loss amongst men and women.