Female hair loss can have many causes. Some of these can overlap with the same causes that affect men, such as poor diet, too much tension and an enlarged thyroid gland. However, there are also certain conditions that are recognised as being specific to causing hair loss in women.
To clarify here, before I explain any further, when I say hair loss it is not necessarily relating to complete baldness, I am also referring to hair thinning. In fact it is often this hair thinning, rather than the hair loss itself which will first lead a woman to consult a medical professional to identify the cause of the problem.
For males, even though losing head hair can be a distressing experience, baldness is at least socially acceptable. Even to the extent these days that some men, who would otherwise have a full head of hair, opt to shave their heads completely, to fit their image of themselves. For women though the situation is pretty different. Bald women are few and far between and if, as a woman, you do experience hair loss it is a very traumatic experience.
The most common cause of female hair loss has been found to be related to hormonal changes in the body. We all know that pregnancy, menopause or indeed starting or discontinuing birth control pills can have a huge affect on women’s hormones. In cases such as these, women may also experience hair loss or thinning which may occur immediately or within a period of up to three months following the change. Then it can take some time, maybe even up to one year, for hair re-growth to be completely achieved.
As mentioned earlier, diet can be another leading contributory factor to loss of hair. The very feminine (although not exclusively so), method of crash dieting to lose weight does nothing to help your situation. Instead to try to remain as healthy as possible, prevent hair loss and yet still lose weight, you should try and avoid crash diets altogether. Improve your diet and lifestyle long term with regular exercise, eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and drink more water.
When it does occur, scalp massage can help to counteract hair loss by increasing and stimulating the blood flow to your hair follicles.
As a final point you need to remember that even though female hair loss is a very distressing and disturbing experience, there are good organizations nowadays that can help you to cope with your situation. In addition, as distressing as it may be, for a woman it is likely to be a fairly temporary situation and the sooner you can identify the cause, the sooner you can start the correct treatment. So do go to your doctor if this starts to happen to you.