Thinning Hair in Women

11 Apr 2009 @ 7:45 AM

It is common and even accepted for men to be bald. Although it is accepted it does not stop some men feeling embarrassed about their baldness and start looking for a way how to prevent hair loss. So can you imagine how it must be for a woman as their hair is one of the main areas that makes a woman feel attractive, and when it starts to fall out confidence can go with it too.

As a female, if your hair does start to have bald patches in it you should just quickly check a couple of things before coming to the overall conclusion that your hair is actually thinning. You should take time out and think about lifestyle really, are you stressed or is your diet poor? What about your hairstyle have you been wearing a style that pulls on your hair or getting lots of colors done?Now these things may seem trivial, but they can have a huge influence on what is happening with your scalp.
Now of course non of these things may be happening in your life, and you are actually losing more hair than any of the above would warrant, well if that is the case there is a strong possibility it could be a hormonal issue, as changes in hormones can hugely effect the growth of your hair.

Lets take a look at some of the things that can change hormone balance and cause you to have problems with your hair.

The first thing to consider is if you are going through the menopause. Menopause has a big impact on hormones and especially in slowing production of them down. Women who are post menopausal and also have bald patches is probably higher than you would imagine, in fact it can occur in up to 2/3rds of the women in that group. The most common way of treating this slow down is with HRT and following is a little explanation of the hormones which slow down, and why it can cause hair loss:-

Normally a woman produces estrogen and testosterone, however estrogen acts like a shield and stops the testosterone moving about the body much. However when a woman goes on to become menopausal, the production of estrogen slows down and this allows testosterone to start moving around the body, and if the production of it is particularly high then this can lead to DHT and DHT is what has been linked as the reason for baldness in men.

If a woman is unfortunate enough to have to undergo a hysterectomy, then this too can be a bit like going through the menopause as again there is really little or no estrogen being produced, and this too is going to lead to a higher probability of hair loss.

The final big upheaval in a woman which causes massive hormonal change is pregnancy, and this can really play tricks with the hair. As you will have already guessed, being pregnant causes huge changes within the body and hormones can pretty much run amok. During the pregnancy thick hair can thin and thin hair can thicken, straight hair can become curly and vice versa. This is down to the massive hormone changes which take place within a woman when they are pregnant, and for some women after having a child, their hair is never the same again.

These just cover some of the hormonal changes, however if you feel that none of this is applicable to you then, remember to have a little think about stress, hairstyle and food as well. In particular if you feel as if your diet is letting you down then you may want to consider taking some vitamins for good hair growth.

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