Introduction
Alopecia means balding and has come to define various types of hair loss in both women and men. The word is Greek for fox, which has nothing to do with losing hair or going bald or does it? This is how we got here. In early Greek civilization Aristotle noticed that foxes developed bald spots because of mange. Ever since then, people who lose their hair are said to have alopecia, a mange like condition.
There are various types of alopecia that women can develop. Here is a list of six of the most common types of hair loss a woman can develop, along with their symptoms, starting with the most common.
Angrogenetic Alopecia- Commonly known as female pattern baldness, this is caused by genes inherited from either parent. Symptoms include such things as a gradual thinning of the hair all over the scalp, and an increase in the number of head hairs lost per day.
Telogen Effuvium- This is the next most popular way for women to loss their hair. This is usually caused by some type of stress event that the woman is going through. Such stresses as divorce, death in the family, work related stress and other such events.
Symptoms include such things as pain on the scalp and increased shedding of the hair. (Normal hair loss is 50 to 150 strands a day.)
Angrogenetic Alopecia and Telogen Effuvium accounts for 95% of total hair loss in women today.
Trichotillomania- This is a type of condition which is caused by a woman pulling her own hair. This is most commonly caused by stress. So if a woman's hair does not fall out when she is under stress by Telogen Effuvium, then she may physically pull her own hair out.
Symptoms of this condition are unusual redness around the scalp, bleeding on the scalp and thinning of the hair.
Alopecia Areata- This is actually a disease that affects both men and women. It starts out small and gradually expands till the patient is almost totally bald.
Symptoms start off with small amounts of patchy hair loss on the scalp, which can start off quite suddenly. The victim may also lose hair from the eye brows and eye lashes.
Oral Contraceptives- When a woman takes a hormonal contraceptive she may develop hair loss across the scalp. If this happens then a change to a non-hormonal oral contraceptive should stop your hair loss.
Symptoms of this type of hair loss is the same as Angrogenetic Alopecia, a gradual loss of hair across the scalp.
Conclusion
If you are losing your hair, the best thing you can do is to see your dermatologist to determine the cause of your hair loss and then take action to stop it and re-grow your hair..
Jimmy Chase started losing his hair when he turned 50. He has done lots of studies on loss of hair, in both men and women, to determine what works and what doesn't. He has successfully stopped his hair loss and has even re-grown some of his hair. He wants to help other people learn what he has learned, on dealing with loss of hair and re-growing hair.
He operates the web site http://www.no-longer-balding.com/.
