All About Hair Loss: Causes, Symptoms, And Precautions

by Alisha Matthew, Nutritionist
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Hair could grow on human skin everywhere, except on the soles of our feet, the palms of our hands, our belly buttons, and our eyelids.

Most of our hairs are so fine that they are not visible to our eyes. Keratin is a protein that is produced in the hair follicles. Keratin gives hair its structure.

Old cells of hair are flushed out through the surface of the skin at the rate of 6 inches per year while the follicles manufacture new hair cells.

The visible hair is a strand of keratin cells that have already died. An adult head contains around 150,000 hairs and loses up to 100 hairs every day.

Therefore spotting a few stray hairs often on your hairbrush is a common occurrence. Approximately 80% of an individual’s hair is growing at any given time.

Sickness, age, and lots of factors can affect the life cycle of a hair follicle.

Postpartum Hair Loss

A pregnancy side effect is fuller and thicker hair. Many childbearing women claim that their hair is the best throughout their pregnancy. Unfortunately, wonderful hair is quite fleeting.

Your hair might begin thinning again after a few weeks you have given birth to your baby. You may find stray hairs on your bedding.

This could be considered a perfectly normal process of hair loss. It occurs due to changes in hormone levels during pregnancy.

Your body goes through a lot of changes throughout pregnancy due to the new hormones required for the development of the baby.

The new hormonal balance, along with higher estrogen, alters your cycle of hair growth. Rather than transitioning to a resting state, hair stays in a growing phase for a longer duration during pregnancy.

You do not lose many individual hairs in a single day since the hair does not conclude its development cycle as rapidly. The result is thicker, fuller hair.

Your hormone levels get restored to pre-pregnancy levels after your child is born. The estrogen decrease might cause the hair to return to its normal growth, then rest, and fall out cycle.

A lot of your hair will immediately enter the period of the resting phase. After the hairs have completed the period of resting phase, they will come out after a few months.

Postpartum Loss of hair can be considered very natural since it exceeds the normal hair loss in a single day. Hormone fluctuations in postpartum might cause a lot of strands of hair cells to enter a resting phase than usual.

It might fall out after a few weeks. You could notice that you are losing up to 200 hairs in a single day.

What Causes Hair Loss In Women?

Hair loss among women could be defined as when a lady loses her hair quite heavily within a short duration of time.

Humans shed usually between an average of 60 and 90 single hairs every day. Shedding of hair is a natural occurrence in which some hairs might fall out while some hairs grow in.

Hair loss could occur when the balance is disrupted between more hair falling out and less hair growing in. Hair loss can be considered usually not the same as hair shedding. A medical term for hair loss can be termed alopecia.

Some common causes of hair loss among women are:

  • If the hair is styled in ways that might tug on the hair roots, it could trigger loss of hair. Hair follicle injury might result in permanent hair loss.
  • Deficiency in minerals and vitamins.
  • Dieting.
  • Dietary restrictions.
  • Scalp hair that has been over-processed.

Hair Loss And Menopause

You may notice these concerning your hair during menopause. You may begin to grow hair in areas where you previously had none.

Alternatively, your hair may begin to thin. Changes in hormone levels during menopause could be one reason. As progesterone and estrogen levels fall, the effects of androgens, also known as male hormones, become stronger.

Hair might become finer during menopause and afterward when hair follicles diminish. In certain circumstances, hair might grow more slowly and fall out quite more easily.

To assist you in dealing with variations in hair growth, your doctor will perform a complete examination and obtain detailed history.

Your thyroid levels or iron hormone levels may be checked. If your medications are found to affect hair growth or loss, they may be modified.

What Causes Hair Loss In Men?

Having a family genetic disorder of baldness is one reason for hair loss among men. Hair loss among men might be linked to androgens, a male sex hormone.

Androgens play a lot of roles, including controlling hair loss and growth. Studies suggest that each hair on your head has its cycle of the process of growth.

With hair loss, the hair growth cycle weakens which results in shorter and finer hair strands. Each hair’s development cycle eventually ends, and no new hair develops in its place.

Male baldness is frequently without adverse effects. However, more serious reasons for baldness include certain malignancies, medicines, thyroid disorders, and anabolic steroids.

If hair loss starts after starting on a new drug or is accompanied by other health issues, see your doctor. Male baldness can be diagnosed through the pattern of hair loss.

They may conduct a medical examination ruling out specific health-related issues, such as your body having nutritional deficiencies or fungal infections of your hair or scalp.

Does Creatine Causes Hair Loss?

Creatine is one of the most extensively studied substances in the bodybuilding world. It can be found naturally in animal products such as red meat, but it can also be purchased at almost any big box or supplement store.

Creatine has been associated with improved post-workout recovery, increased strength, the muscular mass, and athletic performance.

There are numerous types of creatine available, but the most affordable is creatine monohydrate, which is as effective as, if not more so, than the others.

There isn’t much evidence that using creatine supplements affects hair loss. Much of the evidence for the connection is anecdotal. This indicates that it is based on personal testimony or experiences.

However, following 3 weeks of creatine supplementation, researchers reported elevated levels of a hormone linked to hair loss. Dihydrotestosterone is the name of this hormone.

The creatine supplement regimen employed in the 2009 study on rugby players included 7 days of creatine loading, during which a higher dosage of the supplement was given. Following then, a period of decreasing creatinine levels was maintained.

The researchers discovered that during the loading period, DHT levels jumped by more than 60% over baseline and persisted at that level for the maintenance period. Testosterone levels remained unchanged.

The researchers did not examine the level of participants’ hair loss. Therefore, we can only observe the influence on hormonal levels. DHT levels were quite higher upon observation.

As DHT is linked to loss of hair, this increase might put you at risk. It is riskier if you are genetically prone to it.

More research into the effect of creatine on DHT is required. Also, additional research is needed to see if higher levels of DHT caused by the consumption of creatine could aid in hair loss.

Which Vitamin Deficiency Causes Hair Loss?

The most common dietary deficiency in the world, iron insufficiency (ID), is a well-known cause of hair loss. Whether it remains unclear is what degree of ID may cause hair loss.

While the mechanism by which iron affects hair development is unknown, hair follicle matrix cells are among the fastest dividing cells in the body.

ID’s role as a cofactor for ribonucleotide reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme for DNA synthesis, may contribute to hair loss.

In addition, the human hair follicle contains several genes, some of which may be controlled by iron. The reversal of ID restored hair growth in a mouse model.

ID is more common in some groups, and medical and dietary history can indicate risk factors. Menstrual blood loss puts premenopausal women at higher risk, whereas gastrointestinal blood loss puts postmenopausal women and men at risk.

Malabsorption diseases (such as celiac disease) and achlorhydria (or the use of H2 blockers) are other risk factors, as iron absorption requires an acidic pH.

How To Stop Hair Loss Naturally?

We shall give you some effective remedies to stop hair loss naturally:

  1. Diet

    Making sure you have a healthy amount of minerals and vitamins in your diet is one of the best methods to improve hair health. Include these foods in your diet as much as possible:

    • Fruits and vegetables that are fresh.
    • Protein-rich foods (fatty fish, eggs).
    • Nuts (walnuts, almonds) contain selenium, which might help strengthen hair.

    Water is also necessary to keep your hair shaft moisturized and intact.

  2. Mask With Coconut Oil

    Coconut oil contains fatty acids which could reduce protein loss in your hair. 20 minutes before washing, massage the coconut oil into your hair, then rinse completely with lukewarm water and condition your hair.

  3. Rinse With Green Tea

    Green tea contains catechins, which can help lower dihydrotestosterone. It is a hormone that could cause hair follicle shrinkage. Green tea can cure dandruff and prevent scalp dryness in addition to preventing hair loss.

  4. Juice From Onions

    The juice of onion is strong in sulfur, which is thought to help with scalp blood circulation. Although there isn’t enough evidence to support claims that onion juice will reduce hair loss.

    Studies have revealed that applying it to the hair and scalp can improve hair regeneration in persons with hair loss.

  5. Supplements

    Several people who start facing issues like hair loss switch to supplementation instantly. Things like Hims Hair Loss and Har Vokse are a couple of famous hair solutions.

    On the other hand, I would like to recommend that if a person is facing issues of hair fall, they should contact a medical professional. Most probably, they will run a few tests and might be able to give you the exact solution.

How Much Hair Loss Is Normal?

It’s typical to lose 60 to 90 hairs per day. Excessive shedding of hair might occur when the body sheds significantly more hair on a single day. This disorder can be termed telogen effluvium.

Hair loss can be considered prevalent in those who have been exposed to one of the following stressors:

  • 20 pounds or more lost
  • Having a child
  • Having a lot of anxiety 
  • High fever
  • Undergone an operation
  • Recovering after an illness, particularly if there was a high fever involved
  • Stopped using birth control