There are many different reasons as to why women would suffer from hair loss, although probably not to the same extent that men do. Yet because a woman's hair is very important to her concerning her looks, she can often quickly become desperate if she starts to see more hair in the sink than she would consider normal after washing it. Below we will look at one reason for what is a cause of female hair loss.
Although it has always been considered to be predominantly a male problem, today you will find that some women are just as likely to suffer from serious hair loss as well. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, it is a problem that now affects around 30 million women in the United States alone.
For quite a few women the reason that they start losing hair is because of their genetics. All women have hormones in their bodies called androgens, but for a few, these can actually interfere with the way that their hair grows normally. The main hormone in this group, which causes such a problem, is testosterone.
Although all women have this hormone in their bodies, when it is able to connect with a particular enzyme it can then convert easily into Dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This then binds itself to the woman's hair follicle receptors and starts to interfere with the growth of hair on her body.
Slowly as the build up of DHT happens on the hair follicles, they gradually begin to shrink and this is what stops her hair from growing correctly. Over this time, the woman will then start to notice that more hair is falling out when they wash or brush their hair and they begin to notice areas of their scalp showing through. Often called female pattern baldness or Androgenic Alopecia is a thinning of the hair.
Yet even though this form of baldness in women is similar to the version that men get there are some slight differences between them. In most cases for women, it will be very difficult to see because it is diffused and often is a thinning of the hair rather than them losing hair and becoming bald. As for men they will start to see the line of hair begin to thin and then recede altogether. The most common place it occurs on women is on the top of their scalps, as for men it happens at the crown, on the temple, or at the back of the head.
The other main difference between the female version and the male version of pattern baldness is that men usually only start to suffer from it as they grow older. However, for women they can suffer from this kind of hair loss at any stage of their lives. In some cases it may well be that the loss has been caused by some other underlying medical condition that they have.
As well as the above, there are other reasons as to why a woman may suffer from hair loss. Certainly, when it comes to deciding what the cause of female hair loss is in a particular woman it may come down to a number of different factors. With Some women, the cause can be from a traumatic event in their lives, whilst for others it could be down to some kind of medical condition or treatment.