Losing your hair may be a short-term reaction to something new in your environment or a stress-related event, or, it may be an affliction that is more permanent.

In order to determine the degree of your particular thinning or loss of hair, the matter will need to be fully explored in relation to your overall health. If the cause of your hair loss is easily found, than often there may be an equally easy fix to your problem. However, if you hair loss is the result of a problem that is difficult to determine, then the cure may also be that much more difficult to ascertain. This sort of ambiguity can be very difficult for victims of hair loss to deal with.

In order to understand the cause of your thinning or loss, you need to understand how your hair grows. In a healthy state, your hair should not follow any kind of growth pattern. In fact, this is what causes it to look thick and healthy; all the individual shafts follow their own individual growing and shedding pattern. However, some things can cause hair to grow in a synchronous manner- meaning your strands will get on the same schedule. They will grow at the same time, and they will fall out at the same time. This causes obvious thinning and/or bald spots. It isn't healthy, and it doesn't reflect a healthy head of hair.

To understand why you hair is falling out or thinning, you may first need to understand Dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is a kind of chemical in your body that is a part of testosterone. Testosterone becomes DHT and works negatively on the root of your hair when certain adverse conditions exist. DHT comes to play mostly in male- or female- pattern baldness, which is a specific type of hair loss that we will address below.

Hair loss is almost always a symptom of something else that has gone awry in your physical health. Generally, your hair, except for natural hair loss, will stay where it belongs unless an ailment or event causes it to fall out. These ailments or causes can range, from trauma, to medications, to stress, to a simple gene that you inherited from one of your parents!

A Hair Loss Diagnosis

The following are the most common types of diagnosed hair loss.

? Alopecia areata: This is the name given to hair loss that occurs in small, isolated patchy areas. It is often the type of hair loss that is associated with thyroid disease.

? Androgenetic alopecia: This is just a fancy name for male or female pattern baldness. This particular baldness is caused by DHT, discussed above.

? Female androgenetic alopecia: This is the female-specific version of the above. However, the female version is more likely to lead to overall thinning versus patchy area hair loss. Your genetics could be to blame if you suffer from this type of hair loss.

? Telogen effluvium: This is the name given to stress-related hair loss. For example, the excessive shedding of hair following childbirth could be classified under this particular diagnosis. This event usually occurs 2-6 months after childbirth. Hair loss due to poor nutrition or traumatic events is also a result of this specific diagnosis, but sometimes this is a chronic, ongoing affliction.

? Anagen effluvium: This is classified as hair loss that results from damage to the follicle, and is most often the result of cancer treatments.

? Traction alopecia: True to its name, this form of alopecia is the result of pulling or tugging on the hair follicle, which can be caused by excessive styling like extensions and braiding.

At http://www.hairchi.com you can download a free report that explains the chemistry, issues and possible causes of hair loss, specifically female hair loss, and provides steps to a healthier head of hair in just days.

Obviously there are many medical causes for female hair loss. But to address this problem you must also consider reasons such as stress, poor diet, hormonal and thyroid issues. You can find a complete report about all of the issues of female hair loss at http://www.hairchi.com