Hair loss is something that worries a lot of people. The average person should lose between 50 and 200 hairs per day. If you are losing a lot more, you should check into it. It could be temporary hair loss, hair breakage, or permanent hair loss.
Breakage
Let’s take a look at hair breakage, which can be confused with hair loss. If you have very fine har, it will break easily. Chemicals (such as perms) can wreak havoc on your fine hair and so can swimming in chlorinated water. After you’ve brushed or shampooed your hair, pick up some hairs and look closely at both ends for a bump/”root”. If you can’t find the “root”, the hair did not full out but broke off. If you have more than 200 hairs falling out daily and they all have bumps at the end, then your hair is falling out much faster than the daily average and it bears checking into.
Shampooing
Another reason you might get more hair loss than 200 hairs per day is if you shampoo your hair only once a week. When you are scrubbing and washing your hair, you are dislodging all the hairs that are ready to be replaced. If you washed your hair every day, you would dislodge a few hairs daily, but will end up with the same total of hairs by the end of the week. It just looks like more when you shampoo your hair once a week because it all comes at once.
Temporary Hair Loss
Temporary hair loss is a different matter all together. This is when you lose so much in such a short amount of time that it feels like you are going to go bald. Don’t worry – if it’s temporary, it will grow again and go through the 3 stages of hair growth, but it takes time. Why would your hair fall out so quickly? There are at least 6 possible reasons –
- Physical stress – such as major surgery, or high fever
- Emotional stress – from traumatic events such as rape, war, or the loss of loved ones
- Child birth – hormonal upheavals that follow child birth usually cause hair loss
- Drugs – from cortisones and amphetamines
- Hormonal disorders – especially having to do with the thyroid or sex glands
- Diet – protein is necessary for hair growth
If you are experiencing hair loss, look whether there are bumps on the ends of the hairs you are losing. If there aren’t any, the hairs are just breaking off. If there are bumps and you can relate to one of the 6 reasons for temporary hair loss that are mentioned, be patient and the hair will slowly come back in again.
