As we age, most of us start to lose some hair. But losing a good deal of hair isn’t normal. The clinical term is alopecia, and while people often think it’s a male thing, hair loss can affect women and even children, as well.
There are a variety of reasons you may be losing your hair. To fight back, Dr. Kronberg uses platelet-rich plasma injections to help you keep your hair and start re-growing hair you’ve lost. We’ll get into that more in next month’s blog. But for this first blog of a thankfully New Year, let’s get into what’s going on with your thinning hair.
Why is my hair falling out?
There are a variety of causes behind a person losing his or her hair. The American Hair Loss Association estimates that two thirds of American men have some degree of hair loss by their 35th birthday. About 40 percent of women suffer hair loss, and even three percent of children.
Here are some of the causes:
- Genetics — Both male and female pattern baldness are genetically passed on. In men, balding can begin as early as the late teenage years. Balding usually happens in areas and often will result in excessive if not total hair loss in those areas. Female pattern baldness exhibits itself with thinning when a woman hits 50 or 60.
- Hormonal problems — Hormonal shifts can trigger temporary or permanent hair loss. Women often lose some hair after pregnancy and during menopause.
- Medications — Hair loss is a side effect of many drugs used in the treatment of cancer, arthritis, depression, and high blood pressure.
- Underlying medical conditions — A variety of medical conditions can cause hair loss or thinning, including thyroid problems, autoimmune disorders such as alopecia areata, scalp infections, and other skin disorders.
- Stress — When a person is in a period of intense stress, such as divorce proceedings, a death, serious illness, or other causes, hair loss is often a symptom. This is usually temporary.
How Dr. Kronberg treats hair loss
Dr. Kronberg has two options for helping with your hair loss. You can have platelet-rich plasma injections into your scalp, or you can have a new technology, follicular unit extraction, to transplant healthy follicles from where you don’t need them to where you do.
We’ll get into those two treatments in future blogs. Until then, if you’re noticing more and more hair in the brush or the shower drain every morning, it’s time to call Dr. Kronberg at (713) 771-8941 for help.
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