HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW:  HAIR
Why You Lose Hair

All the hair you’ll ever have on your head is determined at birth. That’s because hair
grows from a root in your scalp and the number of roots cannot be changed.

The life span of a hair is about 7 years. You lose about 100 hairs every day from this life
cycle. Growth will slow down as it nears the end of its lifecycle. When the hair falls out, a
replacement begins to grow. Therefore, your head is a constant mix of hairs of different
ages. You can help make a shaft grow longer by taking good care of each shaft – easy
brushing, mild shampoos, gentle scalp massage, limiting coloring and perms.

Why you lose hair:
1) Genes: If hair loss runs in the family, there’s not much you can do about it.

2) Hormone imbalance: For women, all phases of the pregnancy cycle and pregnancy
prevention may have hair loss as a side affect, but it’ll grow back. However, menopause
also results in loss of hair but it will not grow back.

3) Medical problem: thyroid conditions or autoimmune diseases like lupus usually cause
hair loss. Your doctor can give you a blood test to tell if you have a problem.

4) Medicines: lots of medicines can make you loses you hair, like chemotherapy or
thyroid, blood pressure, anti-depressant, and anti-seizure meds.

5) Nutritional deficiencies: too much dieting or a bad diet will affect your hair.

6) Stress.

7) Too tight hairstyles: keeping your hair in tight buns, pony tails, braids, or extensions
put a lot of pressure on the hair, especially at the front hairline. Give your hair a break
once in awhile by letting it hang freely.

8) Alopecia is the loss or thinning of hair for an unknown reason. The current theory is
that alopecia is caused by reaction in your immune system. It usually starts as a small,
round bald patch. Most of your hair will grow back in about a year. Here are some
treatments you can get from your doctor:

Cortisone – a steroid you can apply as a cream on your scalp, have it injected into your
scalp or injected in a muscle, or in the form of prednisone.
Rogaine or Propecia, brand-name applications.
Contact irritants – your doctor will apply a chemical to set up an allergic reaction. The
theory is that by creating an allergy, you interfere with the immune system enough to
whack it back in sync so you hair will grow back.