Hair Loss, Hair Shedding, Hair Thinning, and Hair Fall

What are the differences between hair shedding, hair thinning, hair loss and hair fall?

Hair loss is a common issue for both men and women. Seeing more hair in the hairbrush or the shower floor or the drain can be very distressing.

People are anxious to understand if they are permanently losing their hair.

People often use terms like hair shedding, hair thinning, hair loss and hair fall to describe their situation. We’ll discuss these terms to help you understand these terms and situations where there is potential long term hair loss as well as treatment that is recommended.

Hair Shedding

The most common concern for people who are experiencing hair shedding is the possibility they are experiencing permanent hair loss.

According to the medical literature it’s normal to shed fifty to a hundred hairs a day. This is usually not perceivable because of the rate of hair regrowth. Individual hairs continuously grow for two to six years – a period called the anagen phase.

About 88 to 90 percent of all your hair follicles are in the anagen phase, so most of your hair is growing invisible at any given
time.

Hair eventually stops growing temporarily but only eight to ten percent of hairs do this. When hair stops growing it enters into a short transitional phase called catagen, when the hair shaft starts to separate from the hair follicle or root.

This transitional phase lasts about four weeks. The hair then sheds in a phase called telogen. Telogen is also the resting phase where the follicle doesn’t produce hair for about three to four months.

After the telogen phase the hair growth cycle starts again with the anagen phase and the hair grows from the same follicle.

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Hair shedding where 200 or more hairs a day our shed is often associated with the temporary hair loss condition. For example, hormonal effects from oral contraceptives or hormonal changes before and after childbirth can be the basis for hair shedding.

Generally hair which sheds remains viable with the hair follicles still intact and functional so the hair grows back.

A common form of hair shedding is called telogen effluvium. Commonly telogen effluvium is due to a stressful event that occurred two to five months prior to hair shedding.

Events that trigger telogen effluvium are often highly stressful periods such as undergoing general anesthesia, extensive surgery, death in the family, divorce or hospitalization.

There is a condition called chronic telogen effluvium, which mostly affects women and is not directly associated with a singular stressful event. Chronic telogen effluvium is characterized by constant and significant hair shedding with some relative stability in the density and overall scalp coverage.

There is no direct treatment for telogen effluvium, so you just allow for time to let the hair grow back.

Hair shedding is commonly caused in both men and women who also undergo cancer treatment as the effects of chemotherapy results in stopping of the active growth phase and is referred to as anagen effluvium. Intervention is usually not necessary as the hair usually grows back after chemotherapy is completed.

Some people report that their hair quality never came back to the way it was before undergoing chemotherapy.

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Hair Thinning

Hair thinning is defined as a progression where hair density diminishes and individual hairs after normal shedding come back thinner. Eventually the hair follicle disappears altogether.

Hair Loss

In male pattern hair loss a contributing variable to hair thinning is the scalp sensitivity to DHT or dihydrotestosterone. Another aspect of male pattern hair loss is the possibility of having a genetically programmed limit to the number and longevity of hair growth cycles.

The drug finasteride is used to reduce DHT. It allows for prolongation of the hair growth cycle. However it has a limited value in the stimulation of hair growth.

Further it was observed that many patients who’ve been on Finasteride for over 15 years who still progressively lost a significant volume of hair.

This doesn’t mean that the Finasteride didn’t work. It just means that there are other variables which cause or contribute to hair loss to continue in spite of being on the drug. More than likely the same individual would have had much less hair if they weren’t on the Finasteride.

Female pattern hair loss is much more common than is generally acknowledged, affecting 50% or more of women over 50. There can be some association with decrease in estrogen as well as genetic factors.

Female pattern hair loss is diffuse which leads to a decrease in hair density resulting in widening of the hair part, described as a Christmas tree pattern the.

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Hair Fall

The term hair fall is commonly used in South Asian countries to mean awareness of hair loss, which can be caused by hair shedding and genetic pattern hair loss.

Treatment

New York hair restoration specialist Amiya Prasad had developed a treatment for male and female pattern hair loss based on observations of improved scalp coverage during hair transplant in areas not transplanted when PRP or platelet-rich plasma is used with a cellular matrix produced by the company ACell.

Since 2011 Prasad found ways to combine these materials and develop algorithms which he refined over the years based on the responses he saw.

TrichoStem hair regeneration is not just an injection treatment. Prasad create customized treatment plans for male and female pattern hair loss patients based on the patient’s gender, age, age of onset of hair loss, degree of hair loss and any prior medical treatment used for hair loss.

Although a large percentage of his patients have done well over over 5 years with only one treatment session, patients who have moderate to advanced hair loss may receive an additional treatment about 18 months or so after the first treatment to maximize scalp coverage.

Sustained hair growth and thicker hair has been seen for 3 to 5 years or even more with this treatment strategy. His patients don’t need to come in for injections every month or every 3 months for the treatment to be effective.

They follow their patients with standardized digital photography and microscope photos every three to six months for the duration of the treatment plan and yearly thereafter .

They have achieved visible and long-term improvement in hair thickness, density and coverage in over 99% of our patients.

When it comes to experiencing hair loss proper diagnosis and optimal management can make a big difference for your long-term outlook.

We live in a time where people are being sold hair loss treatments where the practitioner or vendor makes no commitment to your long-term management. If you’re experiencing hair loss and you’re considering a procedure, find a doctor who will perform a thorough evaluation, show you before and after photos of their patients and provide you with a rational treatment plan which you can have confidence in it.

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Hair Loss, Hair Shedding, Hair Thinning, and Hair Fall
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