There are different causes of baldness in women. Each of them has its own appearance and treatment options (or not). I’m going to explain the most common diagnoses on this page. But there is one piece of advice I want to give you now: don’t pretend to be a doctor, go see a good specialist instead. And make sure you don’t wait too long because sometimes you can avoid things getting worse by acting in time.
Before we start talking about hair loss, let’s explain what the normal situation is. The average person has 100.000 (!) hairs on their head. 90% of that is growing, and the other 10% is in the transitional phase (14 days) or in the resting phase (3-4 months). After the resting phase, the hair falls out. In a normal situation, a new hair has already been created in the hair follicle. The amount of time that your hair is in the growing phase depends on your genes: sometimes it takes four years, sometimes it takes as long as eight years. You normally lose 100-150 hairs per day on average.
Before we start talking about hair loss, let’s explain what the normal situation is. The average person has 100.000 (!) hairs on their head. 90% of that is growing, and the other 10% is in the transitional phase (14 days) or in the resting phase (3-4 months). After the resting phase, the hair falls out. In a normal situation, a new hair has already been created in the hair follicle. The amount of time that your hair is in the growing phase depends on your genes: sometimes it takes four years, sometimes it takes as long as eight years. You normally lose 100-150 hairs per day on average.
If you suffer from hair loss, something in the growing process is going wrong. Hair loss can be subdivided into two types: scarring (permanent) and non-scarring (reversible) hair loss. The difference between these two is where the problem is (see the red dots in the graphic).
With non-scarring hair loss, the stem cells of the hair follicle don’t break. This means that the ‘memory’ of the hair follicle is still there, so the hair could technically grow back. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that this always happens. These are the most common types of non-scarring hair loss:
There are more types of treatments and solutions available for non-scarring hair loss, but they differ depending on the condition. You can read more about that on the page dedicated to each diagnosis.
In this type of hair loss, the hair follicle is inflamed at the level of the stem cells (see the red dots in the graphic). The stem cells are in the sidewall of the hair follicle. When the hair falls out, these cells normally crawl down to the bottom of the hair follicle so that a new hair can grow. But because of the inflammation, the stem cells are destroyed. The ‘memory’ of the hair follicle disappears permanently and the hair can’t grow back. The three most common types of permanent hair loss are:
Unfortunately, all types of scarring hair loss are rather treatment-resistant. I.e. they often only react to the treatment to a certain extent. Sometimes the problem comes back after some time, or it doesn’t completely go away. Don’t let this discourage you! Different things work for different people. And there will be new treatments when the medical science understands the underlying process better. So there’s always hope!
