4 Causes of Hair Loss (and What to Do About Them)

You’re seeing more of your scalp these days, and you realize you’re joining the millions of men and women in the United States who experience hair loss and thinning hair. 

While hair loss strikes more men than women, it affects both genders in fairly high numbers — 85% of men and 33% of women will experience noticeable hair loss.

To find out what's fueling this hair loss, you can turn to our highly capable team of hair restoration specialists at Vivida Dermatology. In the following, we review several key contributors to the overall hair loss burden, as well as key ways we can fight back.

1. Androgenetic alopecia

Androgenetic alopecia is the most common driver of hair loss in men and women. Also known as female or male pattern baldness, it is fueled by two factors:

1. Genetic influences — hair loss that runs in families
2. Dihydrotestosterone — a byproduct of male androgen hormones that miniaturizes and weakens hair follicles

While the patterns of baldness in men and women are slightly different, the same mechanism, androgenetic alopecia, causes the hair loss.

2. Telogen effluvium, or diffuse hair loss

Under normal circumstances, most people shed about 50-150 scalp hairs per day. When you have telogen effluvium, you can lose upwards of 200 hairs each day, causing an overall thinning in your hair.

Diffuse hair loss is largely attributable to acute events, such as illness, stress, pregnancy, and thyroid disease, to name just a few.

The good news is that this type of hair loss is usually temporary, and hair will grow back in most cases.

3. Alopecia areata

This type of hair loss, which affects 7 million Americans, comes on the heels of an autoimmune condition that causes sudden hair loss as your body attacks your hair follicles. 

This type of hair loss is usually patchy, and hair does sometimes spontaneously grow back. If it doesn’t, alopecia areata can be addressed with immunotherapy, JAK inhibitors, and corticosteroid injections.

4. Anagen effluvium

This is hair loss that’s tied to medical treatments that lead to rapid hair loss, such as chemotherapy. In most cases, people do regrow their hair after the treatment is finished.

Fighting back against hair loss

Each of the hair loss causes we outlined above typically benefits from different approaches. In some cases, hair will regrow on its own, as is the case with anagen effluvium and telogen effluvium.

With the most common type of hair loss — androgenetic alopecia — hair will not grow back on its own. But that doesn’t mean you’re without options, as we offer increasingly popular hair transplants, including follicular unit extraction, or FUE. This approach to hair loss is highly effective as we transplant healthier follicles into areas where your hair is thinning.

If you have more questions about hair loss or you’d like to explore your hair restoration options, please feel free to contact one of our offices in Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada, and St. George, Utah, to schedule an appointment.