Triggers That Cause Female Pattern Baldness

Twenty five percent of women in America will experience female pattern baldness and related emotional trauma. For women thinning hair is more traumatic than for men. Female Hair loss is not generally accepted as part of the normal aging process for women, but for men it is generally accepted.

Society has come to expect women to have a full head of hair and is a lot less familiar with the causes of thinning hair in women.

Dryers, Tongs, And Coloring Are OK To Use.

Many people believe that hair dryers, tongs, coloring, and over treating hair rank among the causes of hair thinning in women. This simply is not the case. Although they can cause hair to break off near the scalp, they are not long term causes of thinning hair in women.

Five Causes Of Hair Thinning In Women.

The primary causes of hair thinning in women are:

1. Female Pattern Baldness (Androgenetic alopecia)
2. Hormone imbalances
3. Child birth
4. Hair loss from menopause
5. Hormonal therapies

Of these, (Androgenetic Alopecia) accounts for 95% of hair loss in women.

Female Hair Loss Is More Subtle.

As with the other causes of hair thinning in women, female pattern baldness appears as diffuse hair loss occurring over most of the scalp. Women with female pattern baldness tend to have less obvious patterns of hair loss than men. While male hair loss follows an obvious pattern, often resulting in the cue-ball effect, in women the hair loss is much more diffused. Diagnosis of the causes of hair thinning in women should be made by a physician.

For women as in men, Androgens are responsible for hair loss.

Women also inherit a sensitivity to the effects of androgens (male hormones) on scalp hair follicles. Androgens are produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands in women.

Although how it is produced in women is different than in men, the effects on the follicle cell DNA is the same. However, women with hair loss due to this cause usually do not develop true baldness in the patterns that occur in men—for example, women rarely develop the "cue-ball" appearance often seen in male-pattern Androgenetic Alopecia.

Patterns of female Androgenetic Alopecia.

Below are patterns of female pattern baldness that you typically see when women lose some of their hair. In most cases, women who experience diffuse thinning of hair over the entire scalp, usually exhibit the following four differences.

1. The hair thins more toward the back of the scalp than the front.
2. The hair thins toward the front of the scalp but not involving the frontal hairline.
3. With more noticeable hair thinning toward the front of the scalp than the back of the scalp.
4. Diffuse hair thinning occurring evenly over the entire scalp.

If a woman does experience total loss of hair in an area of her scalp; she should be evaluated for an underlying pathological disease. Women rarely experience total loss of hair in an area if the loss is due to female pattern baldness.