You
are putting your brush away and you notice some strands of
hair. You have on your favorite black sweater and someone
pulls a strand of hair off your shoulder. When you shampoo,
you notice hair in the drain. Before you hit the panic
button and think that you are going bald, relax and check
out the facts. Hair loss is normal. It’s part of the
natural cycle of your hair. Depending on how much hair you
have the average amount of hair loss is approximately 40
to 125 strands a day.
If that
sounds like a lot of hair, don’t worry. By some estimates
there are up to 300,000 strands of hair on the average
scalp. Also keep in mind that you are growing new hair in
the process. The root of each hair is embedded in your
scalp in a hair follicle. The hair goes through a growing
phase of approximately three years. This is followed by a
resting phase of several months. Then the resting hair
falls out and new hair begins to grow in its place.
If you
notice that you are losing more hair than usual, don’t
worry. For a woman there are different periods in her life
when hair loss is more pronounced. Hormonal changes during
pregnancy or menopause can cause more hair loss than
normal. Some women have reported that they experiences
hair loss after discontinuing birth control pills. But
this is temporary hair loss as the body adjusts.
There
are other occasions which can trigger more than normal
loss. Some people report more than normal hair loss after
surgery. And, of course, if someone is experiencing a
prolonged period of stress, some hair loss is not unusual.
If you
are experiencing unusual amounts of hair loss, this could
be a signal of health problems. It could mean vitamin or
mineral deficiencies or it could mean a thyroid problem.
It’s best to discuss this with your physician. In these
cases hair loss can reversed.
Now
when you are removing that hair from your brush, find hair
in the drain, or are brushing those strands off that black
sweater, you can relax knowing that you have several
hundred thousands strands of hair on your scalp. And even
more assuring, there are more strands growing all the
time.
