Why Women Lose Their Hair and What They Can Do About It
Red Light Therapy and Minoxidil Offer Clinically Proven Solutions for Hair Loss
“It’s only hair”, some might think. That may be true, but most women know how a “bad hair day” affects their confidence. The truth is that part of getting healthy is the idea of simply being the best you can be, and that includes your hair.
Our bodies are complex machines. Different chemical processes – digestion, red blood cell creation, and bone growth, for example – are constantly occurring inside the human body. But one small shift in the body’s chemicals, like a hormone imbalance or genetic mutation, can produce a notable change.
Hair loss is no different. Though we usually equate balding with men, many women go through chemical changes that affect their hair growth and can lead to thinning hair.
Women represent 40 percent of Americans experiencing hair loss or thinning, yet it remains a sensitive topic. As such, many women are unaware of the causes and treatments, so we’re here to address three of the most common factors that affect hair loss in women, and what options they have to improve thinning hair.
Both men and women shed between 80 to 100 hairs each day as a normal part of hair’s natural growth cycle. However, hormonal changes, stress, and certain hairstyles can affect hair growth, leading to thinning hair or hair loss.
How genetics, hormones, and stress play a role in female hair loss
Genes, which determine your height and eye color, can also be the root cause of hair loss. Women typically experience genetic hair loss through the distributed thinning of hair across the scalp as they age, in contrast to the horseshoe pattern of balding that typically affects men.
While thinning hair is easier to hide than bald spots, it usually means women are not viable candidates for hair transplants. Generally, about 50 percent of balding women do not have a large enough donor area to take hair from.
Another factor in women’s hair loss is the delicate balance of hormones. A condition called telogen effluvium causes large amounts of hair shedding, driven by hormonal imbalances. Hair grows in cycles, and telogen effluvium speeds up the growth and shedding cycles, leaving more follicles in the telogen, or dormant, phase, which causes rapid hair loss.
This condition typically affects more women than men, and it can occur because of stress, major surgery, and childbirth, for example. But telogen effluvium can spring up at any time, and then go away, all depending on the hormonal balance in the body. Generally speaking, women experience periods of hair loss during major hormonal shifts in life, typically in their 30s, 50s, and after menopause.
Another common condition that affects women is traction alopecia, which occurs when hair is pulled out from the scalp. Think about plucking an eyebrow – pulling out the occasional hair won’t do much harm, but constantly plucking the same hairs over the course of many years will affect the follicles’ ability to grow hair, or new hair will simply grow in shorter or thinner. Traction alopecia is common after years of wearing tight hair styles such as weaves, corn rows, and extremely tight pony tails.
Combating thinning hair, hair loss with Red Light Therapy and Minoxidil
If you see hair starting to thin or begin experiencing hair loss, there are options available; the two treatment options backed by clinical research and testing, and FDA clearance, are Minoxidil (the active ingredient in GroWell’s topical solution) and low-level light therapy (LLLT), also commonly known as Red Light Therapy. Though they work differently, both are proven to stimulate new, fuller hair growth. One advantage of Red Light Therapy is that it excites hair follicles into activity with no known side effects. It’s also considered a more convenient treatment, easily delivered in short treatments a few days a week, using such products as the GroWell cap for hair growth. For the first six months, users receive 20 to 25 minutes of light therapy every other day. After this initial treatment period, they only need to receive LLLT once or twice a week to maintain growth. In contrast, hair loss sufferers who rely on Minoxidil for hair growth must apply the topical two times a day, every day for as long as they want to have hair.
Minoxidil and Red Light Therapy/LLLT are realistic choices for women who experience hair thinning or loss. However, once a hair follicle has been damaged or is dead, it cannot be revived – you can’t grow hair from dead hair follicles. So while LLLT can help many women who experience thinning hair, the strength of results depends on the health of the follicle.
In sum, everyone experiences hair loss but it’s no secret that it affects men and women very differently. Men certainly aren’t happy about it when it happens, but they’re expected to just accept it and nicknames or jokes about balding are pretty common among men who sometimes just take their fate in their own hands and shave their heads completely. Contrast that to when a woman’s hair is thinning: no one expects a woman to simply accept balding as normal. There are no good-natured nicknames, friends and family don’t joke about it (certainly not in front of them!), and for most women shaving her head is not an option. For a woman, losing her hair is, in a word, unacceptable. But what can be done?
While many over-the-counter shampoos, gels, supplements, and certain food items claim to assist in hair growth, these products often aren’t verified by clinical testing or FDA clearance. The GroWell Hair Growth Cap is a home-use, hands-free way to see what Red Light Therapy can do for your hair loss that’s FDA-Cleared, safe, proven effective and comes with a 12-month Money Back Guarantee. What do you have to lose except more hair?
