The Root of Hair Loss

Lately there are an increasing number of highly publicized advertisements made by numerous companies claiming their products or treatments to be able to effectively treat hair loss. However, we do not know how effective these drugs or treatment programs really are. But as hair is of such great importance to the self image of a person in this current world of fashion, many people would often gamble on their precious savings just to get their hair back. So before signing up on one of the many anti hair loss programs, let us look at the root of this medical problem, or shall I say cosmetic problem of hair loss.

There are 3 phases of hair growth namely anagen or growing phase, catagen or resting phase and telogen or shedding phase. The anagen or growing phase last for 3 to 7 years and at any one time, 80 to 90 percent of scalp hairs are in this growing phase. The resting phase or catagen phase lasts 3 to 4 weeks and at any one time 10 to 20 percent of scalp hairs are in catagen phase. Finally the shedding or telogen phase accounts for less than 1 percent of hair at any one time and that rounds up to roughly 50 to 100 scalp hairs being shed each day.

There are several causes of hair loss and a thorough history and physical examination by your doctor is needed to diagnose the actual cause of hair loss. This should not be taken lightly as there are a group of causes that can lead to hair loss with scarring such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and tertiary syphilis. However, androgenetic alopecia or male pattern baldness is by far the most common type of hair loss and it is also the only type that is self treatable. Despite its name, it can occur in both sexes and appears to have an inherited pattern although the exact mode of inheritance is unclear. What we are clear though is the excess of male hormone known as dihydrotestosterone (DHT) does have a role to play in androgenetic alopecia.