Turning Up the Volume on Hair Loss

Wanting longer or thicker hair involves playing the long-game since hair grows slowly. This makes finding out WHY it’s falling out all the more important. Normally, we lose roughly 50 to 100 hairs a day in a natural hair cycle. This is balanced out by the number of hairs growing in, which is why natural hair loss shouldn’t be noticeable.

CAUSES

1. Hereditary: thinning hair may be hereditary. Take are look at your family history and ask yourself is your hair is thinning or do you have the genetics for thin hair?

2. Underlying medical conditions: thinning hair can be a “clue” or a symptom regarding a bigger picture about our overall health. I routinely check for an under-active thyroid, low iron stores, fasting insulin levels and hormonal imbalances when thinning hair is presented.

3. Stress: stress causes so many hormones to get out of balance! Let’s start with our “fight-or-flight” hormones used to help our species survive when deciding “do I fight this lion or should I run from it”. Now, chronic low-level stress leads to an overactive sympathetic nervous system and has our body focusing on preserving life-saving functions, and hair growth is not one of them! Stress also affects our sex hormones leading to an increase in insulin and testosterone in women and a drop in progesterone. Hormone imbalances are important to understand as the androgen testosterone can be converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which leads to male (and female) patterned baldness (androgenic alopecia). Let’s not forget that we also put physical stress on our hair when we use hot tools which leads to hair breakage and follow hair trends such as tight updo’s that pull on the hair follicle making it more likely to fall out. Additionally, an increase in stress can lead to an increase in the number follicles the telogen phase (resting phase). Meaning, your hair is no longer growing and will soon fall out. This concept is called telogen effluvium. There is also a medical condition where people may pull their hair out when under stress.

4. Post-partum: the sudden drop in estrogen levels after childbirth can lead to hair falling out in clumps! Make sure you have a supportive community, eat nutritious foods, and focus on stress management to allow for faster hair growth recovery.

5. Caloric restriction: nutritional deficiencies such as Vitamins B7, B9, B12, and iron play an important role in hair loss. Restrictive eating can lead to a deficiency in these nutrients and put stress on the body leading to a prioritization of these limited nutrients. Hair growth is not at the top of that list of priorities. Also consider hair is comprised of mostly keratin (a complex protein) built up of different amino acids and mostly disulphide bonds. Make sure you eat plenty cysteine rich foods (eggs, sunflower seeds, lentils, lean meats) to provide your body with the building blocks it needs to make hair growth more likely.

6. Medications: always take a look at the list of side effects from any medications that you’re taking if hair loss is new symptom for you.

TREATMENTS:

1. Correct nutritional deficiencies: when correcting for nutritional deficiencies, we often ask ourselves why did this issue occur? Is the diet lacking these nutrients, or is there gut malabsorption issue such as pernicious anemia. Investigating the root cause will lead to a better outcome than supplementation alone.

2. Topical melatonin spray: Did you know that hair follicles have functional melatonin receptor?! This is important as melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that has many roles involved with hair growth, when applied topically. It can protect against oxidative damage which contributes to premature greying (pollution, UV rays, smoking), it has also shown to extend the anogen phase (hair growth phase) of hair resulting in faster growth. A large multicenter study found that participants using a 0.0033% topical melatonin solution had a decrease in hair loss, improvements in hair texture and a reduction in seborrheic dermatitis. Melatonin also has antiandrogenic effects which may contribute to the treatment of male/female patterned baldness.

3. Essential oil: rosemary essential oil has been found to increase microcapillary perfusion, meaning it is a circulatory stimulant that helps to bring fresh, nutrient-rich, oxygenated blood to your hair follicles. Additionally, rosemary has antiandrogenic effects, used in the treatment of male/female patterned baldness. One study even found that rosemary was as effective as 2% minoxidil in the treatment of androgenic alopecia.

4. Treat underlying root causes: I like to recommend functional health testing whenever hair loss is coupled with other symptoms such as acne, weight loss or weight gain, fatigue, irregular menses, and an increase in facial or body hair.

5. Microneeding with PRP: once we’ve determined why thinning hair is happening for you. I like to recommend scalp microneedling with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for faster and fuller hair growth.

6. Medications: Minoxidil, Spironolactone, and Finasteride are different medications that can be prescribed for thinning hair or hair loss. These pharmaceuticals have different actions including vasodilation to anti-androgenic effects. Talk to your doctor to see if this is the right path to treating your hair loss.

I always tell patients that testing is important to determine the root cause of thinning hair to make an effective plan.