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When a Woman's Hair Thins, Panic Often Sets In

By Brian Alexis
Sep 10, 2009
Women are by no means safe from balding. While women rarely experience full-blown male pattern balding, the hair thinning that they do experience are often causes of depression and ultimately, a sense of inferiority and self-pity.

However, this does not have to be the case. Women need not suffer in silence, and they need not look in horror at falling hair. If women only went out of their way to identify the science behind balding, then they can seize the problem by the neck and fight it, head to head.

1. Self-Esteem And Hair

Why does society place such a premium on women's hair? It all has to do with ultimately, stereotypes. The gorgeous hair of Marilyn Monroe and other figures of Hollywood do not help erase the fact that real self-esteem has an arbitrary relationship with hair. Hair has nothing to do with self-esteem, ultimately.

However, we cannot tell everyone this. We cannot tell our friends, family and colleagues to simply back off and leave your thinning hair alone. This is why women attempt to compensate by using expensive hair care products. Ultimately, they still suffer the indignity of spending money on products that never solve the problem.

2. Why Women Suffer From Hair Loss

The question, as old as the science of hair, can be answered simply by looking at the chemistry behind hair production and its stoppage. When 5-alpha reductase, an enzyme acts upon the naturally occurring male hormone testosterone, hair cells cease to regenerate.

When hair cells stop reproducing themselves, the hair shafts fall off, with nothing to replace them. In men, the pattern of hair loss is often in sections. When one section recedes, another section follows, until 85% of the head is in the 'red' zone.

When all of the major sections of the scalp have receded, the more advanced thinning patterns occur. In the end, all that is left is the wreath of hair around the ears and near the back of the head. Fortunately, women rarely undergo all the seven patterns of the Norwood system. If they did, there would be more tears over lost hair than ever before.

3. Common Concealing Methods

Though women do not suffer from overly serious balding, the thinning is often very visible. When this happens, women often turn to aesthetics to solve the problem. When a part of the head is showing too much scalp already, women go to the salon to have their hair re-parted or re-styled to hide the scalp.

Usually, this works well until the top of the head experiences the same amount of hair loss as the formerly affected sections. Eventually, women just give up and stick to a hairstyle that gives the appearance of more volume, though the scalp is still visible.

Women who are in the perimenopausal stage often experience severe thinning of the hair. When the hairline recedes more than two inches, balding can often be identified even by ordinary passersby.

The diagnosis for balding is often carried out when a woman reaches her thirties. The condition is progressive, and unless some form of treatment is used, the condition will run its natural course.
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