Because it is more unusual and less accepted for a woman to have hair loss than a man, you may have already had many encounters with friends and even strangers who are forthcoming with advice about the cause of your problem.
As awkward as these situations may be, these people probably had the best intentions for you. Unfortunately, even the best of intentions can be bad for you if you are not dealing with the facts.
Everyone, from laymen, to so-called experts, to fellow suffers has an opinion about what causes hair loss in women. Some of it is halfway legitimate and the rest is probably wrong.
You can follow non-expert advice, changing different aspects of your life, but not solve your problem possibly making it worse. Or, you can follow expert advice to definitively identify your cause of female hair loss and, more importantly, solve the problem for good.
When There Is No Doubt, It Is Hormones
There are many reasons why women lose their hair. However, the most common of all causes of hair loss in women is hormones.
Women are very hormonal creatures. Naturally, there are going to be times when hormones fluctuate. This is not specifically a reference to the monthly cycle, but instead to periods of natural but extreme change.
Periods of extreme but natural hormonal change involve most of the stages in life. The end of puberty and beginning of adulthood normally is not one of the hair loss in women causes. However, there have been incidents of hair fall occurring.
The end of pregnancy and the following 6 months are a time when a woman’s body “resets” its hormone levels. You have been sending “grow” signals throughout your body including to your hair that would have normally fallen out gradually.
Once the baby is born the body resets, all of these hairs suddenly stop growing and fall out all at once. It may be a shock and the last thing a new mother needs, but it is completely normal.
Finally, as a woman enters menopause there is often a period of time with high hair fall. Your body had been highly dependent on estrogen and now you are no longer producing it. As your body begins to adjust to the new norm, the hair fall should taper off.
As you can see, hormone related hair fall is perfectly natural in these instances. You may be uncomfortable and the hair loss can be extreme, but it is normal. If it has not passed within 6 months to a year, this is a clear sign of a deeper hormone problem.
A Deeper Problem Is Harder To Recognize
Deep, complicated hormone problems are the most common of all female hair loss causes, but can be the most difficult to identify.
Even though hair fall is one of the first symptoms, it may be a while before you notice the loss. There are many other symptoms of hormone malfunction, so it is easiest to see if you have both problems.
Acne sometimes goes hand in hand with hair loss. Almost all hormonal hair fall is a result of DHT, a concentrated male hormone that no healthy adult female should have. DHT also causes acne. Acne should really only occur in growing teenage girls. If you have both acne and hair loss, this is a dead giveaway that your hair loss is hormonal.
The other hormonal symptoms are not as physically noticeable. For example, birth control causes regular “false” cycles. After quitting birth control, you may have found it exceedingly difficult to get pregnant or may not have a cycle.
The artificial estrogen blocked DHT, but now you cannot produce it naturally, one of the fundamental causes of female hair loss. In general, any abnormal cycle indicates hormonal problems leading to hair loss.
Interestingly enough, your mood or behavior is also a clue to hormonal issues. As you learned, DHT should not be present in healthy women. In men, it is the fuel for sex drive and aggression.
If you have been experiencing an unusually high sex drive, abnormal aggression, or generally risky, manic behavior this should clue you in to a DHT problem.
These are just a few of the signs of hormonal female hair loss. Keep in mind, these signs show up before hair loss, sometimes by a few years. No matter what your peers say, you should now be able to recognize if your problem is hormonal or not. Remember, you are the only true expert on your body.
Now that you know what the problem is, it is time to do something about it. It is a complicated problem, but here is an easy solution. To get complete, expert advice on controlling DHT and curing hair loss, check out the Hair Loss Black Book .
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