Hair Today Gone Tomorrow : Female Hair Loss

FPL: Female Pattern Hair Loss 

The most common cause of hair loss in women is “androgenetic alopecia” which basically means FPHL or Female Pattern Hair Loss, the "chicks" version of: aging/hormones/genetics affecting hair loss. It has been fairly well established that hair loss issues between the sexes is completely different. Not only does male pattern baldness ‘reveal’ differently, scientists believe the solutions are also down a different path than mens.

 

The men already have a quick-fix pill that works very well (Propecia), while the women still only have Minoxidil (Rogaine) as the only FDA approved drug to combat hair loss. I don’t even include minoxidil in the 10,000HEADS Protocol, although clients are more than welcome to use it. My work & research at Killer Strands is focused mainly on the issue of Womens hair loss as is this blog, I do see & help young men at the clinic, but my focus has been forced to narrow lately.

Killer Strands would like to introduce you to a new way of understanding the female hair loss plaguing America today. By recent estimates 40 million women are suffering from one form or another of hair loss and the numbers continue to rise. In order for women to understand why the 10 steps of this program work, I have found it helps to educate and explain the “HAIR GROWTH CYCLE" in a little different method, one that is clear – simple – and concise . When I take the time to explain the whole process at the clinic, I can just see light bulbs going on over heads.

Every person is born with every single hair follicle they will have for their lifetime, on the body, at birth. As a tiny baby you are born with 5 million hair follicles throughout your entire body, with 1 million on the head and 100,000 on the scalp. There are 2 types of hairs within those, vellus and terminal…vellus are the short fuzzy, soft ones that do not grow, while the “terminal” hairs are just that, terminal.

Think about that, as that is what will help you understand the reason behind alopecia, the hairs on your scalp have a life-span: they sprout, grow, shed, rest, then begin the process all over again.

Now there are technical names for all of these stages which you can see on the chart, but what is important here, is that each and every single hair on your head sprouts, grows, sheds & rests. . . shedding is a mandatory part of new hair growth. One hair remains in its growth phase for approx. 4 years (fluctuates by person) – at the end of the growth phase it is shed {hair fall}; three months later another grows in its place. When the hair is shed there is the period of awaiting cell regeneration … which begins another new hair… and ‘that’ is where the diminishing numbers come from and the noticeable hair loss begins. As we age the hair that once grew for 4 years – the next time it may only grow for 3 1/2 years, the next time for 3 years and so on. 

Therefore, if you had 50,000 hairs growing for 4 years when you were 20 years old and then every 4-5 years the amount went down another 2-3,000...you can see fairly well how thinning happens and that when it does happen it has been happening for months that you were not even aware of. The result: an even...all-over or “DIFFUSE” pattern of hair loss which explains WPHL or women’s pattern hair loss  occurs. I believe that the hair SHIFT term that I coined is the result of 10 years accumulation of changes within the body (for one reason or another)resulting in a distinct and noticeable change in a womans hair.

Every single hair on your head sheds, that is the completely normal process within the normal growth cycle of each and every hair. In order for a new hair to grow in  - - -  the old one MUST shed, so the “cycle” can continue along its merry way! Many people panic about hair shedding, 95% of the time it is within the normal range, it has just been combined with a persons aging & hormones, so it seems more severe, which is understandable.

Compare the hair to the eyes to make it easier to understand. The eyesight of a 20 year old is at its peak, with many having 20/20 vision, move forward 20 years – and reading a menu all of a sudden becomes difficult & blurry, people panic 95% of the time its just age. Same thing with your hair, it was at its peak when you are about 20, from there it begins its retreat until one day the combination of your aging and some abnormal shedding just seems to hit you around about the same week When you are about 30, you will notice your first or second hairSHIFT. Many women are having babies around this age, and having a baby can do both make your hair thicker or make it thinner….there is just not one way it will go. If you were to implement the entire 10,000heads program, religiously you have a very good chance the hairSHIFT you have will be a ‘good” one. That is one fact we are absolutely sure of.

Each individual hair is formed inside a hair bulb deep in the hair follicle. The follicle is a tiny but powerful factory, which throughout many people’s lifetime hardly ever stops working. From birth to sometimes as much as a century in some people, the follicle continues to produce hairs! Each hair grows for years, it is shampooed, conditioned, cut, blown dry, coloured, bleached, permed…none of these treatments affects the growth of the hair in the hair bulb, even though some may radically damage the hair shaft. Finally the hair falls out, rests for a little while then produces yet another new hair! That is the HAIR GROWTH CYCLE, the cell regeneration that goes on in the hair follicle is the most prolific on the body, coming in second is the spine.

PHASES of the hair GROWTH cycle
Anagen 1000 days
Catagen 10 days
Telogen 100 days

Hair grows ½ inch per month, and faster in the Spring. Mens anagen phase is shorter than womens so genetically they are already pre-disposed to shorter hair then women.