Hair Loss Is Nothing To Trifle With






by Will Schlepinger


The words "androgenic alopecia" might sound like gobbledygook to the ordinary person, but when translated to "female pattern baldness", the cause of 50% or more cases of hair loss in women, this is no laughing matter at all.

What Does Female Hair Loss Mean in Simple Terms?

Female hair loss can be inherited from either the mother or father and is largely related to generics. One unique quality about the woman's hair follicles is the phenomenon of these follicles being able to mimic certain genetic traits -- when these follicles are contaminated by DHT, or dihydrotestosterone (a testosterone offshoot of sorts), this would cause old hair follicles to be shed, and colorless filaments of hair that are both shorter and thinner than regular strands to grow in their place. This peach-fuzz hair makes the scalp look thinner, and over time, the miniaturized hair follicles atrophy and die, causing permanent hair loss known as balding. Because the balding areas do not have any peach-fuzz hair on them, the scalp would usually manifest a glossy appearance.

Baldness is an unalterable condition. There is simply no way to replace a hair follicle that atrophied. In a sense, this is comparable to losing any other part of the human body, and of course we are not like worms who can grow themselves back independently even if cut into two and thus cannot reproduce our body parts; the same applies to hair follicles, which cannot be replaced by means of any female hair loss product.

The Roots of Female Pattern Hair Loss

Women can inherit the gene of thinning hair from either parent, which makes them no different from the masculine side of things. In women, testosterone is produced in the adrenal glands and the ovaries. Although testosterone gets converted to DHT in a woman's body, it cannot cause female hair loss due to the protective effects of estrogen and progesterone. These hormones reduce DHT production and block DHT's attachment to the hair follicle as long as they are present in adequate amounts. If a woman has a genetic predisposition to baldness, any condition that could facilitate the increase of DHT production or abet the decrease in estrogen and progesterone production can lead to thinning hair. In women, hair loss can start at any age after puberty, but in most cases it occurs with menopause. The normal production of female hormones drops drastically during menopause, lowering a woman's natural protection against thinning hair.

If hair loss occurs in pre-menopausal women, this might be an after-effect of hormonal imbalance; as such, anybody suffering from such a condition must seek treatment from their trusted health care professional and the appropriate medication.

However, there is an easier way to stop the process of balding for post-menopausal women, and this would usually be through a regimen of hormone replacement therapy. There may be times, though, when hormonal replacement therapy would not be a medical professional's best advice, but Rogaine 2% is a viable alternative to such. Rogaine is able to rejuvenate hair follicles and facilitate their regrowth, but has no effect whatsoever on hair follicle atrophy which starts from the female body's overproduction of DHT.




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