Mane is the crowning glory of mankind. A healthy mane would make you glow from inside giving you more confidence to carry yourself poised irrespective of the place. Hair fall is an increasing concern world over, not just due to less care to hair but also other factors. It’s better to know everything about your hair and the root causes for hair fall, for better hair care and to curb hair loss.
What is Hair?
Hair is a thread like structure that grows from your skin and is made up of a protein called keratin. The actual life of your hair is at its root which is starts deep inside your scalp. This is where the nourishment or the problem lies. The long shaft of hair grows from follicles present in your scalp. These follicles produce new hair cells every year and push the old ones outwards.
So the hair that is actually visible with all the shine and bounce is nothing but a bunch of dead keratin cells. The actual activity as mentioned earlier happens inside the follicle. Medically, an average adult can lose up to 100 hairs daily while have about 100,000 to 150,000 hair on their scalp at any point in time.
Hair Growth Cycles
The hair follicles in your scalp have their own life cycles and almost 90% of your hair follicles on your scalp are most likely in the growing phase. However, the lifecycle of your hair follicle depends on your age and other health factors. The phases in the life cycle of hair are Anagen, Catagen and Telogen. Anangen is the period of active hair growth lasting up to six years. Catagen is hair growth that lasts two to three weeks and Telogen is the resting period lasting about two to three months, at the end of which that particular hair falls and new hair begins its lifecycle.
Why Does Your Hair Fall?
Although it is natural for an average human to shed 100 hairs a day and that every hair has to go through the life cycle, sometimes it is seen that the falling of hair happens but the growth phase has either stopped or slowed down. This is true in most cases and there are facts to tell you why.
- Age – As you grow older, your hair growth becomes slower. This is called involuntary alopecia which occurs naturally. In this your hair thins out and hair follicles go into resting phase resulting in shorter hair which is also fewer in number.
- Hormones – Hormonal imbalances can lead to hair loss. Androgen is a male hormone which is produces in the body of men and women. However, if these levels go high in women they experience severe hair fall, growth of hair in the chin and upper lip and so on. This can be treated medically to keep the hormone under control.
- Genes – Healthy hair can always be a gift from your parentage. Your hair growth genes can be inherited from either parent and could be the reason that you have great or not so great hair. Hence male and female pattern baldness is a genetically inherited form of hair loss.
- Medications – Some medications taken to treat certain illnesses can lead to hairfall. However, the good news in this case is that once you stop the medication, your hair growth will be back to the older self. This is only a temporary condition.
- Medical Conditions – Thyroid, anemia and anorexia can lead to hair fall. Once the condition is identified and corrective measures are taken, the hair fall problem will also get resolved.
- Diet – Last but not the least, diet plays the most important role in hair fall. A diet rich in protein minerals, iron, vitamin k, folates viz a balanced diet will ensure that you have healthy hair.
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