Hair Science And Type Of Hair Loss

Notice that even if humans shave their scalp, there are no life-threatening effects that would result from the none-existence of hair in one’s body. Scalp and body hair is not really essential in human’s physical health. However, hair is a big help to protect humans or all kinds of mammals for that matter, from excessive cold or heat.

The hair on the scalp grows at 6 inches length annually. That is 0.3 to 0.4 mm everyday. There are no definite season or cycle in the shedding of human hair. One may experience hair loss any moment. At the same time, random number of hair strands may undergo any of the three stages of hair shedding and hair growth. These stages are anagen, catagen and telogen. During the anagen phase, 1 centimeter is added to the existing hair length every 28 days and the scalp remains in this active growth stage for at least two years till six years. The catagen phase, the next stage after anagen, is the end of the growth of the active hair. Catagen stage is the phase where the body produces new hair and usually lasts from two to three weeks. The last stage is the telogen, wherein eight percent of the hair is usually at rest. When a hair undergoing telogen phase has been pulled out from the scalp, it will reveal a dry, white, hard material at the root and typically lasts for about 100 days for the hairs located at the scalp.

Everybody is experiencing these three stages of hair growth. However, due to several aspects, from environment to genetics, the result is varied, causing alopecia or baldness for some. And since there are different causes, there are also different types of hair loss and treatments.

The most common type of hair loss is the Androgenetic Alopecia or the so-called Male/Female Pattern Baldness. Hair loss can be seen on most top parts of the scalp. For men, receding hair line is the most visible sign of androgentic alopecia.

The second most common type of hair loss is the Telogen Effluvium (TE). This type of alopecia is commonly related to severe or sudden stress that causes the hair to shed. Although happens to men and women, the latter are usually affected by TE due to certain events that only they can experience such as childbirth, discontinued intake of oral contraceptives, and miscarriage. In most cases, TE is a temporary phase of hair loss and hair will soon grow back when the person has already recovered from stress.

We also have the auto-immune hair disease called Alopecia Areata which can be first experienced during childhood. Like the two mentioned types of alopecia, it also affects both men and women. The first sign of Alopecia Areata is the patchy hair loss usually happens on the scalp. One who has Alopecia Areata may also undergo severe hair loss causing all of the scalp hair to shed. There are also some cases of Alopecia Areata where one does not only experience scalp hair loss but loss of all body hair as well.