Why You're Losing Hair, and What You Can Do About It

Hair loss can affect everyone, whether you’re male or female. If you’re suffering from signs of hair loss, understanding the root cause of your hair loss problem can help you decide what to do next. 

CAUSES OF HAIR LOSS

Genes

Does your whole family have thick, wavy hair? Perhaps you inherited your soft, straight hair from your mother? Genetic factors play a large role in determining the state of your hair. This includes hair loss patterns as well. This is especially so for cases of male pattern baldness, where you can inherit a sensitivity to DHT (dihydrotestosterone) (see point 3), a male sex hormone that causes hair loss in men.

Ageing

Like the rest of our body, hair needs nutrients to grow. When we age, our body’s metabolism slows down, our blood circulation gets sluggish, and our absorption of nutrients from our diet becomes less efficient. Fewer nutrients get delivered through the bloodstream to our hair follicles, stunting hair growth and shortening the active growth phase of our hair, causing hair to fall off faster and grow back slower. This is the reason for hair thinning as we age.

While we cannot stop our body from aging, we can slow down the level of deterioration with a healthy lifestyle. Eating a nutritious diet and staying active keeps our metabolism healthy, and also provides hair with essential nutrients to grow well

In addition, incorporating hair products like a nutrient-rich shampoo or a hair tonic in your daily haircare regime helps to further boost nutrient supply, ensuring that sluggish hair follicles get ample energy to grow and thrive.

Hormones

Our endocrine system plays a large part in regulating our body’s various functions. Hormones act as messengers to the rest of our body, sending instructions for various cells to behave a certain way. Hormonal fluctuations can send our body out of balance, which can also affect our hair growth patterns. 

For females, changes in estrogen and progesterone can lead to hair loss. These female hormones help to keep your hair in the anagen (growing) phase, which helps hair stay on your head longer and perhaps even grown faster. That’s why pregnant ladies often sport a head of lush hair. Conversely, the drop in these hormones post-pregnancy and during menopause leads to thinning hair.

Male pattern hair loss is caused by a sensitivity to DHT (dihydrotestosterone). DHT is a male sex hormone that shrinks hair follicles over time, causing them to absorb fewer nutrients, which stunts their growth and leads to baldness. The more DHT you have, the higher the likelihood of hair loss, and sensitivity to DHT exacerbates the problem.

Environment 

Are you suffering from itchiness, redness or general scalp sensitivity? If you are living in a polluted environment, air particles like smoke and dust can irritate the scalp and cause these symptoms. 

Those working in a high heat environment or outdoors with prolonged sun exposure might also be prone to hair and scalp damage which can then progress into hair loss.

Protecting your hair with by hair serums and doing regular hair detox treatments (like the TCR Detox Wrap) can help to prevent toxin accumulation and keep your hair healthy.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle factors often play a part in causing hair loss. Stress, a lack of sleep and a poor diet can affect our body functions, which in turn damages our hair growth processes. 

Frequent chemical hair services like bleaching, dyeing and straightening can also damage the hair structure. Likewise, using inappropriate hair products will cause scalp imbalances, leading to scalp sensitivity, itchy or oily scalp, dandruff and hair loss.

If you love pulling your hair back into a tight ponytail or sport similar hairstyles, know that this can cause strain in your follicles in the long run and result in hair loss. Also, changing your hair parting regularly can help prevent hair thinning in that area.

MEDICAL CONDITIONS

Last but not least, hair loss can happen because of medical conditions. This can be due to a side effect of a drug or medical treatment. In cases of autoimmune disorders like alopecia areata, alopecia totalis or alopecia univeralis, the body’s immune system starts attacking hair follicles by mistake, causing hair to fall. Sometimes wounds, injuries or infections (fungal, bacterial) damage scalp tissue in certain parts, leading to bald patches. 

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PREVENT HAIR LOSS

Although some causes of hair loss cannot be helped, lifestyle and environmental factors can be tweaked so that we give our hair the best chance of regeneration. Managing stress, getting enough sleep, eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet, and using well-formulated, nutrient-rich hair products can go a long way in improving the state of our hair. 

Leading a healthy lifestyle not only helps prevent hair loss but also makes us healthier and happier in general - prolonging our health span so that we can age gracefully, with a head of healthy hair.

A Nutrient-Rich Hair Range that can Prevent Hair Loss

The Cosmetic Republic (TCR) is a brand trusted by doctors and scalp professionals in Europe. All TCR products are paraben-free and contain micro-encapsulated technology that delivers nutrients deep into hair follicles.