When it comes to female hair restoration, there are a wide number of different options available that all depend on the reason behind the hair loss. For example, somebody who is losing their hair for a hormonal reason is not going to be a suitable candidate for a hair transplant as the hormones will just continue to cause the hair to fall out. It’s important to start by finding the root (pun intended) cause for your hair loss to find the right restoration solution for you.
So lets start with hair loss then. The majority of people will lose somewhere between 50 to 100 strands of their hair every single day for natural reasons, and if they’ve washed their hair that day it can be in excess of 250 strands. If you don’t want to waste your entire day waiting to see strands snap and counting them all, then that’s absolutely fine because losing hair at this rate is completely normal.
In fact it’s when you’re waking up to find large amounts on your pillow or when there’s large clumps in your brush whilst brushing your hair (without excessive force). There are other visual cues that will allow you to notice your hair loss, as in women it tends to be more of a gradual loss that can start to show over more of their scalp when pulling back their hair to tie it up. But no matter how you’ve noticed it, learning why it’s happened is important. There are a huge number of reasons why your hair can start falling out, it could be genetics, it could be hormones, it could even be some kind of medical problem, but it’s important to find out why before finding a solution.
What are the reasons behind my hair loss?
Normally with genetic hair loss, it’s very common to see similar (or in some cases greater) amounts of hair loss in older female relatives such as parents, aunties and grandparents. By using magnification to take a detailed look at the follicles, this can show whether the telltale signs for female pattern hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia, are visible. Androgenetic alopecia is a hereditary condition that is actually the most common kind of hair loss within women and although it’s more commonly seen in older age, it can happen at any time. Typically, in women who suffer with this form of hair loss, when a hair follicle is shed it is replaced by a smaller and thinner version of itself until it eventually stops growing altogether.
When the reason behind the hair loss is medical, this is where finding the cause can be more difficult. From things such as pregnancy, which should be considered a wonderful thing, through to autoimmune diseases and skin conditions like psoriasis, the underlying medical condition that is causing the hair loss can be difficult to pinpoint. It’s possible that one of more of these could be active at the same time and it’s very important to speak with a GP or consultant beforehand to check as far into this avenue as possible.
Another possible cause is self-inflicted and even the way you style your hair, for example in tight braids or cornrows, can lead to a form of hair loss known as traction alopecia. In fact anything that can be done to manipulate the hair – dyes, brushing, blow drying, curling wands, straighteners and chemical treatments – can result in unnecessary damage and can cause early breaking to the hair. Luckily, for the majority of these issues, the hair is likely to grow back and the loss can be reversed using female hair restoration treatments.
So how do I go about restoring my hair?
For any of the above, if the loss is becoming severe, hair restoration is the best way to be able to renew (and in some cases even regrow) your hair. The good news is that every single form of hair restoration surgery that we offer is available for women as well as men, although there are a few small differences between the surgeries and the way that they are performed.
For example, scalp micropigmentation surgery for women is completely different that scalp micropigmentation surgery for men. For a start, the vast majority of women don’t want to be walking round rocking a “freshly shaved” head look and instead look to use this form of procedure in a slightly different way. By injecting the pigment into the scalp, this can help to create the appearance of depth, thickness and shadow and make it look like the hair is thicker than it actually is (giving you less of a balding/thinning look when people look at your hair).
Hair transplant surgeries are also slightly different for women too. For men, it’s more typical that the hair loss is grouped around the top of the scalp and the hairline, with male pattern baldness involving the receding hairline, into the baldness on the top of the scalp and then finally complete baldness. For women however, the hair loss is usually different and actually tends to be more thinning on a general scale than receding and gradual thinning. However, the basics are still the same and as long as there is still enough hair on the rear and sides of the scalp, a hair transplant surgery is still a good option to bring back your hair.
Lastly, medication is an option for female hair restoration too (although this is more likely to slow and stop the hair loss than to regrow it). This differs from male hair loss medication in a small way and it’s just down to the different hormones that the medication is targeting, and women should never take male hair loss medication as it can cause additional problems on top of their hair loss.
So there we have it, there are a number of reasons behind hair loss within women and whether your loss is for a medical, genetic, hormonal or any other reason, there are a wide range of solutions available for you. Start by speaking to a GP or medical consultant to rule out any underlying conditions, and then make a start on your female hair restoration journey by getting in touch with a hair transplant surgeon today!