Factors that influence hair loss

Stress

When the body experiences stress caused by a traumatic experience, nutritional deficiency, or illness, the rate of hair loss can increase. For example, a 39-year-old patient of Dr. Rassman lost his 4-year-old child to cancer and within just a few months, the man lost all but the permanent wreath of hair around his head. He probably had the genetics for this balding pattern, but only expressed that pattern when it was induced by this extreme stressful situation. Women’s hair seems to be more sensitive to the effects of stress than men’s hair.

This may be because women with a genetic predisposition to hair loss usually have a higher percentage of fragile miniaturized hair, which is hair with thinner than normal hair shaft thickness. But unlike in men, the hair loss in women is often not permanent or complete.

Stress generally causes a type of hair loss referred to as telogen effluvium, which is very different from androgenetic alopecia. Telogen effluvium is the reversible shedding of hair in the resting phase when the body senses, for reasons that are not clear, that it needs to divert its energies. Therefore, stress temporarily changes the amount of hair that’s shed, but the lost hair is likely to grow back.

Lack of blood supply

Some doctors assert that a lack of blood supply contributes to hair loss. Bald skin gradually loses some of its blood supply and as a result becomes thin and shiny. These changes, however, come only after the loss of hair and is not the cause of the hair loss. Hair follicles are some of the most rapidly metabolizing cells in the body. Growing hair requires the proper oxygen and nutrition that comes with a good blood supply in a healthy body. When hair follicles are transplanted into skin grafts or scar tissue, both of which may have a relatively poor blood supply, the presence of the grafted hair causes the local blood supply to increase. The end result is that as the hair grows, so does the blood supply.

Environmental issues

Can you eat yourself into a full head of hair? Probably not, but environmental factors, including what you eat, can cause hair loss. The following list breaks down some of the more prominent factors:

Selenium: The presence of selenium in food and water is common around the world, but continued intake of selenium to the point of selenium toxicity produces hair loss, among other effects.

Lead, cadmium, mercury, iron, aluminum, and copper: These are the most common environmental causes of hair loss. Many of these substances are found in fish, reflecting environmental contamination in the world’s oceans. Lead may also be found in hair dyes and paint. Just how much of these elements must be present to cause hair loss is unknown, and a direct connection is hard to prove. Some labs will analyze hair for the presence of these minerals, but their presence doesn’t necessarily mean they caused hair loss.

Air pollution and smoking: These factors may also exacerbate the genetic process carried by potentially balding men. Scientists believe toxins and carcinogens found in polluted air can stop hair growing by blocking the mechanisms that produce the protein from which hair is made.

Doctors hope that science will discover ways to treat pollutant contributions to hair loss with topical lotions to block the effects of the pollutants on the hair follicles.