Before you start panicking over your lost hair, just remember that it’s normal to lose up to 50 to 100 strands a day! But if you’re noticing more than a couple of stray hairs clogging your shower drain, or you find yourself shocked at the amount of hair on your pillow after you wake up, you may be suffering from moderate hair loss!Hair loss can occur because of disruptions in your daily life. Things like a poor diet,sudden traumatic stress and aggressive hair treatments can cause your hair to fall more easily, giving you a receding hair line with thinning hair.
Reason #1: Hormones
Hormonal changes can result in hair loss! Events such as pregnancy and menopause can both cause your hair volume to undergo drastic changes. In the case of pregnancy, your body gets a boost of oestrogen, which slows down the hair’s growth cycle and keeps your luscious locks intact. But, once you give birth, hormones normalize and all that volume begins to fall out, resulting in post-natal hair loss. During menopause, your oestrogen levels decrease overall and this can also result in increased hair fall. An excess of male hormones can also cause hair to fall out. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a derivative of the male hormone testosterone, is the enemy of hair follicles on your head. Simply put, under certain conditions, DHT shrinks your hair follicles, making it impossible for healthy hair to survive.
Reason #2: Poor Diet
Your diet plays an essential role in hair growth. If you want full, luscious locks, eat less oily food and instead, eat a diet rich in vitamin B12, a protein found in fish, beef, lamb and dairy. B12 helps in the formation of red blood cells that carry crucial oxygen to your tissues, including hair follicles. Hair loss from a poor diet is usually temporary, as long as you correct the vitamin deficiency and eat a more balanced diet. However, it can take up to a year for your hair to return to its thick healthy state.
Reason #3: Stress
While normal, everyday stress doesn’t typically affect hair growth, extreme stress from a traumatic event, rapid weight loss or major surgery, or prolonged periods of high stress levels (e.g. getting used to a new job) can affect your health in major ways, causing hair thinning.