Uncommon Baldness Causes

Human Beings are subject to a host of hair loss factors other than the typical pattern baldness. Being aware of these other causes is major step towards regaining your hair. If your hair loss does not fit into the mold of pattern baldness, any of these might be the reason:

• Cancer patients sometimes lose their hair when they elect to undergo chemotherapy treatment. The drugs used in chemotherapy frequently cause a temporary loss of hair, noticeable on the head and eyebrows, because they kill all rapidly dividing cells, not just the cancerous ones. Radiation to the scalp, as happens when radiotherapy is applied to the head for the treatment of certain cancers there, can cause baldness of the irradiated areas.
• Temporary shedding or telogen effluvium is very common. Large amounts of scalp hairs are shifted into a shedding phase for any number of reasons including a hormonal imbalance, poor nutrition, a drug side effect, or from trauma and stress. Any and all of these can be caused from a variety of occurrences including childbirth, undergoing a major surgical procedure, poisoning, or any severely stressful situation.
• Breaking of hair from styling treatments. Extreme damage from specific hair styling such as tight braiding or "corn-rowing" is called scarring alopecia and leads to hair loss on the top of the scalp from the scarring of the scalp area.
• Twisting or pulling of hair can causes patchy hair loss. Often this is compulsive behavior and it has been labeled Trichotillomania. While most associated with children, it can occur in adults. The hairs are not actually gone but are broken. They break near the scalp causing short 'exclamation mark' hairs. This is a psychological and/or emotional condition and requires the help of a mental health professional.
• Patchy areas of total hair loss are a signal that something else is going on such as an autoimmune disorder called Alopecia areata.' These can lead to anything from diffuse thinning to extensive areas of baldness with "islands" of retained hair. Medical examination is necessary to establish a diagnosis.
• Hair loss in the temporal areas that sometimes begins in childhood and is called triangular alopecia. This hair loss ranges from major thinning to complete loss.
• Some medications can cause hair loss. Reviewing the side effects of all medications can potentially reveal the causes of hair loss.
• Certain skin diseases such as leprosy can lead to hair loss among other things. Some fungal infections in particular can cause hair loss. If any disease leads to death, sever hair loss will eventually follow.
• Various vitamin deficiencies. Iron deficiencies rarely cause baldness in women but can contribute to thinning. Vitamins A and C can improve vision which then leads to the easier identification of baldness in the mirror.
• Underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism can cause hair loss typically in the front of the hair and the eyebrows.
• Other medical disorders may exist- Skin biopsies or other tests beyond the hair will be required. Tumors, outgrowths from the skin, and sebaceous cysts can cause localized baldness.
• Some unusual scenarios only APPEAR to be hair loss. Childbirth can create an appearance of hair loss when in fact this is not what is happening. Hair can actually thicker during pregnancy due to increased circulating estrogens. After childbirth, when the estrogen levels fall back to normal pre-pregnancy levels, any extra hair drops out. A similar situation occurs in women taking the fertility-stimulating drug clomiphene. This does beg the question: Why are drug companies not use these facts to develop more effective hair replacement drugs for women?
• Hypothyroidism can cause hair loss, typically frontal, and is particularly associated with thinning of the outer third of the eyebrows (syphilis also can cause loss of the outer third of the eyebrows)