18-Oct-11 3:30 PM CST
Some Facts About Seasonal Hair Loss
Have you spotted a few extra hairs on your hairbrush in recent weeks? If so, it is probably part of a natural cycle that has been observed -- seasonal hair loss in men and women. Research suggests that the this process is evolutionary. The body keeps more "resting" hairs on your head during the summer to protect your scalp. These hairs fall away in early autumn in slightly larger amounts than normal.
Seasonal hair loss is natural and reversible.
The normal human hair on the scalp consists of about 100,000 hair follicles. Each healthy hair follicle is capable of hair re-growth innumerable times in its lifetime. According to the study, "Seasonality of Hair Shedding in Healthy Women Complaining of Hair Loss," published in the journal Dermatology by scientists in Sweden, autumn makes adult men and women lose more hair than in the other seasons.
The normal rate of hair shedding is about 50-100 hairs a day. The life cycle of a human hair is between two and six years, with 90 percent of hair in the growth stage while the remaining 10 percent is in the resting stage before it falls out.
The resting stage lasts around two to six months, then after the hair falls out the hair follicle rests for approximately three months before the life cycle starts up again.
But researchers Michael Kunz, Burkhardt Seifert and Ralph M. Trüeb found that some seasonal changes can trigger hair shedding to occur as much as twice as fast as normal. In one study, researchers tracked 800 women over six months and found autumn was the prime time for hair loss.
The team found women had the most "resting" hairs in July, which meant they started falling out around 100 days later in October.
It appears as though the rate of seasonal hair shedding and hair regrowth varies from person to person, but it is important to understand that a fluctuation in hair growth or shedding due to seasonal variations is believed to be a normal process and is a biological trigger to protect you. Scientists hypothesize that the body holds onto hair during the summer as a way of protecting the scalp from hot sun and damaging rays.
As soon as there is a change in the season, the seasonal pattern in hair regrowth or shedding are replaced by more typical patterns. This temporary hair loss not only affects the scalp hair growth but also hair growth on the thighs, arms, and face.
One particularly important implication of these findings has to do with the effectiveness (or apparent lack thereof) of hair loss treatments and research into potential pharmacologic therapies. As the researchers note:
"The existence of seasonal fluctuations in hair growth and shedding complicates the assessment of pharmacological effects. Awareness of these fluctuations is prerequisite to providing the correct cause and prognosis to the patient, ensuring patient compliance with therapy, but it also has potentially serious implications for investigations with new hair-growth-promoting agents: depending on the stage of periodicity in growth and shedding of hair for a particular subject, the heterogeneity of included subjects may be enough to distort the clinical efficacy results and the perceived benefit of an investigational agent. In the active stage of seasonal telogen effluvium, the involved hair follicles would probably fail to respond to the therapeutic agent, which may cause a false-negative result. In the recovery stage, the increased amounts of spontaneously regrowing hair might be interpreted falsely as a positive result."
Both patient and doctor must take the potential of seasonal hair loss into consideration when considering how hair loss treatments are progressing.
So how might you intervene on what appear to be natural cycles? Results of some experiments suggest reducing exposure to daylight may diminish or eliminate seasonal hair shedding.
Researchers have observed that minimal exposure to daylight hours modifies the melatonin secretion rate from the pineal gland, and this in turn affects hormones and their receptors that are present in the skin of the scalp. Since hormone receptors play a role in hair loss, exposure to daylight may have an impact on hair shedding.
Of course, seasonal hair loss is just one cause of hair loss and we recommend arranging a free consultation with Dr. Arocha if you have noticed unusual patterns you would like to address.
Click a star to rate!
Rating: 0.00 / 5.00
-
0 ratings
Comments:
•
del.icio.us
digg
facebook
For additional information on this Hair Restoration News article, please contact:
Dan Keeney
Source: Arocha Hair Restoration
http://www.dallashairloss.com
Related Documents:
Content Tags: hair restoration news • hair loss news
Tags: arocha autumn balding hair loss research seasonal study
Other Recent Articles:
- State of Hair Restoration Report is Out 31-Oct-11
- Some Facts About Seasonal Hair Loss 18-Oct-11
- The Most Popular Hair Loss Articles from September 5-Oct-11
- Research: Loss of Spouse Could Worsen Female Hair Loss 3-Oct-11
- Myth Buster: No Such Thing As "Scarless" Surgery 28-Sep-11
- Which Articles are Most Popular? 6-Sep-11
- Patients Share their Stories 2-Sep-11
- Keys to Hair Transplant Success: Do Your Research 31-Aug-11
- Our Most Popular Hair Loss Articles 4-Aug-11
- The Latest Patient Testimonials 2-Aug-11
Return to Hair Transplant Dallas Articles Search
Hair Restoration Services
- Corrective Hair Restoration
- Corrective Transplant Surgery
- Eyebrow Reconstruction
- Eyelash Reconstruction
- Facial Hair Transplant
Dr. Arocha's Upcoming Events
No Upcoming Events found. Check back soon!
Dr. Arocha's Featured Articles
State of Hair Restoration Report is Out
The results of the annual survey of members of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery are out and they shine the light on a profession that is growing is size, scope and expertise. A total of 176 ISHRS members responded to the ISHRS 2011 Practice Census, resulting in a margin of error for the sample within +/- 6.4 percent more
