Root cause of hair loss

Do clumps of hair clog up the drain whenever you wash your hair? You’re not alone.

Hair loss is often associated with aging, but it can actually occur at any stage of life for a multitude of reasons. In fact, approximately 20% of the 320 million people in the United States experiencing hair loss are under the age of 30. Hair loss at this young of age may be an indicator that there are imbalances within the body, and hair falling out may be a visual indicator.

At any one time, the hair on your head is in one of 3 phases:
a) Growth phase - Anagen, about 90% of your hair - when the hair is connected and nourished by a blood supply and is actively growing. This lasts anywhere between 2-7 years

b) Transition phase - Catagen, around 5% of your hair - when the hair stops growing and disconnects from the blood supply. This lasts around 2-3 weeks

c) Resting phase - Telogen, around 5% of your hair - when the hair rests in the follicle before it falls out, while new hair grows underneath - typically lasts 2months. 

Every day, we lose 50-100 hair from the resting, Telogen phase, and this is considered normal. However, sometimes we lose more, and here are 10 underling causes you should look out for:

1. Hormone Imbalance

One big culprit of hair loss can be hormonal imbalances. If these are underlying causes, restoring balance may improve hair health.

2. Thyroid

Low thyroid hormone levels have also been found to directly affect hair follicles and cause increased shedding and thinning of the hair.¹² Women with hypothyroidism may also notice their hair filaments being excessively coarse, dry, and easily tangled. 

3. Insulin

Insulin and blood sugar dysfunctions can affect hair growth.  Insulin-like growth factor(IGF-1) has been shown in petri dish studies to regulate hair follicle growth, although this has not been demonstrated in clinical studies yet.³ If this pathway is not functioning properly, hair loss may ensue. Excessive IGF-1, which accompanies insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, may stimulate the activity of 5a-reductase, a hormone that converts testosterone into the more potent dihydrotestosterone. Dihydrotesterone induces the regression of terminal hair, leading to hair loss in specific areas of the body. It is also possible that IGF-1 has a direct effect on the androgen receptors, also inducing hair loss.⁴ 

A study showed that 60% of men and almost 50% of women with androgenic alopecia (hair loss due to male hormones) also show signs of risk factors for diabetes, including insulin resistance.⁵ The prevalence was more than double that for participants without androgenic alopecia (AGA). Other research has supported this and indicated that AGA may be an early biomarker for metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and the buildup of fat and cholesterol in arteries.⁶