About Hair Loss In Women
Female hair loss is very different from male hair loss. In women hair loss may or may not be associated with hereditary factors and may or may not occur in a recognizable “female pattern”. There are many factors that can cause a temporary hair loss in women. These include pregnancy, illness, menopause, surgery, anemia, thyroid disease, vitamin deficiency, and others. It is imperative in the medical work up of female hair loss that the patient has a thorough workup that includes laboratory tests to rule out any medical or metabolic causative mechanism for the hair loss. If a medical cause is found, many times by correcting the underlying medical issue, the patient’s hair loss will stop, and will subsequently improve.
Women also have a form of hereditary hair loss that is termed Androgenic Alopecia. This form of hair loss can manifest in a few different patterns.
- Diffuse thinning of all the hair on the scalp with more hair loss towards the crown.
- Diffuse thinning of all the hair on the scalp with more thinning in the frontal scalp but preservation of the hairline.
- Diffuse thinning of the entire scalp, with more thinning towards the frontal scalp and involving the frontal hairline.
With any of these forms of genetic hair loss in women, if the back and sides of the scalp show good hair density and are unaffected by the progression of hair loss, these women may be good candidates for hair restoration procedures.
Women can also experience hair loss due to constant traction on the hair as in with cornrows or braids. This is called traction alopecia and most women with this form of hair loss can be good candidates for hair transplantation.
Women can also have different forms of scarring alopecias that can cause hair loss. While these scarring alopecias are in the active states they are usually not amenable to transplantation. Once the lesions have been determined to be inactive, they may be amenable to hair transplantation.
Women can also experience hair loss that is secondary to scarring from other cosmetic surgery procedures (facelift and brow lift procedures) as well as traumatic injuries. Hair loss due to this type of scarring is usually very treatable with hair transplantation.
Some women that are born with high hairlines wish to lower their hairline. This is something that is very achievable and routinely performed through hair transplantation.
