Hair is a complex structure than it appears on the surface of scalp. It plays a vital role in the appearance of both men and women, and also helps to transmit sensory information as well as create gender identification.
Hair fall is the common problem in many adults worldwide. Around 40% of adult population are suffering with hair fall problem worldwide. The hair fall /baldness is more in men compared to women.
Some studies have found that 16% of women and over 50% of men have hair loss problems under age of 50. Male balding likely to begin as early as the teenage years. Women are more susceptible to beginning hair fall problems around age 30.
Let’s understand the science of hair and reasons of hair fall.
Hair
Hair has two distinct structures.
- The follicle, which resides in the skin
- The shaft, what is visible above the scalp.
Origin of hair
Hair follicles develop in the fetus by week 22. Around 5 million hair follicles will be developed in this stage on the body. One million on the head, with one hundred thousand of those follicles residing on the scalp. We don’t generate new hair follicles anytime during the course of our lives.
Most people will notice that the density of scalp hair is reduced as they grow from childhood to adulthood because of the reason that our scalps expand as we grow.
Hair Growth Cycle
Hair on the scalp grows around .3 to .4 mm/day or around 6 inches per year. Hair fall in humans are random and not seasonal or cyclical. At any given point of time, a random number of hairs will be in one of three stages of hair growth and shedding: anagen, catagen, and telogen.
Catagen – transition phase
Telogen- shedding phase
Normally one will shed about 25 to 100 telogen hairs each day.
Hair fall - Various reasons.
- Androgenic alopecia /Hereditary hair loss
Most common cause of hair loss worldwide. It creates male pattern, female pattern hair loss in male and female respectively. This happens due to inheritance of genes responsible for shrinkage and stop of hair growth.
- Age
With age hair growth stops and causes thinning of hair. With age hair also lose its colour as melanin production reduces.
- Alopecia areata
It is a condition in which immune system targets the hair follicle and leads hair loss.
- Cancer treatment
Radiation therapy and chemotherapy causes the hair fall and will regrow once treatment is stopped.
- Childbirth, illness, or other stressors
After child birth, due to harmonic changes or in recovery stage from an illness etc., there will be hair fall. In very stressed conditions also hair fall is quite possible like divorce or death of a loved one.
- Hair care
Colouring, perming, or leaving the hair free all the time could be damaging the hair. Over time, this damage leads to hair loss.
- Hairstyle pulls on your scalp & Pulling your hair
Hair styles that are pulling the hair and constantly using the same hair style leads to hair loss and is called as traction alopecia.
- Hormonal imbalance
Hormonal imbalances due to PCOD’s or due to brith control pills stoppage etc leads to hair fall.
- Scalp infection
A scalp infection can lead to scaly and sometimes inflamed areas on your scalp and leads to hair fall.
- Medication
Certain medications also have side effects of hair fall and therefore needs to consult doctor when observing these modifications.
- Scalp psoriasis
Many people develop scalp psoriasis who are already suffering from plaque psoriasis and this leads to hair fall.
- Scarring alopecia
Inflammation destroys the hair follicle and leads to hair loss
- Sexually transmitted infection
STI’s such as syphilis leads to hair loss if left untreated.
- Thyroid disease
Imbalances in the thyroid levels leads to thinning of hair and hair fall.
- Too little biotin, iron, protein, or zinc
Low levels of these leads to moderate to severe hair fall.
To protect the hair and scalp and to prevent the hair fall, Anagen grow is a best solution for hair protection and prevention of hair fall.
Anagen grow is a unique aqua serum for hair growth. The actives present in it prevent the hair fall by stopping the conversion of testosterone to DHT and thus prevents hair root shrinkage. Helps in catagen reversion and improves the growth phase. It also acts as a shield for the hair shaft thus protects from hair damage and hair breakage.