Female Pattern Baldness

I speak to a lot of women in their 30s and 40s and beyond… that were diagnosed with female pattern baldness in their 20s, or maybe have gone misdiagnosed for a number of years. And as the years go on it’s harder to treat ofcourse…okay. So just to explain, what’s happening to you in female pattern baldness, because it is different to other types of hair loss. And really what’s the best way to approach it, what we should be looking out for, all that kind of stuff. So, when normally, in female pattern baldness it actually happens to women in their early 20s. Which is unusual for other types of hair loss. The type of pattern that normally occurs is a dispersed pattern. So it’s not like receding hairline, it’s not like patches, and it normally only happens on the crown area. And really who i’m saying this to is the mammies and daddies and the sisters and everyone around that young woman okay? Because a lot of young women are on and off contraceptive pills, stress, diets that we put ourselves on, especially in our 20s. We tend to lose hair at that time.

If the hair is replacing itself, that would be more like telogen effluvium. So a temporary hair loss. But if the hair isn’t replacing itself, and really you should be seeing improvements, if they’re using the right stuff and doing the right things. Trying to take away your stress which can be hard, but you should see some improvement in a year. If you’re not seeing some improvement in a year, Go and speak to somebody, a Trichologist, Dermatologist, your gp… But do something about it. So what I’m saying here is, it’s not usual for a woman in her 20s,to lose hair. In your teenage years, in your 20s, your hair grows like wildfire. So you have the ability in the body to grow hair.

So if a woman in their 20s is losing hair there’s a reason for that. It’s either telogen effluvium because of everything we just said or it could be female pattern baldness.

Normally how female pattern baldness is treated is something called minoxidil. I understand why a dermatologist and trichologist are recommending minoxidil ofcourse the do. Because it absolutely will grow hair. But I think it’s an awful lot of pressure and a big ask to ask that 22 year old to continue using a drug for the rest of their life. That’s the reality of it. But it does keep hair on the head. I do think as well, a bit of education in terms of what’s happening to the scalp is really really helpful. Most people losing their hair, particularly at that age, will use growth products. Because they want their hair to grow. Absolutely I totally get that as well. But also what you need to do is, you need to try and reduce the inflammation on the scalp.

So what’s happening in female pattern baldness is the bulbs of your hair that anchor the hair into the scalp, ( You always want these bulbs to be as chubby and as fat as possible.) Therefore it’s so much harder  for them to escape from the scalp. If they’re really skinny and fine it’s going to be so much easier for them to fall out of the scalp. So we want them to be big and chubby. But sometimes, there’s inflammation on the scalp. And what happens is those little chubby bulbs get really really angry for whatever reason. And when they leave the scalp, they leave the scalp like a bat out of hell and they scar the scalp. 

If you allow that to happen and you don’t try and treat the inflammation in some way… that will keep happening. So when the woman’s hair keeps falling out, everytime, on every hair growth cycle. There’ll be scaring.

And we know that it’s really difficult for hair to grow through scars. If you’ve got a scar on your arm or your leg hair won’t really grow through it. So that’s what happens which is an awful bloody shame because the hair is underneath trying to grow. But because of the scar it’s really difficult for it to get out. And then after a while it will stop trying. And that’s what female pattern baldness is. And because it starts quite young in some women, there’s loads of stuff… We can stop it. We can try and help the woman in terms of reducing that amount of inflammation. But unless as many people know that as possible it’s very hard to do that. Because I know if I was 22 and I was losing my hair I’d be throwing anything at it to try and grow it.

Yes we need to try and grow it. But we also need to treat the inflammation. So you’re looking at products that are more natural based, you’re looking for the ones that have antioxidant properties in them. Nioxins night density is a great one. It’s an antioxidant.

Davines are really good at trying to reduce the inflammation because it’s a natural product. Of Course the Davines shampoo (energizing) and also the superactive, that you put on your scalp. 

The superactive has huge anti-inflammatory properties in it. That’s what you’re looking for. Smells gorgeous actually. So like that you can pop that on after the shower. You can pop it on everyday, alongside some form of growth serum. This will help grow your hair as well. What I like about it, it has anti-inflammatory properties in it. So please act on young women losing their hair, it’s not normal… It is normal if we can track back why it’s happening. And it is normal particularly if we see new growth quite quickly. It’s not normal for young women to lose hair and never really grow it back at a quick pace. We need to spread that message, and not be afraid to say something to a woman in her 20s going through it. I understand the attitude of being afraid to speak up. I would have been of that opinion myself, some time ago. I suppose I see the effects of not treating it, or only treating things with hair growth products. When actually we need to calm it down. We want it chubby and big which is what you’re doing with growth products. But we wanted to give it a bloody Zanex, we want it to calm down so it doesn’t cause as much scarring so therefore, it’s easier for the hair to grow. There’s no point in keep lashing growth products on top of a scar; it’s not going to get it out.

Little things you can change, you can change your diet a little bit . making sure that you’re getting enough greens, plant based products that’s natural anti-inflammatory in the body. Omega 3 is a good one too. Add these into your diet, and concentrate on antioxidants. These will help with regeneration of cells in the repair of the tissue cells.

Do something about the young women around you.

Mediceuticals have anti-inflammatory properties within them. So if you have scalp issues like psoriasis, or dandruff, eczema, they are all inflammatory conditions.