subject: Why Is Your Hair Falling - Small Guide In Understanding the Hair Growth Cycles [print this page] Why Is Your Hair Falling - Small Guide In Understanding the Hair Growth Cycles
Many people complain about having hair loss problems and they search all sort of remedies without not even knowing what causes their problem. These people are the ones that always complain that certain remedies are useless or not working ignoring the fact that they have not been consulted by a dermatologist and they might have used the wrong type of treatment.
When having hair loss problems is essential to understand the hair growth cycles and how they work.
Before worrying that you might have a hair loss issue you should know that loosing between 50-100 hairs a day is absolutely natural and normal because hair regenerates very fast. You should however worry and consider seeing a dermathologist if your daily hair loss is considerably increased or if you feel you hair is getting thinner.
There are a few common causes of hair loss and they cover about 80% of the hair loss issues worldwide. These are: chemotherapy treatments, administration of blood thinners, high doses of vitamin A in the body, genetic inheritance and fast changes of hormone levels (especially testosterone and estrogen).
As stated before, hair loss can be better understood when we relate it with the its growth cycle phase and the right treatment can be established once we know exactly which phase is causing the problem.
1. The Anagen Phase - this is the first phase of the cycle, also known as the growth phase.
This phase lasts anywhere between 2 to 8 years, and its length determines how long your hair can grow. As you can already imagine, the longer the phase the longer the hair will be able to grow
2. The Catagen Phase - this is the second phase of the cycle in which the hair growth stops and the follicles attaches itself to the root of the hair. This phase lasts up to two weeks.
3. The Telogen Phase - this is the third and the last phase of the cycle and it's also known as the resting phase. The phase lasts for about 6 weeks and the hair stays firmly rooted in the scalp.
These phases are not evenly spread and they cycle through our entire life. Usually 85% is in the anagen phase while only 10-14% is in the catagen phase and only 1-2% in the telogen phase.
As you can see understanding the hair growth cycles is very important in establishing which is the right treatment for you and if you want to have a full insight on this matter then I strongly recommend you to read The Hair Loss Blackbook.
