subject: Grow New Hairs [print this page] Incidence ofpattern baldnessvaries from population to population based on genetic background; environmental factors do not
seem to affect this type of baldness greatly. It was previously believed that baldness was inherited from the maternal
grandfather. While there is some basis for this belief, both parents contribute to their offspring's likelihood of hair loss.
Baldnessinvolves the state of lacking hair where it often grows, especially on the head.
There are several other kinds of baldness:
a) Traction alopeciais most commonly found in people withponytailsorcornrowswho pull on their hair with excessive force.
b) Trichotillomania is the loss of hair caused by compulsive pulling and bending of the hairs. It tends to occur more in
children than in adults. In this condition the hairs are not absent from the scalp but are broken. Where they break near
the scalp they cause typical, short, "exclamation mark" hairs.
c) Traumas such aschemotherapy, childbirth, major surgery, poisoning, and severe stress may cause a hair loss condition
known astelogen effluvium.
d) Worrisome hair loss often follows childbirth without causing actual baldness. In this situation, the hair is actually
thicker during pregnancy due to increased circulating oestrogens. After the baby is born, the oestrogen levels fall back
to normal pre-pregnancy levels and the additional hair foliage drops out. A similar situation occurs in women taking the
fertility-stimulating drugclomiphene.
e) Iron deficiencyis a common cause of thinning of the hair, though frank baldness is not usually seen.
f) Radiation to the scalp, as happens when radiotherapy is applied to the head for the treatment of certain cancers there,
can cause baldness of the irradiated areas.
g) Somemycoticinfections can cause massive hair loss.
h) Alopecia areatais anautoimmune disorderalso known as "spot baldness" that can result in hair loss ranging from just one
location (Alopecia areata monolocularis) to every hair on the entire body (Alopecia areata universalis).
i) Localized or diffuse hair loss may also occur in cicatricial alopecia (lupus erythematosus, lichen plano pilaris,