How to Regrow Thinning Hair - Advice For Women

I often get emails from women asking me how to make drastic improvements in the appearance and volume of their thinning hair.  There is a gross misconception that hair loss is something that only men have to deal with, but this is absolutely not the case.  Hair loss in women is incredibly common and the numbers are growing. 

Worse, it's often more difficult for women to be treated and taken seriously.  A lot of money, time, and research has gone into men's hair loss, but, as of now, the same is not true for women.  I suspect that this will change over time, but, for right now, women are pretty much left to research and to try to pinpoint treatments on their own, unless they are lucky enough to find a great specialist.  The following article will offer some tips on how to treat thinning hair is you're a female.

First And Foremost, Determine The Cause Of Your Thinning Hair:  Many women will get little help from their doctors and then they will just eventually figure that their hair is something that is affected by aging and that they can do little about this. Once you've given up in this way, you're pretty much conceding that you aren't going to be able to improve your hair, so that you've lost before you've even gotten started.  Don't give in this way until you've examined every possibility.

Sometimes the thinning is hereditary and is due to aging, but there are still ways to treat these conditions. Sometimes, your body has undergone some changes that are going to affect your hair and you have control over fixing this.  Sometimes, your thyroid or adrenals may be struggling.  Your hormones may be changing.  Your body may have had a recent illness.  You may be taking a medication that is affecting your hair.  You may be having issues with your scalp or suffering from bacterial or yeast infections.

There are numerous things that can cause hair loss, thinning, or your ability to regrow healthy and thick hair.  And it's important to rule out as many of these as you can to help you pinpoint exactly why your are suffering hair loss or thinning hair.  Until you know the cause, finding the most appropriate treatment is going to be hit or miss and you don't want this because it wastes time and makes it harder to recover.

Next, you need to ask yourself if you're experiencing an increase in shedding, if it's your regrowth that is affected, or both.  See, some people just have a shedding issue and if they can stop this, their hair should recover because there is nothing that is affecting their regrowth. So, if they can stop the shedding or accelerated loss, then they should get their hair back because they are able to regrow healthy thick hair.

Some people are losing normal amounts of hair and aren't shedding but their regrowth has become miniaturized and is much more fine. So the hair that is replacing the shed hair isn't of a good quality and doesn't provide enough coverage or density (so that the over all affect is one of thinning.) In many cases (but not all), this is the hallmark of androgenic alopecia (AGA) or genetic thinning.

And, some people have a combination of both the shedding and the miniaturization, which of course is a double whammy that is going to be more difficult, but not impossible, to over come.  If you have this type of hair loss, you have to be aggressive with both stopping the shedding and fixing your regrowth.

Things You Can Do While Figuring Out Which Category You Fall In: While you are evaluating why you are having hair loss, there are some general things that you can do to make sure that your scalp and your hair are as healthy as you can make them.  First, you should combat inflammation.  Most types of hair loss go hand and hand with inflammation which can make the problem worse. Sometimes, the inflammation is due to androgens and sometimes it's due to reactions, infections, or the process of rapid or relentless hair loss.  Whatever the reason, there are many ways to treat it.  I prefer natural and gentle ingredients first because sometimes the "treatment" will cause even more of a reaction and only begins an additional inflammatory cycle.

 Second, it never hurts to stimulate your scalp as best you can to support your regrowth.  Even folks who are only shedding should do this because it certainly can't hurt. Again, there are many ways to do this including scalp message, laser therapy, herbs and oils, and other topicals.  Again, you need to start any treatment very gradually so that you can watch for any reactions and know the immediate cause.

Never Give Up: Figuring out the cause of your hair loss and thinning and then effectively treating it will likely take a bit of time and trial and error.  But, you are never out of the game until you give up.  Keep trying different things until something works. Always keep your scalp clean, stimulated, and free of inflammation.  Take advantage or products and powders to hide the loss, but always remember that your ultimate goal is to be aggressive with this so that you'll have to rely on this camouflage less and less.