Stop the Fall

Worried about your falling hair? Dr. Shefali Trasi Nerurkar - MD Skin, Consultant Dermatologist at Dr. Trasi’s Clinic & La Piel details the underlying causes of hairfall and hairloss to help you tackle this common haircare problem.

- Dr. Shefali Trasi Nerurkar

Hair fall and balding are one of the most common complaints we recieve from patients these days. Post lockdown, this problem has been rapidly increasing. So, what has leads to hairfall?

FIRST, LET’S UNDERSTAND YOUR HAIR A LITTLE BETTER.

You can lose up to 100 hair strands on a day, which is considered normal hair fall. Any more can be problem.

Hair growth and maintenance depends on three phases of hair cycle - anagen (active growth phase), catagen (involution phase), and telogen (resting phase). The type and length of the hair depends on the anagen phase. In healthy individuals, hair sheds out after the resting phase when the new hair anagen growth starts (exogen). At any given time, about 90% of the hair on a person’s scalp is growing. Each follicle has its own life cycle that can be influenced by age, disease, and a wide variety of other factors. As people age, their rate of hair growth slows.

COMMON CAUSES OF HAIRFALL

Involution alopecia, a natural condition where hair thins out with age. More hair is seen in telogen phase and the hair in anagen phase are shorter and lesser.

Telogen Effluvium is temporary loss of hair following any drastic event affecting the body. The causative factors of telogen effluvium can be serious illness like malaria, dengue, typhoid, TB etc., chemotherapy, or childbirth. It could also be due to crash diets or excessive stress. Here, a lot of hair follicles go into the telogen phase leading to subsequent shedding. There is a generalized thinning of the hair in the crown portion of the scalp.