Factors for Hair Loss

Over the past several years, dermatologists have made some interesting statistical findings that explain the pattern of hair loss. Curiously enough, the phenomenon of falling hair is proven to be related to the rate of hair growth, length of the hair, age and even the colour of hair.

It is normal to shed from fifty to eighty strands of hair a day. It is normal for each of those hairs to be replaced by the hard-working follicles. On any given day, about 90 per cent hair are in the growing stage. This period lasts for about 1000 days. Ten per cent of hair is in the resting stage which lasts for about 100 days before the follicles eventually grow out.

Interestingly, the fall-out occurs mostly in the morning. This fact remains unexplained. The length of hair is an important factor in hair loss. The four-inch long hair loses on an average eighty seven hairs a day; the 12-inch long hair loses about twenty six hairs a day and 20-inch plus long hair loses as little as sixteen hairs a day on an average. The longer the hair, the less is the hair loss.

Hair grows on an average of 6 inches a year, and shortfall in the normal hair growth is accompanied with a hair loss too. Apart from the day-to-day loss, we shed more than usual hair during six periods of our life from birth to age three; at ten, at twenty-two, around the age of twenty-six, at thirty six and around fifty-four. This happens due to hormonal changes that occur in our bodies during these periods of our lives.

The maximum hair growth on women occurs between the ages of fifteen to thirty. There are some other findings which the cosmetologists and dermatologists are currently investigating. It is felt that as and when these findings are credibly proven, the problem of hair loss would be better understood and its cure more possible.