Sudden hair loss can be alarming, but it is likely not permanent. Learn about 3 potential causes for sudden hair fall and how you can treat it.
Having hair loss of any form can be a distressing situation, especially if it seems to come on suddenly and make a noticeable difference to your hair.
But, the rate of your hair loss may help give you some clues as to just what is going on to cause the shedding in the first place.
The best place to start when you notice drastic changes in your hair is to speak with a doctor or dermatologist to help get to the root of the problem.
Below, we will cover just how sudden hair loss differs from other forms of hair loss, 3 things that may be causing a rapid loss of hair, and what strategies you may be able to employ to help get your hair back on track.
Sudden hair loss is just that, hair loss that tends to come on very quickly. Some people may experience this as running their hands through their hair and having dozens of hairs come out, or it may fall out in clumps from a targetted location. When hair loss is sudden, the change in hair loss rates will be drastically different than just a few months before, and will be very apparent to most people.
This is different than the most common cause of hair loss, androgenetic alopecia. Androgenetic alopecia is another term for male and female pattern hair loss, and this is normally a gradual, genetic and hormonally driven type of hair loss. Androgenetic alopecia tends to develop slowly and incrementally, and does not usually have a sudden onset.
Telogen Effluvium is one of the most common causes of sudden hair loss, and is normally precipitated by a very stressful, intense, or traumatic event 2-3 months before the hair loss starts.
Stressful events like childbirth, surgery, high fever, severe illness, dramatic weight loss, losing a job, or getting divorced can be intense enough to cause a large percentage of your hair to shift into the telogen, or resting phase, prematurely. After being in this resting phase for 2-3 months, hairs shift into the next hair phase, which is the shedding stage. This is when the dramatic increase in hair shedding tends to be noticed. The shedding tends to be diffuse, overall hair loss and is unlikely to cause bald spots.
Luckily, Telogen Effluvium tends to be self-limiting as long as the stressful situation is over. Most people find that their normal hair shedding rates and regrowth start happening within a year of the shedding.
Alopecia Areata can also cause hair to fall out suddenly, but in a very noticeable pattern. Alopecia Areata is an autoimmune disease where the immune system incorrectly attacks the hair follicles. This can often manifest as hair falling out in clumps leaving clearly delineated round bald patches on the scalp.
The hair from these patched normally grows back, but more clumps may fall out again if the alopecia flares up again.
Sudden nutritional deficiencies from drastic changes in diet can also lead to sudden hair losses. Too little Iron, or too much Vitamin A may be potential causes for this.
Avoid overly restrive dieting and consult with a nutritionist before making drastic changes to your diet to help avoid excess hair shedding consequences.
The best way to help treat sudden hair loss is to identify what caused the rapid shedding in the first place. Rapid hair loss is different from gradual, hereditary hair loss in that there is normally some preceding event or disease behind the situation. New medications and medical therapies may even be part of the cause.
Start by talking to a doctor or dermatologist about the hair loss, when it started, how rapidly it came on, and any changes to your lifestyle or suddenly stressful events that may have occurred recently.
Treatments may consist of stress management techniques, nutritional deficiency corrections, medications to help target an overactive immune system, or medications to help increase hair regrowth like Minoxidil.
Here at Strut Health, we know the social and psychological importance of feeling confident with your hair. That is why we carry and formulated hair loss treatment options for men and women.
For men, we have topical and oral options for hair loss, and for women, we have a once-daily topical treatment.
You can have a free online questionnaire and image-based consultation with our U.S. licensed doctors today in about 10-15 minutes. If you are a good candidate for treatment, your medication can be shipped to your front door with our free shipping.
If you have any questions or need adjustments during your treatment, our staff and doctor are available for free unlimited follow-ups.
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