Tackling Hair Loss in Women: Understanding Female Pattern Baldness

Female pattern baldness, also known as female androgenetic alopecia, is a common hair loss condition that affects millions of women worldwide. While often considered a men's issue, hair loss can also have a profound impact on women's self-esteem and overall well-being. 

Approximately 6% to 38% of healthy women tend to experience some degree of frontal hair loss at some point in their lives. While men may experience pattern hair loss much earlier, 12% of women in their reproductive years may exhibit clinically detectable pattern hair loss by the age of 29 years and 25% of women by the age of 49 years. 

What is Female Pattern Baldness?

Female pattern hair loss is a progressive and hereditary condition characterised by the gradual thinning of hair in women, typically manifesting as a widening part or a noticeable reduction in hair density on the scalp. Unlike male pattern baldness, which often results in a receding hairline and bald spots, excessive hair loss in women/baldness  tends to affect the entire scalp's top and front regions. 

Most of us tend to shed at least 50 to 100 strands of hair on a daily basis and this doesn't set off an alarming signal. However, if the hair loss is extreme and impacts your physical, aesthetic, and emotional well-being, you should consult with your healthcare provider.

While nutritional deficiencies and extreme levels of unmanaged stress are linked with frontal female pattern baldness, hormonal Imbalances in female, and underlying health conditions, such as PCOS, pregnancy, and menopause also put you at a higher risk of experiencing female baldness. 

Types and Stages of Female Pattern Hair Loss (FPHL)

The key types of female pattern hair loss are:

• Androgenic Alopecia - Androgenetic alopecia in females is usually caused by genetic predispositions. In such conditions, females tend to have genetically shorter hair growth periods and a substantial gap between the hair shedding and regrowth phase. Females might also inherit smaller hair follicles and thinner strands as heredity from their parents. Females who have surpassed the puberty phase are susceptible to this type of female baldness at any point in their 20s to 60s. 

• Alopecia Areata - Female Alopecia Areata, the female hair loss variant is characterised by sudden appearances of bald spots either around the parting line or the front of the head and across the scalp. It is an autoimmune condition in which your body attacks your hair follicles, causing female baldness. Autoimmune dysfunction, and environmental factors, such as allergies, infections, stress, hormone imbalances, and other autoimmune conditions are some of the leading Alopecia Areata causes in females.

• Cicatricial Alopecia - This is an irreversible female hair loss that can be caused due to scarring due to a group of conditions. In this type of hair loss in women, the healthy hair follicles are usually replaced by scar tissues, causing excessive hair loss. 

• Traumatic Alopecia - Styling techniques, such as the usage of hot combs, straighteners, blow dryers, and certain dyes are chemicals known to cause frontal female pattern baldness as well as hair loss in the back of the head in females

• Traction Alopecia - Traction alopecia is another form of hair loss commonly observed in women, especially those who wear tight hairstyles like braids, weaves, or tight ponytails. The constant pulling and tension on the hair shafts can damage the follicles and result in hair loss, particularly around the hairline.

• Telogen Effluvium - Telogen effluvium is a temporary type of hair loss that can affect women due to various triggers such as childbirth, surgery, illness, or extreme stress. This condition disrupts the normal hair growth cycle, causing more hair follicles to enter the resting phase, leading to significant hair shedding.