Tag Archives: hair loss

Hair Loss – Traction Alopecia Only One of Many Types


Posted by Tractionalopeciatreatments

Many peo­ple are plagued by the embar­rass­ment of hair loss.  This prob­lem doesn’t limit it self just to one gen­der but rather can present in both males and females and can do so at almost any­time in your life­time.  Most of the types of hair loss have causes that are out of our con­trol – such as genet­ics, med­ica­tions we must take for other health sit­u­a­tions and other health con­di­tions.  But there are a few that we can affect some con­trol.  Trac­tion Alope­cia is one of them.

Sim­ple Def­i­n­i­tion of Condition

Trac­tion alope­cia, sim­ply defined, means stress hair loss.  When the hair shaft is tightly pulled and secured, it cre­ates scalp stress and poten­tial dam­age to the hairThinning hair caused by tight hair style fol­li­cle.  The excess ten­sion placed on the hair shaft by tightly braided corn rows, pig­tails or other tightly woven hair styles can, over time, loosen the hold by the hair fol­li­cle on the hair shaft and cause it to be shed pre­ma­turely. If the hair shaft is shed too many times, it will not grow back.

Other Causes of This Type of Hair Loss

Dam­age to the hair fol­li­cle can also occur when we over use col­or­ing dyes, bleach­ing solu­tions, per­ma­nent wave solu­tions and straight­en­ers with­out regard to the health of our hair fol­li­cle.  Over styling with blow dry­ers, flat irons and the like can also cause dam­age to the hair fol­li­cle and the hair shaft cuti­cle (the outer layer of the hair shaft).  When this hap­pens, the hair appears dry and dull and brit­tle, break­ing off easily.

Other Types of Hair Loss

Trac­tion alope­cia is by no means the only type of hair loss, though it is one over which we have some con­trol.  Cer­tain med­ica­tions can cause hair loss.  These med­ica­tions include, but are not lim­ited to, anti clot­ting drugs, cho­les­terol low­er­ing drugs, non-steroidal anti inflam­ma­tory drugs (NSAIDS), drugs for menopause and birth con­trol as well as antibi­otics.  Gen­er­ally speak­ing, for most of these med­ica­tions, when the drug is dis­con­tin­ued, the hair gen­er­ally grows back.  How­ever, this is not a guar­an­tee in all cases.

If you take any of these med­ica­tions, and you are expe­ri­enc­ing unex­plained hair loss, con­sult with your med­ical doc­tor to see if any of these med­ica­tions could be the cause.  If so, do not stop them on your own but work with your doc­tor to find a more suit­able substitute.

Genet­ics

Genet­ics is prob­a­bly the most com­mon cause of hair loss in both men and women.  If you are los­ing your hair or have thin­ning hair, look at your fam­ily mem­bers and past gen­er­a­tions to see if there is a sim­i­lar­ity.  If so, you will likely have no con­trol over the thin­ning hair you are expe­ri­enc­ing.  You may wish to look into the var­i­ous hair replace­ment options.

Here is a list of other hair loss or thin­ning hair causes, most of which are out of our control:

As you can see, some of the above causes are con­trol­lable while oth­ers are not.  The dis­eases and autoim­mune dis­or­ders, chemother­apy drugs and radi­a­tion expo­sure, poi­sons and the hair loss after child­birth are the ones that we will have the least amount of con­trol in regard to pre­ven­tion or mod­i­fi­ca­tion.  We do have choices in the areas of nutri­tional defi­cien­cies, stress and phys­i­cal trauma to the scalp.  Hair loss can be a seri­ous issue on lev­els more than just phys­i­cal appear­ance.  Don’t let unex­plained hair loss go unad­dressed by your med­ical doctor.


How to Remedy Traction Alopecia Hair Loss With Eclipta Alba


Posted by Tractionalopeciatreatments

Hair loss is a stress­ful expe­ri­ence, espe­cially when it is the patchy bald­ing found  Flower from Eclipta Alba plantin suf­fer­ers of trac­tion alope­cia. The scalp is often inflamed and sore, and this leads to increased stress for the suf­ferer. Unfor­tu­nately stress is a con­tribut­ing fac­tor in hair loss, so it can quickly become a vicious spi­ral as more and more hair is lost.

For­tu­nately mod­ern stud­ies have demon­strated that there are ways to halt and even reverse the effects of trac­tion alope­cia. By apply­ing specially-formulated oint­ments to the affected areas, the scalp is encour­aged to heal, and the lost hair to re-grow.  Although there have been many hair loss reme­dies over the years, the most effec­tive treat­ment has been found to come from tra­di­tional Indian Ayurevedic medicine.

What is Eclipta Alba?

Eclipta alba, also known as bhringraj, is a plant that has long been used in Indian med­i­cine to treat hair loss. Its leaf extracts con­tain pow­er­ful chem­i­cals that help to revive hair fol­li­cles that have been ren­dered dor­mant due to the effects of trac­tion alopecia.

Eclipta alba is an impor­tant part of Ayurevedic med­i­cine, the tra­di­tional med­i­cine of India. While the extract can be used in sev­eral ways for dif­fer­ent ail­ments, such as rub­bing into the tem­ples or ingest­ing, the cor­rect method for treat­ing hair loss is to cre­ate an ointment.

The eclipta alba is mixed with an oint­ment base to form a mois­tur­is­ing treat­ment of 2% eclipta. The oint­ment is then rubbed into the area to be treated; allow­ing the chem­i­cals to quickly reach the area they are to treat. Dur­ing the course of the 2009 study by Datta, Singh et al., the data col­lected showed that the eclipta treat­ment was 147% more effec­tive than other hair loss treatments.

The Effects of Eclipta Alba

Stud­ies pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Ethnophar­ma­col­ogy in May 2009 showed that eclipta alba is a far more effec­tive treat­ment for hair loss than a com­pa­ra­ble solu­tion of Minox­i­dil; another pop­u­lar hair loss treat­ment. When applied to the affected area, the pat­tern bald­ness caused by trac­tion alope­cia was sig­nif­i­cantly reduced.

The eclipta chem­i­cals work by encour­ag­ing the dor­mant hair fol­li­cles to move

Bhringaraj oil

Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba) hair grown oil

out of the tel­o­gen phase of their growth cycle and into the ana­gen phase; the part of the cycle dur­ing which hair is grown. More new hair growth was detected when sub­jects were treated with eclipta alba than on those sub­jects that were left to heal the dam­age to their hair fol­li­cles naturally.

The result of this research demon­strates that Ayurevedic med­i­cine inco­po­rat­ing eclipta alba mois­tur­ing treat­ment is an effec­tive method of pro­mot­ing hair regrowth. This is not a mir­a­cle cure, of course, so the best results still occur with fre­quent use but as a method of speed­ing up the recov­ery process, it is hard to beat.

Recov­er­ing From Trac­tion Alopecia

Trac­tion alope­cia occurs because the scalp is over stressed and the hair fol­li­cles it con­tains become dam­aged. The dam­aged cells deform and stop pro­duc­ing new hair, becom­ing dor­mant for long peri­ods while the dam­age to the fol­li­cles is repaired. This process can take months or years depend­ing on the extent of the damage.

When hair fol­li­cles stop grow­ing new hair, the hair that has grown already works its way out of the scalp. Three months after the hair fol­li­cle has entered the tel­o­gen phase, dur­ing which no hair is pro­duced, the hair that had already grown will be shed. This is a nat­ural part of the growth cycle and the rea­son we don’t all go bald for part of the time is because each hair fol­li­cle is in a dif­fer­ent point on the growth cycle; so we never notice the lost hairs.

When many hairs enter the tel­o­gen phase and become dor­mant, the effects of hair loss become vis­i­ble very quickly. Hair is shed but no new growth comes through to take its place. The result is patchy bald­ness, par­tic­u­larly on the crown and around the hairline.

Tra­di­tional med­i­cine has been proved to assist in coax­ing hair fol­li­cles out of the tel­o­gen phase and back into the ana­gen (grow­ing) phase. When applied as a mois­tur­is­ing treat­ment on the bald areas of the scalp, the body is able to bet­ter heal itself, so hair re-grows faster. This makes eclipta alba a worth­while treat­ment for hair loss in both men and women.

Feel free to down­load our free ebook for more tips on how to stim­u­late hair growth.


Dandruff and its connection to hair loss


Posted by Danielle

Hair loss (alope­cia) and dan­druff are two of the most com­mon scalp prob­lems Dandruff is caused by a fungal infection of the scalp affect­ing men and women. Peo­ple who suf­fer from both con­di­tions simul­ta­ne­ously may won­der whether one con­di­tion can lead to the other, in par­tic­u­lar, whether severe dan­druff can be the cause of hair loss.

To under­stand this, we need to first under­stand dan­druff, its causes and its effects.

Dan­druff is a con­di­tion caused by an over-accumulation of dead cells that are dying off at a faster rate than nor­mal. This cre­ates a flaky, itchy scalp. Under nor­mal con­di­tions, skin cells die off grad­u­ally and are replaced by new cells over a period of sev­eral weeks. When the skin cells on the scalp are renewed, the old ones are pushed to the sur­face and out of the scalp. Fol­low­ing a bac­te­r­ial or fun­gal infec­tion or other fac­tors that irri­tate the scalp, this process can be sped up, result­ing in the famil­iar flak­ing skin we know as dandruff.

Alope­cia (hair loss) on the other hand, can be caused by genes, hor­monal fac­tors, emo­tional stress or con­sis­tent hair pulling over time (trac­tion alope­cia). Dan­druff in itself can­not cause hair loss, but there are sev­eral ways in which it can aggra­vate it or make it worse.

The effect of scratching

Tests have shown that even a rel­a­tively small amount of scratch­ing, if repeated on a reg­u­lar basis, can neg­a­tively affect the fol­li­cles and result in inflam­ma­tion of the scalp. Inflam­ma­tion can aggra­vate and stop healthy hair growth and thus con­tribute to hair loss and thinning.

Clogged pores and dam­aged follicles

Dan­druff is a build-up of exces­sive dead cells on the scalp, and this build up can badly affect fol­li­cles already suf­fer­ing from trac­tion alope­cia or another kind of hair loss. Fol­li­cles affected by the trac­tion alope­cia in par­tic­u­lar are trau­ma­tised and often remain in the dor­mant phase of growth, thus fail­ing to pro­duce new hairs once the old hairs have been shed. As dan­druff can be a sign of an oily scalp, it can also be an indi­ca­tion that the fol­li­cles are being clogged with exces­sive sebum, which can also have the same dam­ag­ing effect on fol­li­cles in the dor­mant phase.

A very com­mon mis­con­cep­tion about dan­druff is that it is caused by the scalp Nizoral shampoo for hair lossbeing too dry. Peo­ple who believe this, tend to either rub oils into their scalps, wash their hair less fre­quently, or stop using sham­poo alto­gether, believ­ing that wash­ing will strip the scalp of fur­ther moisture.

This is sim­ply a myth, as dan­druff dif­fers from a dry scalp in that it gets bet­ter when the hair and scalp are sham­pooed more fre­quently with the right sham­poo like Nizo­ral sham­poo which can min­i­mize any scalp inflammation.

Treat­ment options

There are many hair loss treat­ments on the mar­ket today that also tar­get dan­druff, such as Alpecin Dou­ble Effect Sham­poo and dan­druff sham­poos like Alpecin Shampoo for hair lossNizo­ral. They are also said to slow down the rate of hair loss by reduc­ing inflam­ma­tion of the scalp. Dan­druff suf­fer­ers should use one of these sham­poos sev­eral times a week.

Many herbal treat­ments, like Neem oil, which treat dan­druff by clear­ing infec­tions and remov­ing excess dead cells, also act by directly stim­u­lat­ing the hair fol­li­cles and scalp, which can actu­ally increase the rate of hair growth.

Med­ical stud­ies have shown that diets con­sist­ing of high amounts of salt, sugar or spices, and accom­pa­nied by exces­sive alco­hol, may make dan­druff worse.


Ethnic behaviour of black hair and traction alopecia


Posted by Danielle

Although all human hair (and indeed all hair) is com­posed of hair fol­li­cles and shafts, there are dis­tinct vari­a­tions in the shape and behav­iour of hair across dif­fer­ent eth­nic groups. Some eth­nic groups, for exam­ple Native Amer­i­cans, hardly suf­fer from male pat­tern bald­ness at all, while Cau­casians suf­fer from it the most, fol­lowed by Blacks.

Inter­est­ingly enough, Black peo­ple are the eth­nic group most heav­ily affected by the con­di­tion known as trac­tion alope­cia, a type of hair loss that is caused by pulling and weight put on the hair over time. This is partly the result of the types of hair­styles favoured by the Black com­mu­nity such as corn­rows, tight braids, weaves and clip on exten­sions, as well as repeated straightening.

How­ever, the struc­ture of black hair itself is, in part, to blame for the sus­cep­ti­bil­ity of black hair to the con­di­tion. The struc­ture of black hair dif­fers in shape from Cau­casian or Ori­en­tal hair. Black hair shafts tend to be flat and rel­a­tively small in diam­e­ter. They have a twisted con­fig­u­ra­tion and each hair has vari­a­tions in diam­e­ter along the shaft as it twists. Because the hair is nat­u­rally curly, the hairs wrap around each other as they grow becom­ing tan­gled. The diam­e­ter vari­a­tions and twists cause weak­ness along the shaft, mak­ing the hair more liable to break. On the other hand, try­ing to detan­gle the hair or straighten it will often lead to fur­ther dam­age, often result­ing in severe break­age and trac­tion alopecia.

Trac­tion alope­cia is one of the most com­mon types of hair loss affect­ing black women, but it is often mis­di­ag­nosed and mis­taken for another type of hair loss. It often starts at the hair line with a thin­ning at the front of the head, but the hair loss can spread and affect the entire head if not stopped in time. It’s impor­tant to note, though, that the trac­tion alope­cia hair loss pat­tern will often depend on the type of hair­styles worn by the suf­ferer. Wear­ing the hair in rollers overnight in order to straighten it, for exam­ple, can result in trac­tion alope­cia caus­ing the hair to fall out in clumps. Banded trac­tion alope­cia, on the other hand, affects the scalp edges around the entire head.

Although not all black women suf­fer from trac­tion alope­cia, the con­di­tion is com­mon enough to war­rant cau­tion when styling the hair. The fact that it’s the struc­ture of the hair itself that can make Black hair prone to break­age and hair loss, sug­gests one should either avoid tight or poten­tially dam­ag­ing hair­styles alto­gether, or watch care­fully for early signs of trac­tion alope­cia and begin treat­ment imme­di­ately if hair loss or thin­ning is suspected.

Note that fre­quent straight­en­ing by means other than hair rollers can also be harmfu, and some experts actu­ally rec­om­mend con­sid­er­ing chem­i­cal straight­en­ing for those who are set on hav­ing their hair straight­ened. Although not ideal, this can be more suited for Black hair in the long run, as it reduces the amount of daily or weekly straight­en­ing activ­i­ties that can do more dam­age to the hair overall.


Review of Alpecin double effect shampoo


Posted by Danielle

Alpecin Dou­ble Effect Sham­poo by Dr. Wolf is pre­dom­i­nantly aimed at men, Alpecin Shampoo for hair lossalthough women can use it, too. It’s called “dou­ble effect” because it tar­gets not only hair loss, but also dan­druff – said to make hair loss worse. As an anti-dandruff prod­uct, the Alpecin sham­poo uses sev­eral active ingre­di­ents to gen­tly remove dan­druff and has an antimi­cro­bial and anti­fun­gal effect.

The man­u­fac­turer claims that this com­bi­na­tion of active ingre­di­ents has tra­di­tion­ally only been used in phar­ma­co­log­i­cal prod­ucts and this is the first prod­uct to utilise it for an over-the-counter shampoo.

As a hair loss prod­uct, Alpecin utilises caf­feine, which is a pop­u­lar active ingre­di­ent in a num­ber treat­ment prod­ucts that tar­get thin­ning hair. It works by stim­u­lat­ing the hair roots / fol­li­cles to pro­duce new hair shafts. Caf­feine is said to “wake up” slug­gish fol­li­cles and kick them out of the dor­mant phase and into the active growth phase of the hair growth cycle.

Active ingre­di­ents and what they do

Sal­i­cylic acid and octopirox are used to treat dan­druff and have an active antimi­cro­bial and anti­fun­gal effect on the scalp, remov­ing exist­ing dan­druff and pre­vent­ing the for­ma­tion of new dan­druff. Caf­feine com­plex works to pro­duce the hair growth effect by increas­ing the length of the growth phase in the hair growth cycle.

How to use Alpecin Dou­ble Effect Shampoo

Mas­sage into hair and scalp, leave for two min­utes and rinse off. For best results, use every day. Alpecin Dou­ble Effect Sham­poo is a long-term hair loss and dan­druff solu­tion that requires repeated use over a long period of time to main­tain results. Dan­druff will return when treat­ment is stopped and hair loss may also return unless the under­ly­ing causes are treated.

Will Alpecin Dou­ble Effect work for me?

Alpecin tar­gets the hair fol­li­cles with­out tar­get­ing the hor­mones that may be respon­si­ble for hair loss. Caf­feine is a pop­u­lar ingre­di­ent in many hair loss prod­ucts because of its stim­u­lat­ing effect. How­ever, those who are suf­fer­ing from hair loss that is the result of hor­monal imbal­ances may wish to use this prod­uct in con­junc­tion with one that treats that aspect of hair loss as well, such as saw pal­metto. Although tests have appar­ently shown that caf­feine can negate the results of testos­terone, it is nor­mally used for its stim­u­lat­ing, rather than bal­anc­ing effects. Although this prod­uct is designed to treat male pat­tern bald­ness, the stim­u­lat­ing effect can be help­ful in treat­ing other types of hair loss includ­ing female pat­tern bald­ness, thin­ning hair and trac­tion alope­cia in both men and women.

Are there any more prod­ucts avail­able in the range?

A caf­feine liq­uid is avail­able for use on a daily basis, and there is also an Alpecin caf­feine sham­poo with­out the dou­ble effect to bat­tle dan­druff. There is no con­di­tioner avail­able in the range but a dif­fer­ent hair loss con­di­tioner can safely be used with this prod­uct and there are sev­eral oth­ers on the mar­ket that also con­tain caffeine.


Sigma Skin Hair Growth Stimulating Shampoo Review


Posted by Danielle

Sigma Skin is a com­pany spe­cial­is­ing in hair and skin prod­ucts for men and the  Hair Growth sham­poo it pro­duces is decid­edly aimed at men who want to pre­vent or slow down bald­ness. That said, it is also suit­able for women to use, though its scent is def­i­nitely rather masculine.

The Sigma Skin sham­poo employs a range of nat­ural active ingre­di­ents and even the base ingre­di­ents are gen­tler on the hair than most com­mer­cial sham­poos. It con­tains none of the most com­mon deter­gents com­monly found in most shampoos.

The active ingre­di­ents include sebum inhibitors such as biotin to pro­tect the fol­li­cles from exces­sive sebum that can dam­age them and antiox­i­dants / anti­fun­gals such as apple polyphe­nol. It also con­tains retinol, which helps with the absorp­tion of minox­i­dil, the lead­ing anti hair loss com­pound (which is not an ingre­di­ent of this shampoo.

Sigma Skin claim that clin­i­cal stud­ies have shown apple polyphe­nol to be more effec­tive than minox­i­dil in treat­ing male pat­tern bald­ness, but as the tests were con­ducted on rel­a­tively small groups of men, fur­ther proof may be needed.

How­ever, when used in con­junc­tion with other hair loss treat­ments that con­tain minox­i­dil, the hair growth sham­poo can cer­tainly improve absorp­tion of the active ingre­di­ent and sig­nif­i­cantly con­tribute to the treatment.

How to use Sigma Skin Hair Growth Stim­u­lat­ing Shampoo

Mas­sage sham­poo into scalp and leave for one to two min­utes. Rinse and repeat, leav­ing for three to five min­utes. Use the sham­poo five times a week or more for best results. This prod­uct is rec­om­mended for use together with the other prod­ucts in the Sigma skin hair growth range for opti­mal results

Will this hair prod­uct work for me?

No hair loss prod­uct is guar­an­teed to work, as hair loss can be the result of many dif­fer­ent fac­tors. How­ever, this prod­uct has been shown to work on men in var­i­ous stages of bald­ness and can there­fore be suit­able for treat­ment of thin­ning hair, trac­tion alope­cia, and other hair loss con­di­tions as well. Note that the man­u­fac­turer rec­om­mends using this prod­uct as the first part of a three step sys­tem to stop hair loss.

Buy Sigma Skin Hair Growth Stim­u­lat­ing Sham­poo here

Read more hair loss sham­poo reviews.


Review of Plantur 39 caffeine shampoo for coloured hair


Posted by Danielle

Plan­tur 39 is a caffeine-infused sham­poo for­mu­lated for colour-treated, Plantur 39 Caffeine Shampoo for colored hairstressed, dam­aged, brit­tle, fine and thin­ning hair. It is designed with women in mind and is aimed at stim­u­lat­ing hair growth using nat­ural caffeine.

The active caf­feine ingre­di­ent in the Plan­tur 39 range is plant-derived, mak­ing this treat­ment option a good choice for peo­ple want­ing a more nat­ural hair thin­ning treatment.

Plan­tur 39 caf­feine sham­poo is designed pri­mar­ily for post-menopausal women as a treat­ment for thin­ning hair that is the result of hor­monal changes. How­ever, it’s suit­able for other types of hair loss as well.

The stim­u­lat­ing effect of caf­feine can help “wake up” the hair fol­li­cles of both men and women suf­fer­ing from thin­ning hair. Caf­feine has been sci­en­tif­i­cally proven to pro­tect hair from the effects of both free rad­i­cals and testos­terone (DHT).

Both can weaken the hair fol­li­cles and speed up the hair shed­ding process. Menopausal women expe­ri­ence a drop in estro­gen lev­els and rise in testos­terone lev­els, result­ing in a grad­ual thin­ning of the hair.

The ingre­di­ents in Plan­tur 39 Caf­feine Sham­poo pen­e­trate the scalp and stim­u­late the hair fol­li­cles to pro­duce new hairs and pro­tect­ing it from the effects of testosterone.

Mean­while, the gen­tle con­di­tion­ing agents in the sham­poo help main­tain the hair’s vol­ume with­out weigh­ing it down, cre­at­ing thicker-looking, easy to man­age hair that appears healthy and shiny.

Plan­tur 39 caf­feine sham­poo for colour-treated hair can be used by men and women of any age to strengthen and pro­tect thin­ning hair.

How to use Plan­tur 39 Caf­feine Shampoo

Mas­sage into wet hair and leave for two min­utes before rins­ing. The active ingre­di­ent in the sham­poo is said to work within two min­utes and pro­tect the hair from free rad­i­cals and hair loss caus­ing hor­mones for up to 24 hours. For the treat­ment to be effec­tive, the sham­poo needs to be used daily.

Will Plan­tur 39 Caf­feine Sham­poo for colour-treated hair work for me?

It is impos­si­ble to tell whether any prod­uct will be effec­tive on any indi­vid­ual per­son, but the ingre­di­ents in Plan­tur 39 Caf­feine Sham­poo have been sci­en­tif­i­cally proven to aid with hair regen­er­a­tion in women suf­fer­ing from menopause-related hair loss.

Because of the way it works and the fact that it tar­gets DHT as well as envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors, it can be suit­able for men as well, although for best results it should be used as part of an over­all hair loss treat­ment strat­egy. Because it stim­u­lates the fol­li­cles, it is an effec­tive choice for the treat­ment of many types of hair loss includ­ing trac­tion alopecia.


What is Traction Alopecia?


Posted by Danielle

Trac­tion alope­cia is a form of grad­ual hair loss or thin­ning of the hair that hap­pens because of con­tin­u­ous pulling on hair over time, usu­ally as the result traction alopecia caused by hair extensionsof par­tic­u­lar types of hair­styling. Com­monly, this con­di­tion is caused by hair­styles such as dread­locks, braids, corn­rows, weaves, clip-on pieces, tight tur­bans and high, tight pony­tails or pigtails.

There are dif­fer­ent forms of hair loss that affect both men and women. The most com­mon is andro­ge­netic alope­cia, which is respon­si­ble for over 95% of hair loss cases.

What is alopecia?

Los­ing a cer­tain amount of hair a day is nor­mal. Most peo­ple shed between 20 to 50 hairs a day. Some sources cite 100 hairs as the norm, but that has been found to be an over­es­ti­ma­tion. These hairs are “ter­mi­nal hairs” – those that have reached the end of their growth cycle and rest (tel­o­gen) cycle, usu­ally at the end of 5–6 years on your head. All hairs go through three phases of growth – ana­gen, cata­gen and tel­o­gen. Even hairs of those suf­fer­ing from alope­cia (hair loss) go through these phases. The dif­fer­ence is that in those suf­fer­ing from alope­cia, a new hair does not replace the old one, result­ing in vis­i­ble hair loss.

With trac­tion alope­cia, there is a sim­ple cause for the hair loss. What we know as a human hair can be divided into two parts: The fol­li­cle and the hair shaft. The fol­li­cle is the skin organ that pro­duces the hair and resides in the der­mis layer of the skin. The hair shaft is the vis­i­ble hair that extrudes from the skin and can be pulled out. When too much pres­sure is put on the hair over time, it can speed up the hair shed­ding process, result­ing in the loss of hairs already in the tel­o­gen phase. It can also have a neg­a­tive effect on the fol­li­cles them­selves, result­ing in trau­ma­tised fol­li­cles that do not pro­duce hairs to replace those that were shed.

Is trac­tion alope­cia reversible?

Unlike some other forms of alope­cia, trac­tion alope­cia is usu­ally reversible, as long as the pulling and tug­ging that has caused it is stopped and the scalp is allowed to heal. Repeat­edly sub­ject­ing the same hair fol­li­cles to pulling may result in per­ma­nent hair loss in the affected area. It can take time for the hair to recover from the dam­age of over-pulling. Often, it can take up to six months before an improve­ment can be seen and felt by the suf­ferer. Top­i­cal hair loss prod­ucts can often speed up the process as well as revive hairs in the tel­o­gen phase.

Trac­tion alope­cia in black women

Trac­tion alope­cia is com­mon among black women, because of their choice of hair­styles, like weaves which involve tight pulling of the hair. It can often be mis­taken for other types of hair loss, so pro­fes­sional assess­ment is often Naomi Campbell's traction alopecia hair loss is a result of wearing weaves continuouslynec­es­sary to see what the prob­lem is.

Trac­tion alope­cia often starts with a reced­ing of the front hair­line, and it often con­tin­ues with a gen­eral thin­ning of the hair all over the head. Another form is when the loss occurs around the scalp edges. This type of hair loss is called banded trac­tion alope­cia. With another type of trac­tion alope­cia the hair comes out in clumps as the result of sleep­ing in rollers or hav­ing braids or tight weaves. Chil­dren can also be affected.

The good news is that the con­di­tion is not genetic and can be reversed if diag­nosed and treated in time.