Hair loss is a common concern — it’s normal to shed up to 100 hairs a day. However, excessive hair loss can be worrying. It may affect just your scalp or your whole body and can be temporary or permanent. Causes vary, and while some cases can be improved through proper care and nutrition, others may require professional help.
Here are 10 common questions about hair loss and tips on how to prevent it. Read on.
Which Vitamin Deficiency Causes Hair Loss?
Vitamin D deficiency is closely linked to hair loss (alopecia areata) and issues like weak bones, low bone density, and osteoarthritis. Vitamin D is essential for overall health — it strengthens bones, supports the immune system, keeps skin healthy, and promotes new hair growth. Without enough vitamin D, hair growth can slow or stop.
You can boost vitamin D in simple ways:
- ◆Eat vitamin D–rich foods like salmon, cereals, milk, and orange juice.
- ◆Get safe sunlight exposure to help your body produce vitamin D naturally.
- ◆Take vitamin D supplements if needed for extra support.
Does Creatine Cause Hair Loss?
Creatine is naturally produced in the body from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine in the kidneys and liver. It’s a popular supplement, and the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) confirmed its safety and effectiveness in 2017.
Some studies found that creatine use in male athletes may increase dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels — a hormone linked to hair loss. This led to speculation that creatine causes baldness. However, current research does not provide enough evidence to confirm that creatine directly increases DHT or leads to hair loss.
Does COVID cause Hair Loss?
Fever and sore throat are common symptoms of COVID-19, and many infected people find that they experience significant hair loss after contracting COVID. This is also known medically as telogen effluvium.
How Long Does Covid Hair Loss Last?
Telogen effluvium does not cause a person to lose their hair follicles. While the hair may not grow for a while, the follicle is still there, and the hair will eventually regrow. Telogen hair loss can often return to normal on its own; it usually takes 3-6 months. During this period, you must adjust your mood and reducing stress will be of great help to your recovery.
Do Hats Cause Hair Loss?
Wearing a hat that fits your head normally will not cause hair loss, which is why many people choose to use hats to cover their hair loss or baldness.
But traction alopecia can happen from wearing a hat. If your scalp is put too much pressure from the hat, it can cause scarring and miniaturization of the follicles over time, while preventing normal hair growth.
Can Stress Cause Hair Loss?
As with the telogen effluvium caused by COVID-19 mentioned above, when your body feels extreme stress, it will push more hair than normal into the telogen phase of the hair growth cycle for a while. When the hairs finally re-enter the anagen phase, they usually fall out, leading to rapid hair loss.
Neither stress nor telogen effluvium is permanent. When you reduce stress by regulating your mood or adding some outdoor activities to divert your attention, your hair loss will be relieved accordingly.
How Long Does Postpartum Hair Loss Last?
The hair growth cycle is cyclical from the anagen phase to the shedding phase. But during a woman's pregnancy, most of her hair is in a growing phase. When the baby is born, the hormones in the woman begin to change, and the drop in estrogen levels can lead to hair loss, but this tends to occur around 4-5 months postpartum rather than immediately.
Your hair loss usually lasts about 3 months, after which it will slowly return. If your hair loss persists for six months or more then you may want to consider consulting your doctor.
Does Smoking Cause Hair Loss?
Smoking may damage the hair follicle by reducing blood flow to the follicle and eventually cause hair loss. Secondly, it also inhibits hair follicles and hinders normal hair growth by affecting the amount of DHT.
This damage can be reversed by quitting smoking, and once you start your hair will slowly absorb nutrients and become healthier.
How Much Hair Loss is Normal?
The American Academy of Dermatology states that it is normal for a person to lose about 50-100 hairs per day. Since hair growth is in a normal growth cycle, it is normal for some hair to fall out every day.
Hair dye and curling or straightening irons can affect the quality of your hair invisibly, resulting in varying degrees of hair loss or breakage. So when your hair loss exceeds the normal value, you must find the cause and do it in time to save it.
How to Stop Hair Loss?
Given the above factors that affect hair loss, we can make the following efforts in life to prevent hair loss.
Adjust Your Eating Habits.
Since many people's hair loss is caused by a lack of vitamins, in addition to taking vitamin supplements in the daily diet, adjusting dietary habits, more and more balanced intake of foods that can supplement protein will provide great help.
Try Low-Intensity Light Therapy.
Because light can promote vitamin D absorption, proper exposure to sunlight or the use of low-level laser treatment equipment can help restore vitamin D levels in your body and help your hair grow back.
Maintain Good Hair and Scalp Care.
A doctor once said, "Any scalp inflammation will affect the hair growth cycle." Even if you don't often use perm and dye tools to redesign your hair in your daily life, you should pay attention to the care of your hair and scalp.
Regularly washing your scalp and hair to keep your scalp healthy is the most basic and most important. Of course, you can also choose to use onion or ginger juice to apply to the scalp, which will help you improve the condition of your hair to a certain extent.
Use Over-the-Counter Hair Loss Medications or Work with A Dermatologist
Minoxidil is currently considered one of the safer and more useful medicines, and you can apply it to your scalp to relieve scalp problems. If your hair loss is serious, it is recommended to use medicine or consult a dermatologist for treatment.
Although hair loss will not cause harm to your body, it may affect your hair volume and appearance more or less. At present, the most common treatment method for people is to wear their own beautiful real human hair wigs when they go out to cover the lack of hair well, which can greatly boost self-confidence.
