January 4th, 2010 | 
Author: What to Expect
As there could be many things causing your hair loss, it is important that the specialist you see spends time with you. The specialist should look at your hair and scalp, take a full medical/lifestyle history, suggest blood tests, help you cope with your condition, and discuss all of your treatment options. Sometimes, the specialist needs to eliminate one factor before moving on to the next. Remember, many different factors may cause your hair to fall out. It is important to find each one so that any treatment you receive will be more effective.
The Specialist Should Look at Your Hair
This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised by how many people have said that a specialist they had seen either didn’t look at their hair at all or only quickly glanced at it. The specialist should look at both your hair and scalp to see the distribution of your hair thinning, which can often indicate why it is falling out. By comparing the partings at different positionsfor instance, the crown area, front area, sides, and backdifferences in hair quantity can be seen and the amount of thinning can be determined. The distribution of hair would indicate the presence of a genetic condition, traction hair loss (also known as hair breakage), among other conditions. The specialist should also do a pull test in different areas of your scalp to see how much hair is coming out.
Also, the specialist may look at the hair under a regular microscope (usually a trichologist will do this) or take a biopsy of the scalp (only a physician is able to do this).
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The Specialist Should Look at Your Scalp
It is important for the specialist to look at the scalp to see whether there is any flaking, itching, redness, acne-like breakouts, or other lesions. Although a lot of scalp conditions don’t cause hair loss and are just cosmetically annoying, some can increase hair shedding or indicate what is causing the hair-loss problem.
You should be asked whether you have any periodic scalp tenderness (called trichodynid). The scalp can be sensitive for many reasons, so it is important for the specialist to ascertain the possible cause.
If you are in doubt about any scalp condition, or if your scalp feels constantly tender for any length of time (such as more than a few days), I suggest you see a specialist.
The Specialist Should Show Empathy
The specialist should be concerned about your condition. You’re worried about losing hair, and this can often lead to anxiety and depression. The last thing you need is to be told that “It’s all in your head” or “You’ve still got plenty of hair, so don’t worry.” The amount of hair that you’ve lost is relative to you, not other patients of the specialist. Also, you want to make sure that every possibility is explored in finding why you are losing your hair. Because hair loss is not a life-threatening illness, many physicians are indifferent. Yet hair loss often affects your quality of life, so it’s important that your concerns are taken seriously.
Tags: Reasons – Nutrition
Recent published research has shown that your hair needs a plentiful supply of protein, energy-producing molecules (glucose), and certain vitamins and minerals for optimal growth to occur. As the hair follicle is a nonessential tissue and, therefore, one of the last tissues to receive nutritious substances (or the first to have them reduced), any long-term deficiencies may lead to premature hair loss. Also, hair is one of the fastest-growing tissues in the body (it grows about a half inch each month), so any long-term reduction in certain nutrients to the hair follicle may disturb the hair cycle. Any nutritional disturbance to the hair follicle can cause the growing (anagen) phase of the hair cycle to become shorter, leading to an increase in shedding, and cause the resting (telogen) phase to become longer, slowing regrowth.
Protein deficiency can be a frequent cause for hair loss because insufficient levels of protein will reduce an essential raw material for hair growth. Protein helps the body build the hair fibers, which consist of 80 to 95 percent protein. This is especially relevant for vegetarians or people who eat infrequently during the day.
Eating infrequently or missing meals can adversely affect your hair cycle. If you do this over time, the amount of energy available at your hair growth site may be deficient, causing the hair to fall out prematurely.
The most common nutritionally related hair loss occurs while dieting. Severe weight loss due to dieting can often cause a temporary increase in hair shedding due to metabolic changes in the body. It has been reported that losing an excess of fifteen pounds of weight in a month can be a trigger for hair loss. The loss usually begins two to four months after the onset of the diet; however, the hair tends to regrow to its original fullness another two to six months after the weight has been stabilized.
The good news is that, usually, any short term deficiencies cause only temporary hair loss. Once corrected, hair will regrow normally. However, long-term shortages can occasionally lead to permanent hair loss as well as the acceleration of genetic hair loss, if present.
Heavy metals such as mercury, found in contaminated fish, can cause hair loss. Again, a blood test would generally help find out whether this is relevant to your condition.
Questions to be Asked
During the initial evaluation the specialist should ask you a series of questions to help him or her find out what could be causing the loss or thinning. Not all questions you are asked will seem relevant, though often the answer is needed to rule out certain things.
How Long Have You Been Losing Hair?
Often the trigger of hair loss occurs between four and sixteen weeks (an average of three months) previous to you seeing the hair falling out. For instance, if you see a hair falling out in the wash in, say, June, that hair probably stopped growing in March. This is because when the hair goes into the resting (telogen) phase, it usually takes this amount of time for it to move into the falling out (exogen) stage.
Has the Hair Loss Been Continuous?
The answer to this question will indicate whether the cause has been continuously, or only periodically, affecting die hair cycle. Continuous influences could be genetic or a chronic general health condition. Periodic loss could indicate a dietary or stress influence.