Hair Thinning: Tackling Sudden Hair Loss In Males and Females

What is Hair Thinning or Hair Loss?

Hair aesthetics have always been a crucial part of our lives irrespective of our gender, race, age and social strata. While we opt to go the extra mile to have shiny and luscious strands of hair that are a sign of vitality and youthfulness, thinning hair is an inevitable part of our hair growth lifecycle. 

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, we tend to lose 50 to 100 strands of hair on a daily basis, which is deemed normal. Losing more strands constantly is known as a thinning hair condition, which usually happens over a period of time. Thus, we have the time to analyse the potential hair loss causes to seek necessary interventions for our varying degrees of thin hair problems. When it comes to thin hair vs balding, thin hair does not necessarily lead to balding but fosters an appearance of sparser hair strands on our head, parting line, and the front part of our head. 

Male or Female Pattern Hair Loss

Though hair thinning does not cause balding essentially, it may lead to pattern hair loss in males and females, which is also known as male pattern baldness and female pattern baldness. Males are often affected by hair thinning in the front of the head, causing front baldness, females tend to have the thinning hair effect on their parting line and across their scalp. 

Types of Thinning Hair Problems 

Thinning hair can cause a versatile range of sudden hair loss, and pattern baldness conditions, such as:

Androgenetic Alopecia - This most common male pattern baldness condition is hereditary and can be managed with medications and surgical hair restoration methodologies. Hair thinning in the front in males and females is one of the common signs and symptoms of this type of male and female hair thinning condition. 

Telogen Effluvium - In this condition, you tend to lose 300 to 500 strands of hair daily, causing thin hair problems due to the huge gap in the hair shedding and regrowth phase. 

Anagen Effluvium - This is a type of sudden hair loss, which is often caused as a result of chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatments for cancer. 

Alopecia Areata - In this autoimmune condition-led hair loss, your body’s immune system attacks the healthy hair follicles and prevents hair regrowth, causing thinning hair, hair thinning in the front, front baldness, scalp hair loss and more. 

Tinea Capitis - Most common in children, this hair loss variant results in loss of hair strands in patches that cause ever-growing bald spots. 

Cicatricial Alopecia - Also referred to as scarring Alopecia, in this condition, healthy hair follicles are replaced with scar tissues, preventing hair regrowth. 

Lichen Planopilaris, Discoid Lupus Erythematosus, Folliculitis Declavans, Dissecting Cellulitis of the scalp, Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia, Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia, are some of the other hair loss types that can lead to thin hair problems. 

Early Warning Signs of Hair Thinning

Hair thinning symptoms usually differ from males to females. While in males, hair thinning symptoms include front baldness, scalp hair loss, and hair loss in front of the head, the pattern for females are quite different. Women tend to shed more than 300 strands of hair daily that reduces their hair mass, causing the partline to exhibit noticeable thinning and a see-through scalp.