Women’s Hair Loss

Female Hair Loss

Hair loss and baldness is not only a male phenomenon - women can also be affected, but important differences do exist. For those reading this who are primarily concerned with women’s hair loss and replacement, reading what has been written in the prior sections will be imperative to fully understanding what follows.

A significant number of women suffer from forms of hair loss other than female pattern baldness. These other forms of hair loss must be ruled out before a definitive diagnosis of female pattern baldness can be made. 

"Telogen Effluvium"

Classically, telogen effluvium is that shedding of hair that occurs several months after childbirth. Typically, the woman will notice large amounts of hair suddenly coming out one to six months after a significant stress in her life such as a surgery, a serious illness, or a social or psychological stress. The bad news is that there is no treatment for this type of hair loss.  However, the hair should return on its own after a dormant phase.

Traction Hair Loss

This is found most commonly in women who wear their hair tightly pulled back or in tight braids for long periods of time. The slow, chronic pull on the hair root eventually kills the follicular root system so that no hair will grow in these areas. This form of hair loss may be amenable to hair transplantation if the hairstyle is changed.

Some patients who have had facelifts or other procedures in the scalp that have left scars or, as in the case of brow lifts, can have left the hairline too high. In general, these types of hair loss respond well to transplants.

Female Pattern Baldness

True female pattern baldness is much more common than most people realize. It tends to be underestimated because women go to great lengths to hide it. By the time women are in their fifties, approximately one quarter are affected.

The pattern of female pattern baldness tends to be different from men’s. Typically, women will notice hair loss throughout the mid scalp but retain the majority of their hairline.

1. Male pattern baldness begins with the recession of the hairline and results in complete hair loss across the top of the scalp. Female pattern baldness causes diffuse thinning behind the hairline but there is no recession of the hairline.
2. Male pattern baldness begins in the late teens and early twenties when the testosterone levels are high. Female pattern hair loss tends to begin in the late thirties and reaches its peak after fifty when testosterone levels are falling.
3. Male pattern hair loss affects up to 70% of all males. Female pattern hair loss affects up to 30% percent of women.
4. Females with a predisposition for male pattern hair loss rapidly develop typical male pattern baldness if given high doses of testosterone.
5. There has been a report describing a young women with hypopituitarism who presented with clinical and histological features of female pattern baldness in the absence of detectable levels of circulating androgens (testosterone and other male hormones) showing this pattern of hair loss is not androgen dependent.
6. Treatment with Propecia, a medication that blocks the conversion of testosterone to 5-DHT, certainly helps male pattern hair loss, but has no effect on female pattern hair loss.
7. Hair tranpslantation is an option - ensure you choose a specialist hair transplant surgeon with specific experience of female hair transplantation

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