I’m Only 20! Why Do I Have Thinning Hair?
Many nuances will leave you, figuratively speaking, pulling out your hair. However, young women experiencing thinning hair will try to hang onto every last strand.
Getting to the root of the problem can help you keep your locks luscious. Young women experience hair loss for a number of reasons.
Possible Causes of Thinning Hair
Hair loss plagues 40% of the population. Women constitute 61% of this statistic.
Why does hair thin? Finding the cause brings you closer to a solution. Keep reading to learn some of the most common causes for hair loss at 20.
Your Genes
Hereditary hair loss, known as androgenetic alopecia, happens when the hair follicle sheds and its replacement grows in thinner, due to shrinkage of the follicle. Each subsequent follicle grows in fines as the follicle continues to shrink., Eventually, hair growth from that site stops.
Unfortunately, you cannot reverse this process. However, you can slow it with treatment.
Doctors tend to prescribe vasodilators, in hopes that opening up the blood vessels allows extra nutrients to flow to the follicle. Nourishing your hair with a fortifying shampoo may also help slow the irreversible process.
Poor Nutrition
Depriving your body of essential nutrients will affect your hair. Keratin, a structural protein, makes up the majority of your hair shaft. If you do not eat enough protein, your body will utilize peptides for essential proteins first, leaving your hair thin.
B vitamins, like biotin and pantothenic acid, also play a role in growing healthy hair. Low intake of pantothenic acid restricts blood flow to the scalp, meaning your hair will not get the nutrients it needs, making it fall out. Biotin strengthens hair, so inadequate amounts leave hair brittle and thin.
Many other nutrients, such as vitamin E, vitamin, C, zinc, selenium, and omega fatty acids, also play a role in keeping your hair healthy. Any nutrient deficiency can cause balding at a young age.
Eating a balanced diet will prevent this type of hair loss. Certain foods like salmon, spinach, and sunflower seeds, may help you reboot your hair growth. Hair supplements can also help stimulate your locks to grow back.
Stress
Stressing out does not only give you grey hairs, but it can also make you lose your hair altogether. Stress can impact your hair in several ways.
Severe stress can trigger an immune response that makes your immune system attack hair follicles. This condition is called alopecia areata.
During tough times, you may suffer from a condition called trichotillomania. This occurs when a person subconsciously pulls out their own hair, resulting in spots of balding at a young age.
Telogen effluvium also occurs due to stress. With this condition, stress triggers numerous hair follicles to go into a resting phase and eventually fall out in clumps. This can result in thinning hair on top of your head.
To treat these conditions, take a breather. Seriously. Breathing exercises can help lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body.
You can also try meditation, yoga, qigong, and acupuncture to help reduce your stress. Once you get your stress levels under control, try a trusted topical treatment to stimulate hair growth in the areas of baldness.
Too Much Style
Do you often use hair dryers, curling irons, wands, and other tools to style your hair before leaving the house? If so, then this may be the culprit of your thinning hair.
Constantly styling your hair with extreme heat can make your hair brittle, causing breakage. Pulling it into tight braids or ponytails regularly can pull it right out.
You may not want to hear this, but stop styling your hair so much and it will grow back. Use a fortifying shampoo to help your hair grow back in thicker and healthier, and let your natural beauty speak for itself.
Hormones
Hormonal changes can create a whirlwind of unpleasant symptoms from acne to hair loss. The female hormones estrogen and progesterone can cause both hair growth and hair loss.
You may experience significant hormonal changes from:
- starting a new form of hormonal birth control
- stopping birth control
- pregnancy
- lactation
Any of these can cause you to start to see alarming amounts of hair in the shower drain or on your brush. Sometimes, as with the hair loss after pregnancy, your hormone production caused you first to produce an excessive amount of hair. So the thinning is simply bringing you back to baseline.
Other times, you will notice visible thinning and even bald spots. If this happens, talk with your doctor about going on a birth control pill to regulate your hormone levels.
It may sound counterintuitive to fight the effects of hormonal hair loss with more hormones. But, significant hormonal changes can result in hair loss while regulating the levels will help get your full head of hair back.
To help speed up the process, try topical hair product to stimulate growth. You can also use a fortifying shampoo to revive your locks.
Underlying Health Conditions
If your hair starts falling out, your initial reaction may be to start a supplement, use a fortifying shampoo, and or try a topical treatment to battle the balding. Do this, as it may help.
However, do not do that in place of talking with your doctor. Medications they put you on could potentially cause your hair to fall out. Sometimes hair loss at 20 occurs due to underlying medical conditions that can range from minor to serious.
Abnormal hair loss can indicate:
- ringworm
- anemia
- thyroid disease
- lichen planus
- thyroid disease
- cancer
This does not mean that you should plan your own funeral at the first sign of thinning. Just that it’s worth a call to the doctor, to make sure it is not a side effect of a medication or symptom of a health condition.
Battle the Balding with Amazing Hair Care
No woman wants to look in the mirror to see thinning hair. Numerous factors can cause early balding in young women.
At the first sign of thinning, arm yourself with cutting edge hair growth products. We want to help you thicken your hair again to build a more confident you.