Written by Nickie Fleming in Hair Care
Viewed by 34 readers since 06-07-2009

When your hair is thinning, you won’t feel great at all. Does it help you to know that you are not the only one? Thousands of others suffer the same problem.

Thinning hair occurs mostly in men. About 40% of men under the age of 35 experience some hair thinning. It typically starts with a receding hairline and a thinning at the crown. It can gradually progress to a bald spot at the crown and eventually to a complete baldness of the scalp. The most common cause is attributed to a chemical derived from testosterone, called DHT.

But not only men become the victims of hair thinning. It now affects women just as well. Some 40% of women over the age of 40 deal with this problem. The causes of this are different and more complicated than with men. Women’s hair loss isn’t just concentrated on one spot, but is more overall. This is called “diffuse thinning”. Certain conditions such as pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause can affect the hormone balance and cause thinning. Other factors are brought along by extreme hair treatments such as colorants, perms and hot oil treatments.

What can be done to stop this thinning?

You can be brave and just shave your head – no more worries! Or you can comb the hair, so that you won’t notice the thinning immediately.

But there are large numbers of hair loss prevention and re-growth treatments nowadays, both for men and women. For instance, there are shampoos that work by removing the damaging DHT chemical from the scalp. Also, there are several vitamins that have been specifically formulated for thinning hair and to promote the speedy growth of healty, shiny hair. These vitamins are usually a combination of several key amino acids, biotin, vitamins B6 and E, and zinc. Many people who take this treatment have reported that their hair is thicker, more lustrous and healthy.

For more sturdy treatments (meaning to re-grow hair and not just thicken it) you may want to consider hair loss supplements or treatments that specifically target balding and hair loss. These can range from pricey to reasonable, tested and untested. Please use good judgment here! Read consumer reviews, testimonials, and surveys to see what really works best for you.

All these treatments take about six months before you can see that they are working. There is – alas – no overnight fix for this problem.

Another method to stimulate hair growth, is to massage the scalp. This is an age-old method to help stimulate the hair follicles and to unclog any blocked oil glands in the skin. By a thorough massage, you promote healthy skin and new, healthy hair growth.

Finally, you can also work toward preventing hair loss and hair thinning. Mostly, this is brought on by hormonal imbalance in the male or female hormones. So correcting the hormone balance can stop hair thinning. Women can avoid tight pulling hairstyles like high or tight ponytails and stay away from chemical treatments such as perms and other possibly damaging hair treatments.