I had lunch with a good friend a couple weeks ago and I commented on her long, glorious hair. It had been awhile since we’d seen each other, seven months at least, and it had grown twice as long since then, dark and shiny and beautiful.

“I’m losing a ton of hair again,” she sighed.

Huh?

I couldn’t tell, but she can — especially when she pulls it back into a pony tail.

Me too, I griped. I recently even needed to switch to a smaller barrette, and every time one of my 3-year-old twins gets a fistful and pulls, I nearly weep at the new loss entwined in his fingers.
Now that I’m 35, I guess that I figured it was part of getting older, the thick tangly hair of my younger days just naturally would start getting more brittle and thin as the clock ticks. I’ve been aghast at the amount of hair that comes out in the shower each day, and what’s wrapped around the comb once I manage after 10 minutes to get through the tangled wet mop on my head.

It’s been driving me crazy enough that I started taking biotin and vitamin B supplements and popping Viactiv (a chewable calcium supplement, not the other thing you’re thinking of) daily, sometimes twice.

My lunch friend, who is my age as well, said she believes her thinning hair to be related to her polycystic ovarian syndrome. It’s a condition I have as well, and our concurrent infertility struggles years ago are what united us in friendship in the first place. She said it’s a cyclical issue for her, the thinning, loss and regrowth, and it’s occurred a couple other times through the years.
I started doing some online research regarding reasons for thinning hair in women and found I might have a couple risk factors, including PCOS, which in a nutshell is related to a higher level of male hormones, called androgens, that basically makes the hair follicles “rest” sooner than they should and regrow thinner.

I also take birth control pills and live under a typical American amount of stress — two more factors for changes in hair growth and thickness.

Another friend of mine who takes an anti-anxiety drug, Celexa, said after a few months on that medication she could’ve woven a rug (or a wig, perhaps) with the hair that clogged her drain.

My nanny, who is considerably younger than me with thick, lustrous, long hair that can take a full day — a full day! — in the summer to dry, says she loses quite a few strands too. But that’s probably just because it just takes her soooo long to brush it out.

Here’s a rule of thumb if you’re a female concerned about hair loss: roughly 100 hairs are lost from your head every day. The average scalp contains about 100,000 hairs. Hair grows from its follicle at an average rate of about 1/2-inch per month.

Ready for more? Each hair grows for 2 to 6 years, then rests and falls out. Then a new hair starts growing in its place.

So, if I’m 35, and I have 100,000 hairs in my head, give or take a few thousand right now, by the time I see my friend again for lunch, we should either both be bald, reveling in our rejuvenated, robust manes -- or complaining about how now, we’ve started spotting the grays.
 
Beth Anne Piehl is a News-Review special sections and health writer. Reach her at bpiehl@petoskeynews.com.

Possible contributors to female hair loss and thinning:

Anemia
Any hypothalamic or pituitary disorder (glands in the brain)
Any thyroid, liver, adrenal or ovarian disorder
Childbirth
Drug toxicity — anesthesia, chemotherapy
Eating disorder — anorexia, bulimia
Essential fatty acid deficiency
Protein deficiency (common with vegetarian diets)
Severe infection
Severe stress
Starting or stopping birth control pills
Various medications, including bromocriptine, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, amphetamines, anticholesterol agents
Mineral or vitamin deficiency — zinc, manganese, iron, vitamin B6, biotin
Perms, hair color, bleach, improper brushing/combing, hair styles that pull on the hair
Autoimmune disease such as lupus
Any sex steroid imbalance such as low progesterone, estrogen dominance
Allergies
Recent hepatitis B shot
 

Healthy-Hair Diet

Eat more salmon. Omega-3 rich foods like salmon and sardines help seal in shine. Distilled fish oils or DHA supplements will work, too.

Be a bran lover. Bran is rich in vitamin B, which may slow hair loss and promote hair growth. Other B-rich victuals include beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower, soybeans, nuts, and eggs.

Avocados and avocado oil may prevent some funky stuff that kills hair follicles -- dihydrotestosterone (DHT) -- from getting where it needs to go.

Say no to animal fat — and red meat — if you’re losing hair. They can lead to more DHT production and hair-follicle damage.

Stock up on green tea. Brew a strong pot, cool it, then give your head a rinse to help kill off dandruff-causing fungus. Incidentally, if you drink green tea, the caffeine in it may help slow balding, too.
Source: RealAge.com