Ask the Experts

Hair loss is a big concern among many of our clients. How can we identify what is normal hair loss and what may be a more serious issue?

The best way to think of the way hair grows is to picture a garden. How well it grows is completely a result of what is happening “underground”. A normal hair cycle should lead to a product, which is the hair, but things that interfere with the cycle, like medication, illness, infection, or chemicals, have the potential to stop hair from being formed properly.

Most people lose anywhere from 50 to 100 strands of hair each day. On the days when hair is washed, people can lose up to 250 strands. But this shouldn’t discourage washing in an attempt to keep the hair, as it will fall out eventually, anyway.

There are ways to know when hair is thinning, or being lost at a higher rate. Women will often see a difference when waking up in the morning; there may be an unusually large amount of hair on their pillow, or when hair is combed (especially without tugging, which can pull the hair out), more hair than normal will be left in the comb.

There are also other visual cues that women can look for over time. Although men’s hair tends to recede from the forehead or the crown of the head, women tend to notice thinning on the top third to one half of the scalp. Sometimes their frontal line stays intact but women may see more of their scalp than normal when their hair is pulled back.

If a person is suffering hair loss, the best advice I can give is to get it checked by a hair loss specialist or a trichologist sooner rather than later. At VTC, we believe that a successful treatment starts with the correct diagnosis.

When a client comes in to VTC with concerns about hair loss, there is a combination of ways to make a diagnosis. Preliminary blood work is usually taken to make sure that the thyroid gland or an autoimmune disease isn’t the culprit.

You can also diagnose what the problem is just by looking and listening. Ask what a patient’s mother, or relatives look like, if they have similar, or greater amounts, of hair loss. Using magnification on the scalp can show if a woman’s follicles vary in size, with some thick and others thin. These are two tell tale signs of female pattern hair loss, also called androgenetic alopecia. This is a hereditary condition that affects about 30 million women and is the most common kind of hair loss. It happens to about 50 per cent of women. Although it mostly occurs in the late 50s or 60s, it can happen at any time, even during teenage years.

Typically, each time a normal hair follicle is shed, it is replaced by hair that is equal in size. But in women with female pattern hair loss, the new hair is finer and thinner. The hair follicles are shrinking and eventually they stop growing altogether.

If hair follicles are uniform in size, or if the hair loss is sudden, it is unlikely to be caused by heredity condition. There are a wide range of conditions that can bring on hair loss, with some of the most common being pregnancy, thyroid and anemia. Others include autoimmune diseases, PCOS and skin conditions such as psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis.

Other reasons for hair loss include extreme stress, physical trauma like surgery or intense illness and dramatic weight loss over a short period of time. And hair loss can occur for a couple of weeks to six months after any of these experiences.

Amin Sheybani is the founder, owner and chief executive officer of Vivandi Trichology Centre (VTC). He created VTC based on the hair loss he experienced when he moved to Dubai 20 years ago and is a sought after expert in the field of international, non-surgical hair loss from the worlds of fashion, business, and entertainment in the Middle East.

Hair loss is a big concern among many of our clients. How can we identify what is normal hair loss and what may be a more serious issue?

The best way to think of the way hair grows is to picture a garden. How well it grows is completely a result of what is happening “underground”. A normal hair cycle should lead to a product, which is the hair, but things that interfere with the cycle, like medication, illness, infection, or chemicals, have the potential to stop hair from being formed properly.

Most people lose anywhere from 50 to 100 strands of hair each day. On the days when hair is washed, people can lose up to 250 strands. But this shouldn’t discourage washing in an attempt to keep the hair, as it will fall out eventually, anyway.

There are ways to know when hair is thinning, or being lost at a higher rate. Women will often see a difference when waking up in the morning; there may be an unusually large amount of hair on their pillow, or when hair is combed (especially without tugging, which can pull the hair out), more hair than normal will be left in the comb.

There are also other visual cues that women can look for over time. Although men’s hair tends to recede from the forehead or the crown of the head, women tend to notice thinning on the top third to one half of the scalp. Sometimes their frontal line stays intact but women may see more of their scalp than normal when their hair is pulled back.

If a person is suffering hair loss, the best advice I can give is to get it checked by a hair loss specialist or a trichologist sooner rather than later. At VTC, we believe that a successful treatment starts with the correct diagnosis.

When a client comes in to VTC with concerns about hair loss, there is a combination of ways to make a diagnosis. Preliminary blood work is usually taken to make sure that the thyroid gland or an autoimmune disease isn’t the culprit.

You can also diagnose what the problem is just by looking and listening. Ask what a patient’s mother, or relatives look like, if they have similar, or greater amounts, of hair loss. Using magnification on the scalp can show if a woman’s follicles vary in size, with some thick and others thin. These are two tell tale signs of female pattern hair loss, also called androgenetic alopecia. This is a hereditary condition that affects about 30 million women and is the most common kind of hair loss. It happens to about 50 per cent of women. Although it mostly occurs in the late 50s or 60s, it can happen at any time, even during teenage years.

Typically, each time a normal hair follicle is shed, it is replaced by hair that is equal in size. But in women with female pattern hair loss, the new hair is finer and thinner. The hair follicles are shrinking and eventually they stop growing altogether.

If hair follicles are uniform in size, or if the hair loss is sudden, it is unlikely to be caused by heredity condition. There are a wide range of conditions that can bring on hair loss, with some of the most common being pregnancy, thyroid and anemia. Others include autoimmune diseases, PCOS and skin conditions such as psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis.

Other reasons for hair loss include extreme stress, physical trauma like surgery or intense illness and dramatic weight loss over a short period of time. And hair loss can occur for a couple of weeks to six months after any of these experiences.

Amin Sheybani is the founder, owner and chief executive officer of Vivandi Trichology Centre (VTC). He created VTC based on the hair loss he experienced when he moved to Dubai 20 years ago and is a sought after expert in the field of international, non-surgical hair loss from the worlds of fashion, business, and entertainment in the Middle East.

Hair loss is a big concern among many of our clients. How can we identify what is normal hair loss and what may be a more serious issue?

The best way to think of the way hair grows is to picture a garden. How well it grows is completely a result of what is happening “underground”. A normal hair cycle should lead to a product, which is the hair, but things that interfere with the cycle, like medication, illness, infection, or chemicals, have the potential to stop hair from being formed properly.

Most people lose anywhere from 50 to 100 strands of hair each day. On the days when hair is washed, people can lose up to 250 strands. But this shouldn’t discourage washing in an attempt to keep the hair, as it will fall out eventually, anyway.

There are ways to know when hair is thinning, or being lost at a higher rate. Women will often see a difference when waking up in the morning; there may be an unusually large amount of hair on their pillow, or when hair is combed (especially without tugging, which can pull the hair out), more hair than normal will be left in the comb.

There are also other visual cues that women can look for over time. Although men’s hair tends to recede from the forehead or the crown of the head, women tend to notice thinning on the top third to one half of the scalp. Sometimes their frontal line stays intact but women may see more of their scalp than normal when their hair is pulled back.

If a person is suffering hair loss, the best advice I can give is to get it checked by a hair loss specialist or a trichologist sooner rather than later. At VTC, we believe that a successful treatment starts with the correct diagnosis.

When a client comes in to VTC with concerns about hair loss, there is a combination of ways to make a diagnosis. Preliminary blood work is usually taken to make sure that the thyroid gland or an autoimmune disease isn’t the culprit.

You can also diagnose what the problem is just by looking and listening. Ask what a patient’s mother, or relatives look like, if they have similar, or greater amounts, of hair loss. Using magnification on the scalp can show if a woman’s follicles vary in size, with some thick and others thin. These are two tell tale signs of female pattern hair loss, also called androgenetic alopecia. This is a hereditary condition that affects about 30 million women and is the most common kind of hair loss. It happens to about 50 per cent of women. Although it mostly occurs in the late 50s or 60s, it can happen at any time, even during teenage years.

Typically, each time a normal hair follicle is shed, it is replaced by hair that is equal in size. But in women with female pattern hair loss, the new hair is finer and thinner. The hair follicles are shrinking and eventually they stop growing altogether.

If hair follicles are uniform in size, or if the hair loss is sudden, it is unlikely to be caused by heredity condition. There are a wide range of conditions that can bring on hair loss, with some of the most common being pregnancy, thyroid and anemia. Others include autoimmune diseases, PCOS and skin conditions such as psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis.

Other reasons for hair loss include extreme stress, physical trauma like surgery or intense illness and dramatic weight loss over a short period of time. And hair loss can occur for a couple of weeks to six months after any of these experiences.

Amin Sheybani is the founder, owner and chief executive officer of Vivandi Trichology Centre (VTC). He created VTC based on the hair loss he experienced when he moved to Dubai 20 years ago and is a sought after expert in the field of international, non-surgical hair loss from the worlds of fashion, business, and entertainment in the Middle East.