Friday Five: Hair Loss Myths

When your hair begins thinning/receding/falling out it’s your prerogative to find out exactly what’s going on. Much like anything else hopping online and diagnosing the issues yourself could result in only eating yellow foods every evening at 7:35pm and still be losing your hair. There’s so many different theories and reasons why you could be suffering from hair loss. We’ve asked the experts’ from the Harley Street Hair Clinic. (Infamous for Mr. Rooney’s much talked about transplant).

Genes For Hair Loss Come From the Mother’s Side

“Wrong, you can inherit from either your mother or father”

Although the inheritance from the mother’s side is slightly stronger, common baldness can be inherited from either side of the family, or possibly both at the same time.

Hair Loss is Caused by Decreased Blood Flow to The Scalp

“No it’s not, a decreased blood flow to the scalp is not the cause of hair loss, but a result of it” 

When your hair is growing, it requires a significant amount of blood flow. Once you begin to lose your hair, not as much blood is needed therefore the blood flow to the scalp decreases.Not the cause of hair loss, decreased blood flow, is but a result of it.

Wearing a Hat Makes You Go Bald 

“This isn’t true as your hair gets oxygen from blood not the air”

 If the hat is particularly tight, it could break the hair follicles, and cause bald patches. But this would be temporary, and hair would grow back once the hat stress is removed. Hair follicles get oxygen from the blood stream, rather than from the air, so regular hats wouldn’t affect the hair. 

Frequent Shampooing Causes Hair to Fall Out

 “No – hereditary baldness is not due to hair falling out but the hair being replaced by finer, thinner hairs.”

When people start to thin they sometimes think that shampooing is the cause, since they notice hair in the tub. Knowing hereditary baldness is not due to hair falling out, but rather by normal hair gradually being replaced by finer, thinner hairs, means it could be a good idea to shampoo everyday to ensure you don’t too much come out in the tub.

Hair Thinning Only Happens With Age

“You’re never too young to start losing your hair”

Thinning hair can be caused by a number of things; change in hormones, improper diet, stress, unhealthy hair habits, genetics, medical conditions, illness, and even cosmetic procedures such as bleaching or perming. While there is some truth to age being the cause of hair loss – generally speaking your rate of hair growth slows as you get older. Thinning hair, hair loss, and other hair-related issues can affect young people in their teens and early twenties, it is in fact more common than you might think. An estimated 40% of men will have noticeable hair loss by age 35, which isn’t very old at all.