Last weekend, I received an email from a woman who had, for the last six months or so, been experiencing hair loss along with some itching, tingling, tightness, and redness in her scalp. The woman felt that, since she was approaching 50, it might be possible that she could be approaching menopause and so this could be contributing to the hair and scalp issues. The answer is that it could, but it may not be in the way that she thought. I will discuss this more in the following article.
Hormones And Hair Loss With Itching Scalp: The Two Most Likely Causes: My reader had theorized that since she was potentially no longer producing as much estrogen and progesterone, this would mean that her hair might age or thin. This line of thinking was certainly a rational and common one. But, after emailing back and forth for a while, I was able to determine that this woman was not just experiencing your typical or run of the mill aging of the hair. No, she was experiencing some very dramatic shedding that was thinning out her hair in a sudden and not gradual way.
Therefore, I felt that it might be more likely that she was experiencing telogen effluvium or TE, as it's more commonly called. And yes, this was most likely caused by the drop in hormones. TE is often caused by even small changes in the body which cause your system to react by going into "shedding" or "resting" mode since the body is trying to save its resources, for whatever reason.
This can happen for various medical reasons like pregnancy, hypothyroidism, adrenal burnout, yeast over growth, chronic stress, etc. And, some people are more prone to this than others. The writer did admit that most times in her life when she went off and on birth control pills or hormone replacement, this same thing had happened to her.
Normally, TE will eventually right itself on it's own, so long as your body is able to stabilize itself as no triggers (or medications that may be culprits) are not added in. However, one thing which I felt that she also needed to be aware of was the possibility of genetic hair loss or androgenic alopecia (which is otherwise known as AGA.)
When I told her this, she was quite shocked and replied "oh no, that's men's hair loss. Isn't that like where men get that little halo around their hair and then get a round bald patch on the top like Julius Caesar or something?" Yes, that's what I'm talking about. But also yes, women are affected by this as well. And, it's actually much more common than you might think. Admittedly, most women don't get the smooth bald top like Julius Caesar, but they can get severe thinning at the top, a receding hair line, sparse temples and crown, or just an all over thinning, which is more diffuse in nature.
And the reason that she might be vulnerable to AGA right now is because it typically happens as the female hormones begin to wane somewhat because you're not as protected by estrogen (in terms of the androgens and DHT that cause this) at this time. Just as men's hair loss begins to become more prominent with age, so too, can women's.
Now, in terms of the itching. This can be the result of many of the hairs going into the dying off or resting phase with the beginning of TE. Or, sometimes as the hair begins to regrow, this will cause some itching and tingling. Finally, the androgens that can become more prominent at this time can also cause more itching. (Not washing your hair for fear of the loss can cause some itching too.)
So, how in the world can she tell what is really happening? Well, she could wait for a couple of months to see if this resolves. If so, it was likely TE. And, she could look closely at her regrowth. Telogen effluvium regrowth is usually normal looking and thick. AGA regrowth is sometimes very fine and just not as substantial as it once was (which is called miniaturization.)
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