Research
"Reports show that
even though your follicles are not producing hair that they
may still be alive."
New studies indicate that
stimulating dormant follicles to produce new hair may be the
most effective treatment for hair loss. Here are a few facts
and myths about hair loss:
Myth: Male
and Female
Pattern Baldness is inherited from your mother's side of the
family.
Fact: The
gene for male pattern baldness can come from your mother's
or your father's gene pool; therefore, baldness can be
inherited from either side of the family.
Myth: Losing
an average of a hundred hairs per day is nothing to worry
about because it is normal.
Fact: If
you don't have male pattern baldness, that's true, because
the hairs that fall out will soon be replaced by new hairs
sprouting from the hair follicles from underneath the skin.
If you do have male pattern baldness, however, even losing
the "normal" hundred hairs a day can be a concern
because many of those hairs are being shed by follicles that
are in the process of dying, and therefore the new hairs
those follicles make will be progressively thinner until the
follicles are only capable of making fine, "peach
fuzz" hairs. Eventually those follicles will die and no
longer produce any hairs at all.
Myth: You
can increase the number of hair follicles by drugs, natural
or chemical treatments, massage, diet, or other means.
Fact: No.
The number and diameter of your hair follicles is completely
out of your control - it's hereditary. Nothing you do will
alter how many hair follicles you have.
Myth: Cutting
your hair can make it grow back faster and thicker.
Fact: No.
Hair grows at an average rate of half an inch per month.
Because each hair shaft is slightly thicker at its base
compared to its tip, hair can temporarily appear thicker for
about a week after it has been significantly cut.
Myth: If
left uncut, my hair will just keep growing and growing.
Fact: No.
Length depends on your hair's natural cycle, which is unique
to you. The longer the hair's growth phase, the longer the
hair will grow. If you have a naturally long growth phase,
you can grow your hair to well below your waist. If you have
a naturally shorter growth phase, your hair will be shed
before it grows that long and only grow to a certain length.
The duration of your particular growth phase is based on
heredity and is affected by nutrition.
Myth: Wearing
a hat causes hair loss.
Fact: As
long as you don't regularly wear a hat that's so tight that
it restricts circulation - blood flow to the hair follicles
- this will not cause hair loss. It can, however, damage
hair because of the effects of sweat, dirt, and skin
particles that can clog pores.
Myth: Blow
drying can cause hair loss.
Fact: No.
But it can dry, burn, and damage hair that may then fall
out, to be replaced by new hair that will sprout from the
follicle beneath the skin during the growth phase.
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