3 Hair Problems that Make you Lose Hair Over!

Are you among those who thought that hair is just for making you look good? Think again…

Some facts you never knew about your hair are 

• An average person has 5 million hairs
• Hair grows all over your body, except lips, palms, and soles of feet
• A healthy hair grows to about half an inch in a month
• The average life span of hair is 6 years after which they fall and new hairs take their place
• Hair plays a vital role in keeping your body warm and protecting your eyes, ears and nose from foreign particles in the air.

What is hair?

The hair that you see is nothing but the dead shaft that comes out of the scalp. Embedded inside the scalp is another part of the hair the root. The root is surrounded by a tube of tissue called hair follicle. The hair follicle has pigment cells melanocytes which releases a chemical called melanin, the pigment that gives hair its characteristic color.

Grey hair

The melanin in the hair follicle is of two types, eumelanin (which gives brown or black color to the hair) and pheomelanin (which imparts red color to the hair). Thus, the more the concentration of melanin in the follicular cells, darker is the color of the hair.

As the concentration of melanocytes reduces in the hair follicle, there is a decrease in the amount of the pigment melanin and in turn the hair becomes more transparent in color, silver, grey or even white.

What causes a change in hair color?

• Genetics
• Age
• Gender
• Medical conditions such as albinism, vitiligo (An acquired skin disease characterized by patches of unpigmented skin), malnutrition and pernicious anemia (A chronic progressive anemia of older adults).

Hair loss (or alopecia)

It is normal to lose about 100 hairs daily. But there are certain conditions with which there is an increase in hair loss. These are

• Hormonal factors, certain sex hormones trigger male pattern baldness and female pattern baldness
• Old age
• Certain diseases such as thyroid, diabetes, alopecia errata (when the autoimmune cells attack the hair follicles, destroying them and causing hair loss), scalp infections such as ringworms and skin disorders such as lupus (Any of several forms of ulcerative skin disease).
• Use of certain medicines such as those for arthritis, depression, heart problems, high blood pressure or chemotherapy for cancer treatment
• Stress due to physical or emotional shock 
• Poor nutrition, low protein diet
• Hair treatment, overuse or improper use of hair coloring products, hair straighteners and permanent waves along with excessive hairstyling or hairstyles that pull your hair too tightly.
• Genetics

Dandruff (seborrhea)

It is present in those parts of skin which are rich in oil glands, and is seen in the form of flaking (overproduction of skin cells), and sometimes redness and itching.

• Dandruff occurs in 15 – 20% of general population, more in men than women. There are various factors causing dandruff;
• Stress
• Weather, dandruff is more pronounced during winters
• Infrequent shampooing
• Severe dandruff is caused in people with medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, others with central nervous system problems and HIV 

Check this website for  a plethora of information on Ayurveda, Siddha traditional medicine and other home remedies Spice flair

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