Don’t know what alopecia is? Be aware that it can be more common than you think, affecting the hair roots and other areas of the body.
You may have heard of or known someone who started to experience sudden hair loss and large patches on their head. So, do you know what alopecia is? Well, it is precisely this disease that causes hair to fall out in large quantities, forming gaps and, in more specific cases, even baldness.
Therefore, alopecia is a disease that can affect men or women, for different reasons. However, it has treatment to prevent the flaws from increasing, and can even make the hair grow again – all under the supervision of a dermatologist.
What is alopecia?
Firstly, alopecia is a condition that causes hair to fall out from the scalp or some other area of the body with a lot of hair, such as eyebrows. Therefore, large areas of failure are visible to the naked eye, showing the skin where the hair or hair used to be.
Types of alopecia
In short, when someone has alopecia, five different types could be causing the hair loss problem. Above all, see what they are below.
Alopecia areata
When the body is fighting a disease (self-immunizing) or even having emotional problems, this type of alopecia can appear. Furthermore, there are no other symptoms other than hair or hair loss.
In short, alopecia areata causes the person to experience intense hair loss in certain areas, which causes round patches on the scalp to appear with no hair, roughly the size of large coins.
Still, alopecia areata total causes all the hair on the scalp to fall out and areata universal causes all the hair on the body to fall out. However, its evolution is not predictable, with the hair being able to grow back or not, being very specific to each person.
Androgenetics
It is the well-known baldness, caused by genetic factors, associated with the level of testosterone in the bloodstream and, therefore, more frequent in men, as testosterone is the main male hormone.
Traumatic Alopecia
It comes from the habit of constantly pulling out hair or from trauma to the head, such as blows and bruises that leave scars.
Seborrheic
Caused by seborrheic dermatitis, which can be treated with medication.
Eflúvio
Basically, this type of alopecia is identified by a period in which hair falls out naturally, however, when this mechanism becomes deregulated, there may be a longer period of hair loss, which generally responds and improves with treatments.
Signs of alopecia
In general, hair loss due to alopecia can be identified by the loss of 100 strands or more per day. But, as no one keeps counting the hairs lost on the floor or in the comb, you can tell if this is happening when many strands of hair are on the pillow in the morning or when many strands – not just three or four – are left in the hand when passing. her by the hair.
Added to this, toenails and fingernails can also change, with white lines and marked indentations appearing.
Causes
In general, alopecia can be a consequence of many things happening to us, which are not temporary or momentary, such as:
- Recurrent stress;
- Genetics;
- Too much chemicals or poor quality chemicals in the hair;
- Poor nutrition and consequent lack of nutrients;
- Use of continuous medications;
- Diseases, such as skin cancer, lupus or diabetes;
- Postpartum dysregulated hormones;
- Ringworm on the scalp;
- Menopause;
- Trichotillomania.
Difference between common hair loss and alopecia
Alopecia is different from regular hair loss. In short, alopecia is related to other diseases of the body, sometimes with no cure, just reduction or control of symptoms.
However, common hair loss occurs due to routine or unusual situations, such as too much stress or after giving birth, which are quickly reversed.
Risks for hair loss
Therefore, if you want to avoid the appearance of alopecia at some stage in your life, then you need to know the risk factors and what influences it to manifest itself. Look:
- Hormonal problems;
- Stress;
- Pregnancy;
- Advanced age;
- Family history of baldness (genetic factor);
- Excess weight loss;
- Lack of vitamin B12 and proteins;
- Excess vitamin A
- Diabetes and lupus.
Treatment
Finally, to identify alopecia and define the best treatment, an evaluation by a dermatologist is necessary. In short, each type of alopecia can receive more effective treatment.
However, alopecia is treated with topical medications, that is, directly applied to the affected region, such as corticosteroids, anthralin and minoxidil. Even so, corticosteroids can be injected, to have the most accurate effect on an area.
Still, cosmetic products such as lotions or ampoules and dietary supplements are great for complementing the treatment of more serious cases.
In addition, other specific and more expensive treatments such as carboxytherapy and intradermotherapy (laser treatments) can be carried out by a professional and with medical recommendation.
Therefore, with treatment, the disease can be controlled, reducing flaws and preventing new flaws from appearing, as the follicles at the hair root are stimulated to grow, and this is necessary until the disease disappears. In addition to this, introducing a good diet is essential, as this way your hair will have the necessary vitamins to grow strong.
Finally, did you like this article? Then you will also like this: Hair roots – Care for the health and appearance of hair
