Losing your hair is not an uncommon incident. In fact, the majority of men and women will lose significant amounts of hair over their lifetime. But for most people, hair loss is the result of a slow decline. If you experience sudden and rapid hair loss, you have every right to be miffed. Now it’s time to get to the bottom of the issue.
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A Primer on the Hair Growth Cycle
Before we dig into some of the common causes of sudden and rapid hair loss, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. This starts with understanding the hair growth cycle so that you can make sense of how hair loss occurs and what can be done to overcome the issue.
In the most basic sense, the hair growth cycle consists of three major phases:
- Anagen. This is the beginning phase of the hair growth cycle. In this phase, cells divide and produce new hair. The amount of time a hair spends in the anagen phase is highly-dependent on factors like age, genetics, nutrition, and overall health, but somewhere between two to seven years is normal. During this time, hair can grow as much as 30 inches in length.
- Catagen. The second phase of the hair growth cycle is where hair actually stops growing and detaches itself from the blood supply. In this state, hair becomes known as “club hair.” Roughly 3 percent of all hair is in the catagen phase at a given point in time.
- Telogen. The final stage is the telogen phase. This is where new hair begins growing underneath the club hair. This process usually lasts for about three months. Then at the end of this phase, the club hair falls out and new hair grows in its place.
After the telogen phase concludes, hair returns to the anagen phase and the process starts all over again. Hair loss – which can come in the form of gradual thinning, patchy bald spots, or even sudden and total full-body hair loss – occurs when follicles fail to re-enter the anagen phase at a rapid enough rate.
The average person naturally loses somewhere between 50 to 100 hairs a day. If there isn’t a large enough supply of hairs entering back into the anagen phase and kickstarting the growth cycle, then there is a net loss of hair. The severity of the net loss dictates how fast balding occurs.
3 Causes of Sudden and Rapid Hair Loss
Now that you understand how hair grows and what happens when it falls out, let’s explore some of the possible causes of sudden and rapid hair loss:
1. Medical Conditions
If you suddenly go from a full head of hair to rapid thinning, it’s possible that there’s a medical condition to blame. For example, an overactive or underactive thyroid can lead to hair loss. Likewise, chronic or inflammatory disorders, chronic infections, and/or autoimmune diseases can cause diffuse telogen hair loss.
In other situations, certain nutritional deficiencies can lead to hair loss. This is especially common when people go on crash diets and don’t consume adequate amounts of protein, zinc, iron, fatty acids, or vitamin D.
2. Medications
Certain medications can cause sudden hair loss. This is most commonly seen in anticancer drugs and/or chemotherapy treatments. Hair loss is typically noticeable within a week and becomes total and widespread by month number two.
“In addition to chemotherapeutic drugs, medications that can sometimes cause hair loss include warfarin, steroids, birth control pills, lithium, amphetamines and vitamin A supplements, though hair will most often grow back when the offending medication is stopped,” The New York Times explains. If you’ve recently started on a new medication and you notice hair loss during this period, consult with your doctor to see if there is an alternative option available.
3. Stress
When the body becomes stressed, blood flow and energy are diverted away from the scalp and toward more vital organs like your lungs, heart, and brain. If stress becomes chronic, this can strip your hair follicles of the blood flow needed for healthy hair growth. The result is hair loss.
How to Prevent Future Hair Loss
The good news is that most sudden and rapid hair loss can be prevented with simple tweaks or additions to your routine. Here are a few suggestions:
- Make Healthier Lifestyle Choices
The simplest thing you can do is make healthier lifestyle choices. This means:
- Drinking a minimum of 64 ounces of water per day (consumed steadily throughout the day).
- Eating a balanced diet that’s high in protein, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, iron, and fatty acids. Try to eliminate as much processed food, hydrogenated oils, and refined sugar from your diet as possible.
- Wash your hair at least three times per week and avoid excessive heat styling. Naturally drying and styling your hair prevents damage.
Simply making these three tweaks will reduce the likelihood of hair loss and set you up for successfully regrowing hair.
2. Use Natural Hair Care Products
Most hair care products that you find on the shelves of your local salon or supermarket contain a blend of chemicals and additives. And while they may smell good, these products actually do more harm than good. Make the shift to natural hair care products and you’ll see the difference.
One of our best-selling products is the Kiierr Hair Growth Products Bundle, which includes DHT blocking hair growth vitamins, DHT-blocking shampoo, and a specially formulated conditioner for hair growth.
3. Do 30 Minutes of every other day treatments of LLLT
With just 30 minutes of every other day low level laser therapy (LLLT) treatments, you can begin regrowing hair in as little as three months. And within seven months you’ll notice significantly thicker and fuller hair. Get started today and fight back!
Grow Thicker, Fuller Hair or Your Money Back
At Kiierr, we’re laser-focused on providing our customers with real hair growth with just half an hour of daily treatment. If you’re looking for a safe, efficient, and cost-effective method of regrowing your hair, a Kiierr laser cap could be right for you. Order your Kiierr laser cap today and enjoy a growth guarantee or your money-back!*
