A word from the dermatologist: what is alopecia and how to identify it?

The task of every hairstylist is to monitor not only the beauty of his client’s hairstyle, but also the condition of his hair and scalp - of course, this is one of the signs of professionalism. Whatever one may say, the average person goes to a hairdresser much more often than to a dermatologist or trichologist. Therefore, recognizing the problem and helping the client cope with it is your direct responsibility. In this material, we decided to understand what alopecia is in women and men, what are the main causes of its occurrence, how focal alopecia differs from diffuse alopecia, and what to do if all the symptoms point to this unpleasant disease. We decided to turn to dermatologist and cosmetologist Anastasia Zaslavskaya for help in order to dot all the i’s.

Anastasia Zaslavskaya , dermatologist, cosmetologist

The scary word alopecia is the medical name for baldness. Moreover, this means hair loss due to pathological reasons. But physiological alopecia is a natural process of hair thinning with age. What are the types of alopecia, how do they differ from each other? There are seven main types of alopecia: Androgenic type (male pattern hair loss). It is a thinning (miniaturization) of hair associated with the work of androgens - masculinizing steroid hormones. The endocrine type (female pattern loss) is associated with the work of estrogen hormones. The traumatic type of alopecia occurs due to head trauma. Psychosomatic types. In this case, the cause of hair loss is mental. Diffuse types of loss. Characterized by severe, uniform hair loss over the entire surface of the scalp in men and women as a result of disruption of hair development cycles. Focal types – hair loss in patches as a result of damage to the cells of the hair root system by immune defense factors. Scar types of hair loss. Their main feature is irreversible damage to the hair follicles and the appearance of connective tissue in their place.

Why does hair start to fall out?

There are quite a few reasons, I will highlight the main ones:

• Heredity
• Physical injuries (thermal or chemical burns, deep wounds)
• Hormonal disorders
• Various skin diseases (seborrhea, ringworm)
• Treatment with toxic drugs
• Viruses and fungi
• Frequent stress and low immunity
• Poor nutrition, strict diets

How to recognize the problem and which specialist should you contact first? Regular examination is a sure way to detect the first signs of alopecia and prevent it. To do this, you need to run your hair several times with both hands, like a comb, in different parts of the hairline and collect the fallen hairs. Now count them. If the number exceeds 15, then the likelihood of alopecia is high. The following symptoms should also alert you:

• Hair shafts become brittle and weak
• Hair comes out from any effort
• Hair has become dull, unhealthy-looking, and tangled
• Became wavy
• A person loses up to 150 hairs per day

A trichologist diagnoses and treats alopecia. But since this disease is multifactorial in nature, you will need to consult other doctors: an endocrinologist, a psychologist, a gastroenterologist. The main thing is to identify the cause, and this requires a comprehensive examination of the whole body.