It is normal to hear about men who go bald and suffer from male pattern balding but less common to hear about women suffering from balding. In Taiwan the problem is being looked at and it appears that between 600,000 and 800,000 women suffer fom Alopecia. Women suffer from baldness due to a number of reasons and high among them are changes in hormonal levels when going through menopause, a condition called androgenetic alopecia and the unwanted effects of some  medcines.

Female baldness usually happens in a different way to male pattern balding and involves the women losing the hair from the top and in the centre of their heads. When this sort of hair loss occurs due to the use of medicines like anti depressants, strong painkillers, hypertension medicine and others you must consult with your doctor before deciding to stop taking the medicine as it is importnat to establish that it is definitely the medicine that is causing the hair loss and nothing else.

In women in Taiwan it was also noted in doctors surveys that stress and anxiety were a major cause of alopecia areata and it was interesting to note that when the stress factor was removed about half of the patients found that their hair grew back. Doctors in Taiwan said that they often gave steroid injections to try and prevent the immune systems reactions to the body that often caused hair loss in women.

The doctors in Taiwan also noted that some women had thin hair because they had not looked after it well and that the act of dying and bleaching hair could leave it unhealthy and weak. It was never worth dying hair to try and prevent the baldness looking so obvious as this would just further aggravate the problem.

Simple hair care methods can be effective in women with hair loss such as washing their hair carefully and frequently with a mild shampoo and being careful not to scratch the scalp. Combing hair when wet can cause more strain on the hair follicles and damage them so it is better to leave combing till when hair is dry. The last resort that is used often by women in Taiwan is the use of a wig that covers up the baldness completely. The importance of wearing a good wig can not be underestimated as a bad one can look awful and can cause the head and scalp to itch.