Not many people are aware that almost ninety percent of hair on a man or woman's head is in what is called the growing phase and that ten percent is in the resting stage and will soon fall out. It is perfectly normal for up to 150 hairs to fall out from your scalp daily as they are in the resting phase. If you look at the plug hole in your bath or shower or at the comb or brush you use you'll see a fair bit of hair and its good to know that this is perfectly ok.

If you feel that you are losing more that the 150 hairs daily a visit to a trichologist might be in order as he or she will be able to determine in what phase the shed hair is in and thus it will be possible to limit the actual causes of the hair loss. A skilled trichologist will for example be able to evaluate whether the hair loss is due to certain medical drugs, your diet, thyroid gland problems or other factors.

Very often hair loss is just temporary and can be due to some hormonal changes especially in women and the best course of help will be to just wait a few weeks and it may disappear. Women are often sensitive to male hormones and depending on their genetic makeup they can produce them at an early age and this can cause young women to lose hair. In female hair loss of the problem is often just a big loss of the resting hairs which should sort itself out on its own.

Male hair loss tends to be seen in the temple and on the top of the scalp and with women the hair loss tends to be more diffuse. The remedies for male pattern hair loss include minoxidil which is a topical solution applied straight to the scalp. It kills the DHT that weakens the hair follicles and causes them to eventually die and women respond to minoxidil too.

The most recent hair loss drug available is Propecia that is taken as a tablet but may only be used by men and is very dangerous for use in women as it can cause damage to an unborn foetus. Propecia needs to be taken once daily and has very few side effects. It works by blocking the forming of the DHT internally as opposed to externally like the minoxidil.