The Bald Truth
FOR YEARS, ALICE (not her real name) wore her long, thick blond hair down her back. It was the kind of hair any woman would be proud of, so when it suddenly started falling out in clumps four months after the birth of her first child, she was appalled.
'I had little areas of baldness around my hairline, so it was very obvious around my face,' says the 30-year-old legal professional.
Usually thought of as a male phenomenon, hair loss is becoming increasingly common in women, doctors say. And because there are so many causes and types, diagnosis is difficult.
'I'm seeing far more women now,' says Dr Louis Shih, a dermatologist and vice president of the Hong Kong Medical Association. 'In the past 10 years, I've increasingly seen women in their late thirties and forties. I would say by the age of 40, at least 50 per cent have experienced some degree of hair loss, especially Asian women.'
One of the most common causes of hair loss is androgenic (or androgenetic) alopecia or female pattern hair loss. While men usually have distinct patterns of baldness, such as on the crown of the head, in women the condition tends to cause diffuse thinning across the scalp, in rarer cases distinct baldness or, in very unlucky cases, both. Caused by male hormones called androgens, it can be activated by a variety of factors including oral contraceptives, pregnancy and menopause. It can also be triggered by genetics (inherited from either parent).
Alice was suffering from a type of hair loss known as telogen effluvium or diffuse hair loss. Telogen effluvium can strike when the body's physical or hormonal systems are put under great stress from a host of conditions such as postpartum changes, menopause, iron deficiency, medical treatments such as chemotherapy, nutritional deficiencies and severe emotional problems. It can also be caused by a reaction to medications including those taken to thin the blood, lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol, as well as oral contraceptives, diet pills and narcotics such as cocaine.