Most forms of hair loss in women are due to androgenetic alopecia, also known as female pattern hair loss. This is a hereditary type of hair loss that is driven by your genetics. But, are there also lifestyle factors that may make your genetic hair destiny better or worse?
One study looked into 98 identical female twins in order to see if lifestyle variations between the two may play a role in female hair loss. In the study, the women were asked to complete an assessment that gave some insight into their habits and lifestyle factors, and also reviewed images of their scalp, and took their testosterone blood levels.
Below, we will review what the researchers found out from this female pattern hair loss twin study.
According to this study, there were many factors that seemed to be associated with increased frontal hair loss between the twin set. The frontal portion of your hair is considered the front top portion of your head, including your hairline. While women do not normally experience a receding hairline, you may notice a thinning of the hairline, and see more scalp showing through in this area.
The 9 total factors include:
Temporal hair loss is referring to hair loss on your temples on the front sides of your head. This study found an association between increased female temporal hair loss and 6 factors.
This study also reported 4 factors that were associated with an increased vertex hair loss in the women, as compared to their twin counterparts. The vertex of the head is sometimes referred to as the crown of the head, and it is located on the top back of the scalp. While bald spots rarely develop in women, this is the area of the head where men will commonly develop a bald spot.
The single factor found to be associated with a higher blood testosterone level was increased temporal and vertex hair loss as compared to their twin.
Overall thinning of the hair means that hair fineness and thinness doesn’t specifically happen only on one portion of the scalp, but tends to occur all over the head. This may also be described as diffuse overall thinning, and this is a common pattern seen in female pattern hair loss.
This study found 5 factors that may be associated with increased overall hair thinning as compared to the paired twin.
Female pattern hair loss is a genetically driven hair loss condition, but there also seem to be many environmental risk factors that may worsen the degree or rate of hair loss.
Some of the predominant risk factors for worse hair loss as seen in twins in this study include many factors that seem to be stress-related. The study even suggests that stress-related factors may play a larger role in female pattern hair loss than in male pattern hair loss. These stress-related factors include smoking, divorce or multiple marriages, having more children, and higher reported levels of general stress.
There also seems to be a connection between having certain disease states and increased hair loss as compared to the matched twin. A history of high blood pressure, cancers, PCOS, diabetes, or skin diseases may end up taking a toll on hair loss.
While most forms of hair loss are generally genetically driven, there may be lifestyle choices or changes that can be made to help prevent an exacerbation of the situation.
Some people also opt to include prescription medications along with healthy lifestyle choices to try and slow the progression of hereditary hair loss.
Here at Strut, we offer a prescription topical female pattern hair loss cream that can be massaged into your scalp once daily at nighttime. We utilize ingredients like Spironolactone and Minoxidil, or even Finasteride for women for whom it is appropriate.
If you are interested in seeing if a customized female pattern hair loss medication is a good fit for you, simply select the medication and complete a free online questionnaire and image-based telemedicine consultation in under 15 minutes. Our doctors will review your information and put together a treatment plan for you, if you are a good candidate. Then, your prescription will be put together at a U.S. licensed compounding pharmacy and shipped to your door with our fast and free shipping.
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