I recently received an email from a woman who wanted to know why it's so much more common today to hear of and to see women with thinning hair or hair loss.
  The writer perceived that there were probably twice as many women today with thin hair than there were, say, fifty years ago.
  She wanted to know why this was happening and if the answer to this question might hold the key to treating the loss.
  I will address these questions in the following article.
Why Are We Seeing More Women With Hair Loss Today?:  There are many theories about this.
  Some people feel that as our environment worsens and becomes more polluted, our ability to have healthy and debris free follicles that are going to produce vigorous and thick hair becomes more of a challenge.
Others feel that all of the newer, cheaper, and more harmful preservatives that we put in our food may be causing the hair issues in the same way that these things are theorized to make young girls mature at a much earlier age than they did in previous generations.
Yet others feel that, as human beings, we are evolving to have less hair in general (and this is true for both men and women.
)  People who make this argument point to the fact that we are also getting taller and bigger as a species and we may be evolving to have less hair as it's not genetically necessary for our survival.
So what do these theories mean to you?  Well, unfortunately, we do not have control over these factors evolving and being present in our lives.
  We can try to live in a low pollution environment but at some point we will have to go outside for work or school.
  We can certainly try to eat healthy and organic foods, but unless we grow every bit of our own food, we can't be 100% sure what has been added.
  And, we certainly can not control the evolution of human beings.
But, we are able to control how clean we keep our scalp, how much we stimulate it, and how we treat any hormonal changes / imbalances.
We can also control our attempts to address a sensitivity to androgens, which leads me to my next point.
What Is Thought To Be The Most Common Causes For Women's Hair Loss?:  If you ask many hair loss specialists why women lose they hair, very few are likely to answer with any of the theories that I discussed above.
  Instead, they will tell you that women have a unique risk factor that men don't have (at least on the same level.
)  That factor is changing and fluctuating hormones.
  There are many times in women's lives where their hormones fluctuate, lessen, and change.
  Even monthly changes that are normal can cause some hair loss in women who are vulnerable to these changes.
  So, typically the first place to look if this is an issue for you is if you've had a history of being hormonally sensitive.
The other thing that is thought to be one of the most persuasive causes of women's hair loss is also a sensitivity, but this one is to androgens.
  Many people will assume that if a woman has AGA (or androgenic alopecia, which is what men often have when they suffer from thinning) then that woman has too much testosterone.
  This is not always the case.
  In fact, many women with AGA have dirt low testosterone and cortisol.
  However, they are overly sensitive to any of this being on their scalps.
It's not healthy to completely eliminate these things and, since it continues to be produced daily, this is not realistic anyway.
  You may be better off working on the sensitivity rather than trying to eliminate something that your body needs.
In short, it is very difficult to tell you exactly what is causing this upturn in women's hair loss.
  This is frustrating, I know, but what you can control is and change is trying different things until you start seeing the results that you want.
  Basically, you will want to consider things like hormones, dermatological issues on the scalp, and androgen sensitivity.
  These are the most likely culprits and this is often where I recommend that you start.