Getting older comes with both the good and the bad. The pros: wisdom, life lessons, and life-long memories. The cons: wrinkles and fine lines, feeling older, tiredness and thinning hair. But even if you’re not fully experiencing some of these age-related changes, it’s quite possible to see a difference in your hair growth, and, chances are, you may not like it.
While aging is the number one reason for overall changes in hair thickness, there are a few other causes of hair loss, which may seem to happen all of a sudden, even though it doesn’t. Truth be told, you don’t wake up one morning to less hair than what was on your head the day before. It’s a gradual process that can take heed over the course of a couple of months or longer.
A variety of triggers can cause hair loss and thinning (medically known as telogen effluvium). But here’s the good news. Although hair loss may affect your self-esteem, it can be corrected. As long as the follicles have not suffered extreme and permanent damage and you can pinpoint the cause of your hair loss—be prepared to do a little research and possibly some trialing to determine the true culprit—you can get back your hair on track and healthy again.
Here, the five most common cause of hair loss that you may not realize are contributing to less-than-perfect strands: