Hair loss in black women causes and prevention

Hair loss in black women is such an issue today for a lot of African-American women and the rate of losing hair has not stop increasing.

Black women suffer from two primary categories of hair loss, or alopecia. The first is hair breakage, and the second is actual hair loss. With hair breakage, the hair strand will get very short in sections of the scalp. With actual hair loss, there are either bald spots or thinning in some areas. In either case, the underlying scalp can be seen.

If a woman notices thinning and she doesn’t see any regrowth within a month, she should see her dermatologist. If she has breakage and it doesn’t stop when she changes her hair-care practices to less harmful procedures, she should also see her doctor.

Causes of hair loss in black women

Abusing hair with multiple processes, such as improperly or too frequently applied hair relaxers, coupled with excessive heat from hair dryers, hot rollers, and curling or flat irons can lead to breakage.

Hair-styling techniques are directly implicated in traction alopecia (hair loss in black women}.

Hair extensions can cause hair loss in black women

The tight weaving of artificial hair extensions onto a woman's own hair can exert significant traction on the hair's roots. The same effect can occur with tight cornrow braiding, hair weaves, and the use of rollers. Hair is lost symmetrically at the temples, other margins, and across the scalp. Without treatment, the areas of alopecia expand.

It is also important to note that even without chemotherapy many hair loss in black women have been confronted with hair loss in part because of the processes they use to maintain their hairstyles. Braiding hair too tightly and keeping it braided for long periods of time can begin to create alopecia (hair loss) for some women. The use of chemical treatments can be particularly harsh on the hair and cause hair loss. In fact, there is some research being done to determine if any of these commonly used chemicals might be contributing to cancers in humans.

Although the strands of hair are the same between both black and white women, black hair tends to be more delicate and difficult to style. All hair strands are composed of three layers, the cuticle, or outermost layer, the cortex or pigment-producing layer, and the medulla or innermost layer. Black hair follicles (the areas below the surface of the skin from which the hair originates) are curved as opposed to straight as in white hair. The curvature of the follicle is responsible for the curl of the hair. Also, because the hair is often tightly coiled, it tends to be drier than white hair. The oils produced by the scalp do not migrate down from the curved hair follicle as freely. This dryness of the hair and scalp is the primary reason why african american women do not need to wash their hair as often as white women do.

Black hair has also been found to have a flattened, elliptical shape on cross section and it contains many microscopic (tiny) knots. These knots make the hair more prone to breakage while combing. So it is important to comb the hair gently with a wide-tooth comb, never pulling. Healthy hair care begins with washing and conditioning the hair every 7 to 10 days. Eighty percent of Black women chemically relax their hair to make it straight. Relaxed hair tends can be more fragile and even more prone to dryness and breakage, so it is important to condition relaxed hair weekly and minimize the heat applied to it.

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