Although hair loss may seem like a more prominent problem in men, women are nearly as likely to lose, or have thinning, hair. Most women notice it in their 50s or 60s, older than the age that majority of men start losing hair, but it can happen at any age and for a variety of reasons. Women also tend to experience different hair loss patterns than men. There are some cues to alert women when they are losing more hair than normal. When waking up in the morning, there may be an usually large amount of fallen hair on a woman’s pillow, for one. Another would be when a woman combs her hair (especially without tugging, which can pull the hair out) and more than normal will be left in the comb. There are also other visual cues that women can look for over time.
Men’s hair tends to recede from the forehead or the crown of the head, while women tend to notice thinning on the top third to one half of the scalp.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, about 30 million women are afflicted with the hereditary condition of andgogentic alopecia. Typically, each time a normal hair follicle is shed, it is replaced by hair that is equal in size. But in women with female-pattern hair loss, the new hair is finer and thinner – a more miniaturized version of itself. The hair follicles are shrinking and eventually they quit growing altogether.