It's not just your imagination: hair loss increases between September and December. But don't panic! There is a solution.
Autumn is here to stay. The leaves of the trees fall onto the pavement, the sun sets earlier and the cold advances until it recovers everything it lost in spring. But there is something else that distinguishes this season from the others. : In the mornings, what was once a clean pillow has turned into a tangled jungle, combs and brushes seem angrier and hungrier than before, and all the items of clothing no longer look spotless as easily. In short: everything It's full of hair. And we all wonder: why does hair fall out more in autumn?
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Like the leaves of trees, hair falls more in autumn. [/caption]WHAT IS HAIR?
Well, first we need to know what hair is: it is a series of fibres composed mainly of keratin (a protein that also forms our nails) that only appear in mammals (like humans) and that serves as insulation against temperature and other external factors . Over millions of years, human evolution has meant that our species has gradually lost hair from different parts of the body, leaving them almost completely bare; others, like the armpits, pubis and head, have maintained a very high concentration of this protective layer.
Hair - like any other type of hair - is divided into three parts : Birth , Shaft and Tip . The shaft and tip are the middle and upper parts of the hair, and their health depends on the good care taken of the cuticle, the outer layer of the three that make up the hair fiber. But the lower part, the birth , is perhaps the most important point, since it is where the hair bulb or root is found, where the hair grows and where it is anchored to the middle layer of the skin, called the dermis .
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The four phases of hair life: anagen, catagen, telogen and exogen. [/caption]THE LIFE CYCLE OF HAIR
The hair bulb or root is more important than the other parts because the entire life cycle of a hair depends on this initial part, since it is there where it receives the nutrients to make it grow. And the hair has a life cycle divided into four phases: anagen (in which the hair grows, which can last between 3 and 6 years), catagen (in which the hair stops growing and rests, which lasts between 1 and 3 weeks), telogen (in which the hair falls out little by little, on its own or with help, which lasts from 1 to 3 months) and exogenous (in which the follicle begins to create a new hair, from the root).
This cycle results in between 50 and 150 hairs falling out every day during the normal season. But in the fall , a number of causes, none of them definitive, mean that in most people this number is much higher . And in our love for hair and everything that surrounds it, we have collected some of the most important possible causes for this massive loss...
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The 'areata' or temporary fall is due to multiple factors, but it is never definitive. [/caption]7 reasons why hair falls more in autumn
There are many reasons why hair may fall out more at this time of year. In any case, it is important to know that hair that falls out in autumn can be recovered over time . Hair loss is divided into two main types: androgenetic , which depends on genes and causes permanent baldness, and areata , which is always temporary and depends on external factors (such as the sun or dyes) or internal factors (such as illness or stress). Autumn hair loss is of the areata type , and therefore, it is temporary. Here are 7 possible reasons why it occurs:
- One possible explanation is 'molting' . Humans, like other mammals, shed their hair (and therefore their hair), and like animals such as bears, dogs and hares, when the cold weather arrives, the body sheds the old hair from the summer and replaces it with new hair for the winter.
- Another reason is that a large part of the hair usually enters the catagen phase at the end of spring and needs approximately three months to go through the telogen and exogen phases, which last the summer. When summer ends, all the hair that died in spring ends up falling off little by little.
- In addition, in summer the sun hits the scalp more strongly and it tends to thicken to gain density and thus protect our head . When autumn arrives, and as the sun decreases its intensity, the hair can lose quality and fall out.
- With the return of the summer holidays , our lifestyle habits change to return to the routine of work and everyday life. This sometimes generates a stress that is not typical of holidays, when there is more time to carry out things in a calmer way and have a higher quality of life. This negatively affects our body and, of course, our hair, causing it to fall out more.
- Again, in the summer, exposure to more sweat, salt from the sea, chlorine from swimming pools and other external factors causes our hair to weaken and suffer during the fall, falling out.
- A person with iron deficiency or hormonal changes will have even weaker hair during the fall and will see more hair fall out than normal, especially if it is long (not because it falls out more, but because it is more visible).
- Finally, living in an extreme climate , such as a desert area or at a very high latitude (close to the poles), can cause hair to suffer from excessively high or low temperatures and fall out. If the change in temperature to the cold of autumn is sudden, this will also have the same effect.
You can find more information about hair loss in autumn here .
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To control all types of hair loss, we recommend the Tricoterapy Advanced Care line from KV-1 . [/caption] What can I do to prevent autumn hair loss?
What now? Should we resign ourselves to losing our hair every time summer ends? To a certain extent, autumn hair loss is inevitable, for all the reasons we explained above. However, taking in-depth care of the health of our hair , especially of the hair bulb or root and the scalp, will slow down or even prevent much of the autumn hair loss , improving the appearance of our hair in general.
To do this, it is essential to nourish and work on the strength of the hair. The best solution is to avoid stress , maintain a good diet and, above all, trust a professional . From the experience of more than 30 years dedicated to hair health and care , at KV-1 we recommend our trichology line Tricoterapy Advanced Care , which is designed exclusively to maintain strong and resistant hair, working on the hair root and scalp to treat all types of serious problems, including areata or temporary hair loss .
We hope that this article has helped you to understand how hair works and how to avoid annoying autumn hair loss. If you find it useful, share it on social networks and recommend it to your friends or acquaintances, and stay tuned for new posts.
Greetings and goodbye!