It’s a nice, relaxing weekend, and you decide this is the best time for you to pamper yourself. While a spa session doesn’t feature on your list, a long, warm bath is something you want to indulge in. Now that you’re there, you think pampering your scalp and hair wouldn’t be a bad idea either. So, as you massage your scalp, and try to get rid of all the dirt and dust lodged in there, you also notice something alarming.

There’s a small piece of net on the bathroom floor. Wait, that’s not net, that’s your hair! What was supposed to be ‘relaxing’ is now nothing short of horrifying.

Hair loss is a harsh reality. Numbers suggest that as you grow older, your hair fall will intensify – in fact, close to 40 percent people have hair fall before they hit their 50s. For men, the numbers are even more startling. Apparently, not even 5% of adult males can flaunt the hairline they have when they are young boys. Ouch!

While it’s natural for you to lose 50 to 100 hair strands a day, these numbers state a grim reality. The volume of your hair diminishes, thanks to hair fall. You might be using the best of hair products and following all the tips that experts have to offer, but the beautiful, natural cover on your head seems to be shying away steadily.

Hairstyles

One of the most effective ways of making a style statement is by flaunting your hair. While women have several hairstyles and hair accessories to flaunt their hair, men aren’t far behind either. There are so many different products available to dress your mane – it’s impossible for you not to fall in love with them. But, did you know that in trying to flaunt your hair, you’re actually losing it?

Hairstyles like a ponytails or braids, styling equipment like straighteners and curling irons, elastic bands, and even a lot of harsh hair products cause the volume of your hair to decrease. So, be careful.

Genes

So, it might just be all in the family. Even if you happen to be the good kid, who oils, shampoos, and conditions the hair promptly, your genes could mess all of that up. Studies have shown that men who have bald fathers are more likely to experience extreme hair loss and baldness as compared to men whose fathers flaunt a scalp full of hair.

However, even women’s hair loss can be attributed to genes. Hold on, it isn’t just about your parents – baldness and hair loss runs in families, so aunts, uncles, and other relatives too could determine your hair health!

Sudden Trauma

When you experience something traumatic like an accident, surgery, or even a sudden, shocking news, your body might experience hair loss. This happens because you develop something called Alopecia Areata, which results in small bald patches. It could also lead to an autoimmune reaction.

What happens here is, the white blood cells launch an attack on the hair bulb, making you lose your precious hair. Did you know that even heartbreak, which is a form of trauma, causes your hair to break and fall?

Extended Illness

Sometimes, the perfectly thick cover on your head might start to dwindle when you’re recovering from an illness. Did you know that 85% of your hair is in the growing stage, while the other 15% is in what they call the resting/shedding stage?

After a prolonged illness, you experience something called telogen effluvium, which is the result of the extreme distress your body goes through during your illness. This causes the ‘growing’ hair to switch to the ‘resting/shredding’ stage, because of which it falls off in two-three months.

Weather

Oh yes, weather not just impacts your skin, it also plays a role in how good or bad your hair is. Change in weather does cause damage to your hair. A study shows that research conducted on 800 healthy women, spanning over a period of six years, helped them understand that they lost maximum hair in autumn. Even summer see a lot of hair fall.

The simple reason behind this is that since hair grows a lot during summer, it falls a lot as well. Climatic changes trigger an adjustment phase in your body, which can throw your hair cycle off gear.

Delivery

If you’re a woman, then here’s another cause. Postpartum hair fall is real. Pregnancy is all about your hormones in hyperactive mode. Your body undergoes a lot of changes and this, in turn, affects the way your hair grows as well. While during pregnancy, your hair seems to be fine, post-delivery, the hormonal changes cause your hair to shift to the shedding phase, which explains the alarming amount of hair you’re losing.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases might be come across as a surprising cause of hair fall, but consider this: you spend close to 8 hours sleeping, which means your head (with the hair, of course) is in constant contact with your pillowcase for that long. Therefore, if your pillowcase isn’t right, your hair’s not going to like it. Your hair is delicate, and anything that causes friction makes the follicles weak.

This causes the strands to become thin, eventually making them brittle. It’s observed that cotton pillowcases cause maximum hair fall because the cotton absorbs all the moisture, making hair dry and causing it to fall.

Over Intake of Vitamin A

Vitamins are great for your health, but over intake can also cause you harm. For example, Vitamin A is great for hair, but too much of anything can be bad. Did you know that it could cause hair loss? In the form of supplements that are used for acne, Roaccutane is known to cause hair fall.

Smoking and Drinking

Didn’t we all know that smoking and drinking are bad for health? But surprisingly, it isn’t just your heart, brain, liver, pancreas or lungs that are bearing the brunt of your bad habits, but also your hair. So, the next time you feel an urge to ‘drink,’ H2O is what you should be grabbing!

So, don’t think that only the regular causes such dust and pollution are causing your beautiful hair to fall. These weird reasons could also be playing the role of a culprit here!

Author Bio:
Supraja is a Homemaker and a full-time mom. Her interests lie in Writing, Healthy Cooking, and Kitchen Gardening.  She is a Certified English Professional from the University of Cambridge. She writes to connect with the world and share her thoughts on healthy living.