You know that one day you may have thinning hair. But knowing it doesn’t begin to prepare you for the change in your appearance and its impact on your emotions and self-esteem.

If you’re suddenly struggling with thinning hair, take heart. Dr. Jelena Petkovic has helped many women and men regain healthy hair by diagnosing the reason for their problem and providing customized therapies that restore hair growth.

6 reasons your hair is thinning

Hair follicles (the structures deep in your skin that grow hair) grow hair for many years before entering a resting phase. They stay dormant for a few months, then the existing hair falls out and the follicle starts another growth phase, producing a new hair.

Your hair starts thinning when something damages the hair follicle or affects the growth or resting phase.

These are the top six reasons for thinning hair:
1. Genetics

Male and female pattern baldness, called androgenetic alopecia, occurs when you inherit genes that make the follicles sensitive to a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

DHT shortens the follicles’ growth phase. At first new hairs are shorter and thinner. Over time, the follicle stops growing new hairs.

In men, this causes a receding hairline and hair loss on the top and back of the head, leaving a ring of hair on the sides and back of the head.

Women with androgenetic alopecia have a different experience. They may notice some slight baldness along their part, but most women have general thinning over their entire head.

2. Hormone imbalances

Hormone imbalances and sudden changes in hormone levels often cause thinning hair. Low estrogen and testosterone, an underactive thyroid, and the hormonal imbalance caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are some of the most common imbalances.

Many women notice thinning hair after childbirth when the dramatic shift in hormones causes excessive hair shedding. This is a temporary condition that usually returns to normal. However, it can take months before your normal amount of hair returns.

3. Nutrient deficiencies

Like every part of your body, hair follicles need an adequate amount of all the essential nutrients to grow healthy hair. Nutritional deficiencies can affect hair growth and the hair’s structure.

People often develop thinning hair if they don’t get enough protein or niacin. Vitamin D, the B vitamins, and zinc are also associated with diffuse hair loss. However, many nutrient deficiencies can have an impact.

4. Emotional and physical stress

Any type of stress — emotional distress, daily life stress, surgery, and physical problems like injuries, illnesses, and diseases — cause a type of hair loss called telogen effluvium.

Stress disrupts the normal growth cycle, putting many hair follicles into the resting phase and making them stay dormant longer than normal. As a result, hairs fall out all over your scalp and they don’t immediately begin to regrow.

5. Tightly pulled hair styles

Wearing your hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, braids, or cornrows damages the hair follicle, causing a type of hair loss called traction alopecia. This problem is reversible if it’s caught at an early stage. Over time, the follicle may sustain irreversible damage.

6. Autoimmune disease

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease that occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks the hair follicles. The resulting damage and inflammation causes hair loss. This condition doesn’t cause thinning hair; it makes your hair fall out in patches or may cause hair loss over your entire scalp.

Hair loss solutions

The path to treating your thinning hair begins with identifying the underlying cause. In addition to reviewing your medical history and lifestyle habits to catch potential problems like stress, we perform functional lab testing.

Functional lab tests detect metabolic and cellular problems that aren’t revealed in standard blood tests. When evaluating hair thinning, we typically begin with tests that find micronutrient deficiencies and hormone imbalances.

Depending on what we learn about your overall health and lifestyle, we may also recommend functional tests to identify other potential causes, such as inflammation, infections, and environmental toxins.

After we diagnose the root cause of your hair thinning, we create customized solutions that restore hair growth, by targeting your unique health needs. However, we often use treatments such as:

    Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy
    Peptide therapy
    Stress management
    IV nutrition therapy
    Medical-grade dietary supplements
    Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatments

If you notice your hair is thinning, don’t wait to get an evaluation. Request an appointment online or send an email to drjelena@drjelenapetkovic.com.