Hair breakage and hair shedding are two processes that can trigger abnormal hair loss and contribute to balding or hair thinning. Breakage can occur for a number of reasons associated with common hairstyling practices. Shedding is typically the result of various forms of stress or illness. You also shed hair as part of your hair's normal life cycle.
Hair Breakage Basics
Your hair breaks when individual strands thicken or weaken, according to the Nemours Foundation's TeensHealth. In some cases, it breaks near your scalp and stops your hair from growing to normal length. In other cases, full-length hairs break at their far ends, leading to a condition commonly known as split ends. In time, splits at the ends of your hair can migrate further down your hair shafts.
Hair Life Cycle
At any given time, roughly 90 percent of your hair is in the anagen phase, its active growth phase. Hair shedding occurs naturally as part of the telogen phase--at the end of telogen, your hair falls out on its own and your hair follicles enter a brief phase, ketogen, following which, your follicles begin to form replacement hairs and the cycle begins again. You normally shed 50 to 100 hairs a day as part of this overall process, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).
Breakage Causes
You can trigger hair breakage if you frequently bleach or perm your hair. You can break your hair if you regularly or improperly use hair products such as gels, dyes, sprays or relaxers. Use of certain hair care devices can cause breakage; examples include curling irons, flat irons and blow dryers. You can break your hair if you use devices that hold your hair tightly in place, including rubber bands, hairpins or clips. You can trigger hair breakage with excessive brushing, combing or shampooing.
Abnormal Shedding
Abnormal hair shedding occurs when too many of your hairs enter the telogen phase at one time, the AAD explains. This condition is known as telogen effluvium. Underlying causes of telogen effluvium include chronic illness, severe infections or cases of the flu, high fever, lack of protein in your diet, after-effects of major surgery, low iron content in your blood and disease in your thyroid gland. You may develop telogen effluvium as a side effect of certain medications, as well as cancer treatments and birth control pills.
Considerations
You can limit the potential for hair breakage by styling your hair only when it's dry, the AAD notes. You can also limit breakage by using fabric scrunchies to hold your hair or frequently changing the location of hairpins, clips or rubber bands. Telogen effluvium usually does not produce baldness. In a lot of cases, your hair will return to normal thickness after the source of stress or illness has been resolved.
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