At any one time approximately ninety percent of your hair is growing and the other ten is resting. It is when your hair is resting that it is likely to fall out so if all of a sudden you see a lot of hair in the plughole or on your comb then this may be the reason why.

There is a test you can do to give a further indication if you are going bald or not and that is to do a tug test. This is a lot less painful than it sounds, all it consists of is grabbing a few hairs between thumb and forefinger (you want at least 20 or so) and then pulling these strands slowly but firmly. If you lose more than half a dozen on this test then you may be going bald.

Now that we have covered that, let us look at 5 possible reasons behind hair loss :-

1. Ageing- unfortunately part of life is getting older, and one of the downsides of this is that when we age we start to lose our hair, for some hair loss can start as early as late teens but for a lot of people hair loss really happens between the ages of 20-50

2. Medications- If you are on medication then sometimes this can also have an effect on your hair and may cause it to fall out. Some drugs used for things like antidepressants, contraception, arthritis and even antibiotics have been linked with hair loss and there are more you could add to that list. Also if you are unlucky enough to be going through any kind of radiation or chemotherapy then you will be aware that will have an effect on your hair too.

3. Illness- Being ill can have many side effects on the body in general. However there are certain ailments which seem to be directly linked with hair loss and included amongst them are problems with the Thyroid gland, diabetes, lupus and scalp fungal infections. Again there are probably more that you can add to the list but if you have started losing hair and you are ailing from something then there may be a link.

4. Sebum- You normally only hear about sebum when acne is discussed as a build up of it can be a cause behind acne, but it can also be a cause behind hair loss too. This happens if there is a build up of sebum on the scalp as it can attack the bulb of the hair from which the follicle grows.

5. Stress- Stress can have a significant impact on hair loss, although the good news is this is likely to be temporary. What can happen is that if you are under severe stress it can cause more of your hair than normal to go into the resting phase and because of this a higher percentage than usual of them all fall out around the same time

These are just a few of the things that can be behind what causes baldness, however the list is not exhaustive and if you are concerned about hair loss then you may want to seek expert advice or do further research into ways how to prevent hair loss.

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