You might sometimes experience stressful events in life that can develop several problems. Dealing with stress is painful and can affect physical and mental health. Alopecia areata is also a common development that could result due to severe stress. This problem is mainly associated with hair loss with the appearance of bald patches. In medical terms, it is an autoimmune disorder that can affect hairs on the body. It happens when the immune system of the body starts attacking the hair follicles. At the present time, approximately 7 million people in the US are suffering from this condition.
How Does It Appear?
Well, the problem of alopecia, or you can simplify it with just baldness, can affect males and females. It appears as hair falling out in small patches or can become extreme. In some cases, this condition could become severe that can cause entire hair loss on the scalp. Moreover, it could lead to the loss of all hairs of the body. These conditions are further referred to as alopecia totalis and alopecia Universalis. This condition can affect any individual regardless of age and gender. The shocking fact is that it is occurring in young individuals below the age of 30.
Causes Of Alopecia Areata
If you are one who is suffering from this condition, you can see bald patches on your head in a circular shape. The appearance of such patches can leave you with a shock. So, it is really important to know the causes behind this problem. The reason for this problem is mainly the white blood cells of your body. These cells can attack the hair follicles that can cause them to shrink and stop hair growth. Well, it is still unknown what triggers the white cells to attack the body’s immune system. But as per experts, this problem is mainly related to genetics. This means that you are likely to be affected by this problem if you have a family history. Research has shown that 1 in 5 people suffering from this problem has a family history.
Symptoms
Being a target of alopecia, you might not be able to recognize its symptoms at first glance. You might consider hair loss as a normal life cycle of hair follicles. But, the common sign of this condition is patchy hair loss that you can see clearly. You can see the coin-sized patches of hairs fall out, especially when you wake up after sleep. You can see the bald patches on the scalp of your head as a potential symptom. But, it can also affect other areas of your body, such as eyebrows and beard. You can experience hair loss from eyelashes too. The loss of hair can occur in a period of a few days to a few weeks. You might also feel some itching and burning on the area of hair loss before it happens actually. However, you might experience continuous fall of hairs and can also experience regrowth of hairs. There is the possibility to recover from this condition in a period of 1 year.
What Is Alopecia Treatment?
The stressful fact about this condition is that there is no potential cure available. However, there are some treatments that can deliver positive results to a certain extent. They can help you to resume the growth of hair. But, you need not lose hope entirely since science has developed to the next level. So, there are modern techniques available that can address this issue. So here are some potential treatments that you can consider.
Minoxidil
It is a topical solution that is available as an OTC medication for treating hair loss. It is available under the brand Rogaine and can be used directly as a topical application to the scalp. You can apply it twice a day on the affected areas of baldness. You can use it on the scalp, beard, and eyebrows to stimulate the growth of hairs. In many cases, this medicine has proved a boon to regrow hairs.
Corticosteroid
This medication is also a topical solution that works to target inflamed areas of the body. You can use this medicine on the scalp to treat the numbness of hair follicles. It can reduce the numbness of follicles to let them complete the cycle of hair growth. This can work to regrow the hairs to treat the alopecia areata.
Steroid Injections
You might also get steroid injections in the scalp to promote hair growth. The steroid can work to cure the condition if there are small bald patches. The hair surgeon would use small syringes filled with steroids to provide you with treatment. This treatment works to cure the affected areas on the scalp.
Home Remedies
You can even try some home remedies as a treatment for this condition. Onion juice, coconut oil, aloe vera gel, vitamins, herbal supplements, etc., can work for you. But, the usefulness of these treatments is not really proven.
To Sum Up
Hope this guide helps you to know what is alopecia and how it occurs. It is a condition that can vary from mild to severity of hair loss. However, you can try the above-mentioned treatments to deal with it. If you are not satisfied with treatments, you must schedule an appointment with a professional hair restoration clinic. It will help you by getting the right advice as per your hair loss condition.
