The Impatience of Youth

Recently a young woman, still in her teens, asked what she could do to stop losing her hair and re-grow it. She explained that she noticed thinning at her temples at the hairline mostly when she wore a pony tail. She didn’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford a doctor’s visit yet she was ready to start spending money on treatment!

I wondered to myself how she could justify trying to treat something she didn’t understand. Taking action is great but, consulting with experts, creating a plan and sticking with it is an even better solution. Ah, the impatience of youth!

I explained that the causes of hair loss for women are many and varied and that if her thinning hairline was simply the result of a regular, tightly pulled hairstyle (traction alopecia), then wearing her hair loose for a while could reverse the problem and allow a full, natural recovery.

I further explained that the abundance and quality of hair is an indicator of overall health and that only a doctor could truly determine the underlying reason for her specific situation, possible spotting something more serious. The cause could be relatively simple and resolvable over time, like diet, stress and medications but could also be more complex like heredity (androgenetic alopecia), hormonal fluctuation and disease or even some combination. Undiagnosed, her hair problem and potentially her health, could deteriorate further.

I asked her if she wouldn’t feel better knowing what the cause was and she agreed she couldn’t afford not to go.