People lose hair for many reasons.

In fact, it is normal to lose some hair every day (usually between 70 to 100 hairs).

• Excessive hair loss, however, is what worries most of us.

• Some of the common reasons for excessive hair loss are:

• Pattern baldness (called Androgenic Alopecia)
• Physical or emotional stress
• Dietary imbalances or deficiencies
• Prescriptions or other medications
• Metabolic imbalances in your body
• External damage to hair (poor quality hair products, burns, sun and excessive chemicals)
• Illness
• Chemotherapy or radiation treatments

Scientist believe that calcium deposits in the hair follicle may cause hair loss by converting testosterone (the male hormone) to DHT (dihydrotestosterone). DHT disrupts normal hair growth cycles so that each new cycle of hair is smaller in diameter and weaker and finer in texture. Many hair follicles are eventually damaged to the point where NO re-growth can occur. Pattern baldness affects 80 million men and women in the United States. It is almost always inherited.

Hair Loss in Women

The normal growth cycle for hair is 3 to 7 years. Excessive DHT shortens the growth cycle and extends the "resting phase." The results are (1) thinning hair, (2) hair loss, (3) no re-growth.

Reasons for women's hair loss include:

• Pattern baldness for many of the same reasons as men
• Hormonal disturbances during menopause
• Birth control pills
• Childbearing

Most women will recognize some hair-thinning between the ages of 45 and 65. In women, however, it is not necessarily the quantity of hair being reduced, but the fact that individual hair shafts become thinner.