Yup. I’m obsessed with menopause.
Being a girl with hair on the thinner side (ah genetics!), having my hair get thinner as I aged was no fun. Thankfully the world seems to be acknowledging women in menopause more, and so the education of what is happening and what to do is coming.
There was a recent NYT article “Is Menopause Changing my Hair?” It cites a bunch of science about the changes. To save you time and effort I will summarize.
Short answer is yes.
So what do we see?
- Half of women notice faster hair loss and changes in texture
- Hair follicles at the hair root have receptors for sex hormones: estrogen, testosterone, androgens.
- Preliminary studies in mice shows estrogen affects hair growth to stimulate it and maintains the diameter of each strand of hair.
- Testosterone is responsible for oil production that nourish and moisturize the scalp. This changes in menopause as well, which may lead to a dry scalp and brittle hair.
- Age in men and women is associated with hair growth, thickness, and texture changes
- You may have other medical issues- inflammation, Covid (the hair loss after covid is real! See my blog)
- Diet/nutrition can affect it. Vitamin D
- Genetics
They agree the key to hair loss it to try to address it early. How? Hormones, minoxidil, vitamins, don’t stress the hair with coloring/flatirons etc.
My thoughts?
Singing to the choir. I don’t think there is “one” thing to do, it takes a long time to see any effect (and the effect may be that you just maintain what you have), and you have to start early.