How Much Daily Hair Loss is Normal?

How Much Daily Hair Loss is Normal?
How Much Daily Hair Loss Is Normal?

The two most common places to find your hair is either in your brush or in the drain of your tub after you have taken a shower. However, this is perfectly normal. It can be worrisome if there’s more hair than usual.

The big question is, when should you be concerned?

We all lose some hair day to day. In fact, when you wash your hair or brush it, you’re helping remove hair that was ready to release from the follicles.

The normal range of daily hair loss is somewhere between 50 to 150 hairs.

Consider that most people have over a hundred thousand hairs on their head, the loss of even a hundred hairs a day isn’t noticeable. Keep in mind that scrubbing your scalp and tugging on your hair will loosen hair that was already coming out.

This means that if you haven’t taken a shower in a few days, then give your scalp a good scrub, you’re likely to lose a bit more hair than usual.

What Can Affect Your Daily Hair Loss Rate

If you’re are trying to get your hair thicker and fuller, knowing what can affect the rate of your hair loss can be a huge help. One thing you should know is that women tend to lose more hair per day than men do.

This is because the more you do with your hair the more likely you are to damage it. Your scalp tries to replace these damaged hairs. Between styling your hair with a blow dryer or a other heated tool your hair has a better chance of becoming damaged. Women tend to pull their hair tight in different styles as well, such as a bun or ponytail. These are all things that may lead to later problems.

Did you know that hormones can play a large part in hair loss? During things like pregnancy and menopause in particular, a woman’s hormones get out of balance. The added strain is enough to make your hair thinner at times.

Other things like stress and thyroid conditions can affect hair loss, too. This applies to both men and women. Another situation that can cause hair loss issues is having surgery. Being deficient in trace minerals can also lead to your hair thinning.

Even just being sick for an extended period can cause issues as well.

Finally, be aware of the fact that certain medications can cause hair loss. Chemotherapy is well-known for causing hair loss, but many other medications can lead to hair loss in smaller amounts. If you are taking a new medication, check the list of side effects to see if this could be the problem you’re experiencing.

How Much Daily Hair Loss is Normal?

What You Can Do To Help Decrease Your Daily Hair Loss

One of the most important things that you can do to decrease your hair loss is to increase your health. Keeping your body healthy, and making sure you get all of the vitamins and minerals that you need is vital. This helps keep your hair in your scalp where it belongs!

Oh, one more note. Did you know that tight hats can put pressure on your hair follicles?

Finally, something you can do to help with hair loss is to manage your part line. Your part line? Yes! Everyone has a natural part line that either goes down the center of their scalp or to one side. The hairs that are exposed tend to take on the most damage.

To help, consider changing your part line on a regular basis to give it a break. If you haven’t changed your part in a long time, it may be difficult to get your hair to stay laying in a new direction. To help, the first couple times, secure your hair with bobby pins when it’s wet.

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When It Becomes A Problem

While losing some hair is normal, there’s a point where you can start losing an abnormal amount of hair. If you start getting an area where your hair is noticeably thinner than usual, or if it comes out in clumps,  these can be a clear sign that you’re suffering from hair loss.

Also, if you notice strands of hair themselves are getting thinner, this can be another sign that you’re losing your hair. It could be that the follicles themselves are shrinking.

There are certain stages in your hair’s growth where the follicles push out the old hair to start growing a new hair. This isn’t continuous, however, it can lead to more hair than average coming out for a short period of time.

If this doesn’t seem to stop, one of the first things you should do is go to see your doctor. In fact, consider speaking with a dermatologist. They’ll be able to do tests and help you find out why your hair loss is happening.

From there you can start treating the problem. Don’t worry, there are ways that can help you grow your hair back again. Sometimes this means  you have to take medication, or your doctor may simply tell you to take supplements and to keep an eye on it.

The Pull Test

If you’re in doubt, there’s a simple “pull test” that you can do yourself. In order to get the best results, your hair should be clean and freshly brushed.

Make sure your hair is dry. Take a small area of hair and separate it from the rest. It should be somewhere around 100 strands thick. Now, run your fingers through it, pulling on it some as you do. Not enough to hurt, but enough so that you can feel that you’re pulling the hairs.

If somewhere between 1 to 4 hairs come out, then you’re okay. However, if close to 10 hairs come out, you may be experiencing true hair loss.

Wait a few weeks and try the test again. Make sure that your hair isn’t going through a phase. If the results are the same this time around, then consider setting up an appointment with your doctor.

Conclusion

If you’re worried about how much hair is left in your brush, think about how long your hair is. If you have long hair, each single strand may look like more hair than it actually is. It’s easy to jump to conclusions when we’re worried. Take a deep breath! What you’re experiencing could be perfectly normal.

You should also know that some people simply lose hair at a different rate than others do. This means that your hair could be thicker and yet you lose more hair every day than a friend who has thinner hair. Each person’s hair is as unique as they are.

Tired of chasing down hair growth solutions without the results you’re after? Make sure you’re using the 3 best hair growth products that work before experimenting with alternative solutions – you may be surprised with how effective those 3 alone can be.

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Christopher is the founder of Hair Loss Geeks, which launched back in 2011. At the time there wasn't any credible information on the internet about hair loss. As someone suffering from hair loss himself, Christopher began his extensive research journey. After launching the site, he later graduated from Boston University in 2012 with his PhD in Biochemistry. What started off as a hobby project quickly became a bigger focus as it grew. Christopher hopes everyone can learn from both his experience and research.

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