Does Hair Loss and Hair Breakage are Differ?

Hair Loss or Hair Breakage? You may have heard this question countless times. Maybe, you are asking this yourself, and you should. These two hair related problems are not synonymous. In fact, they could relate to two drastically different causes. From pollution to unhealthy lifestyle, hair loss, or breakage can be caused by a plethora of reasons. There are many things that can harm healthy hairs, making them brittle and prone to falling or breakage.

Human hair is naturally very strong. How strong? Well a full head of hair can support upwards of 10 tonnes. Impressive feat for something that is nothing more than a pile up of dead cells. Nonetheless, nowadays people are using products containing chemicals like sulphate and parabens, which rid hairs of their natural shine and lustre. Hair treatments and hairstyling methods like straightening and curling also inflict damage to the hair and may hamper its proper growth.

This blog will answer all your questions regarding the differences between hair loss and breakage, their main causes, and how you can get rid of such issues to get your healthy hair back.

Hair Breakage

Hair breakage is observed when the hair shaft breaks. It may result in split ends, and the end result is a shorter hair shaft. This may be caused due to dryness of direct damage to the hair strands or the scalp. Before experiencing hair breakage, you will observe signs like split ends and roughness.

What are the early signs of hair breakage?

There are 4 sure shot signs that will tell you if you have hair breakage:

1. Checking your hair strands: If the ends of your hair are splitting into multiple little hairs then you may have split ends. Simply checking for split ends by examining the ends of individual strands of hair, can tell you if you have some breakage.
2. Checking for hair fallout: Losing 50-100 strands of hair daily is fairly normal, but if you think that you are noticing excessive hairs in your drains, towels or combs, then it may be a sign of hair breakage.
3. Hair tangling: our scalp naturally contains oil glands that produce sebum, which is a natural oil that helps to keep out hair tangle free and lubricated. Due to sebum healthy hair comb easily. If you are experiencing tangled hair that is hard to comb through, then they could be damaged.
4. Dry hair: extremely dry hair is one of the clear-cut signs of hair damage and hair breakage. Healthy hair is full of lustre and shine.

What is hair breakage a sign of?

Hair breakage is a sign of unhealthy hairs that are breaking due to reasons like excessive colouring, perming, straightening, or using ‘hair-care’ products that contain harsh chemicals, making your hair dry, and life-less.

Does stress cause hair breakage?

Excessive stress can lead to a multitude of health issues. Damaged hair is one of them. Numerous studies have shown a direct correlation between stress and unhealthy hair. Telogen effluvium is a form of stress that has been linked heavily to hair damage. It makes your hair follicles shut down, making your hair prone to breakage and hair fall.

What vitamins are good for hair breakage?

There is no miracle pill that can magically solve your problem of hair breakage, turning your damaged hair into healthy strands. There are many micronutrients, which, in conjunction with each other, regulate the hair growth cycle and fight off any problems that may hamper it. Some of the vitamins that are proven to improve hair growth and its overall health are:

1. B-Vitamins - Carry nutrients and oxygen to different parts of the body, including scalp
2. Vitamin A - Helps to produce scalps natural oil, sebum
3. Vitamin C - Helps to ward of free radicals
4. Vitamin D - Aids in hair production
5. Vitamin E - Helps to prevent oxidative stress

How do you fix breakage in your hair?

Finding out the cause of hair breakage should be the first step towards fixing it. One should not start by using off the shelf products without knowing about the underlying cause that is making their hair worse.

Opting for a thorough medical analysis can help you get to the root of your hair problems, including hair breakage. Advanced Hair Studio’s Advanced Hair Check, will help you in your journey towards healthy hair by helping you know each and every detail about your scalp and hairs.

After finding out about the cause of hair breakage, the next step should be to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which includes balanced diet, management of undue stress, and reducing excessive use of chemical based hair products, or hair styling methods like colouring, and heat treatment.

Hair Loss

Hair loss can be described as hair breakage that starts at the roots of the hair follicles. Instead of hair being fractured along its strand, under hair fall entire hair, along with its bulb at the end, fall off the scalp.

What causes your hair to fall out?

Similar to hair breakage, hair fall can also be caused due to a number of reasons. Some of the most prominent ones being:

1. Traumatic or stressful event
2. Medical conditions like alopecia areata, HIV, or syphilis are also related to hair loss
3. Hereditary is the leading cause of hair loss in both men and women
4. Medication and drugs like antibacterials, antivirals, blood pressure drugs, etc may cause hair loss
5. Restrictive hair styles may put pressure on the hair strands, making them fall out

Can hair loss be a sign of something serious?

As mentioned earlier, hair loss can be a symptom of an underlying disease, which may or may not be fatal. Moreover, hair loss can also be caused due to medications that are used to treat hair loss. For example chemotherapy used to treat cancer, caused hair loss as a side effect. Autoimmune diseases such as HIV and Lupus can also trigger hair loss.

As you can tell by now, hair loss is associated with a number of diseases. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that before you take any remedial step, you first consult a doctor and get to know about the underlying cause of your particular case of hair loss.

What vitamins should you take for hair loss?

Just like hair breakage, B-vitamins, and vitamins like A, C, E can also help prevent hair fall. Apart from these, Niacin (vitamin B-3), and minerals like zinc and iron also help to transport all the essential nutrients to the hair follicles. These minerals help nourish hairs, and aid in their upkeep.

Apart from consuming all the needed nutrients and minerals, it is equally important to be consistent with your diet, so that they are readily available when required.

How can you remedy hair fall?

After finding out about the underlying cause of your hair loss, the next step would be to undergo treatment to cure it. However, there is a chance that you won't get your hair back, even after being cured of the problem which is causing your hair loss. In such scenarios, there are two routes you can follow - Surgical hair loss treatment, or Non-Surgical hair loss treatment.

If you are looking to curb your problem of hair loss, then you can opt for Advanced Hair Studio and its proven taken on hair regrowth and replacement techniques that will give you the hair that you have always wanted.