One thing is for certain when it comes to causes of hair loss, and that is that 99% of men and women who undergo radiation treatments for disease, such as chemotherapy, will lose their hair.

There is a specific reason for this side effect. When a person is going through chemotherapy, this treatment is designed to attack cells in the body that are rapidly dividing, such as cancer.

However, the cancer cells are not the only ones that get affected. Radiation affects the entire body and since it targets all cells that rapidly divide, the hair follicles are also attacked because they too split and divide at a fast pace. Any cells that are producing hair follicles are immediately shut down. The specific term for this type of hair loss is called “anagen effluvium”.

Patients who are going through chemotherapy will typically experience the first phase of losing their hair within a few weeks of the first treatment. Over the next four to eight weeks, they will experience a massive loss of hair, if not all of it.

Very few patients are lucky enough to hold on to their hair during treatment, however, there are a lucky few that experience very little side effects in terms of hair loss and can finish their chemotherapy treatments while holding onto their hair.

Chemotherapy Affects Hair Loss In Other Areas Of The Body, Not Just The Scalp

While most of the hair on a person’s scalp will fall out within a few months of chemotherapy treatment, more areas of the body that grow hair may also be affected in time. Prolonged treatment may cause hair loss all over a person’s body.

They may lose hair on their arms, legs, face, and even the pubic area. The good news is that this hair on both the body and the scalp will eventually grow back within six months of the last chemotherapy session.

Are There Any Alternative Ways To Prevent Hair Loss From Radiation Treatments?

Because cancer is such a devastating disease, a person will try to alleviate the psychological stress of what is happening to them by attempting to cover up the hair loss during chemotherapy. The following alternative methods have been attempted as a way to reduce the amount of hair lost during treatment, although not quite successfully:

1. Although this method rarely works but is sometimes practiced, a cancer patient may use a tourniquet that is tightly wrapped around the scalp in order to cut off the circulation of blood to the hair follicles.

What does this accomplish? Well the goal here is to reduce the amount of radiation that may reach the scalp from the blood supply. Needless to say, this has not been reported to work.

2. Another not-so-successful attempt at preventing hair loss while taking chemotherapy treatment is to create extremely cold temperatures around the head and scalp area by using specific cooling devices.

Again, like the use of a tourniquet, the goal here is to reduce the blood flow to the scalp, by using extremely cold temperatures, in order to prevent the chemotherapy drugs from reaching the hair follicles.

Hair loss occurs in a progressive nature. Most men have a specific pattern in which hair starts to fall out and then over the years increases down the same route. Women on the other hand, do not typically have the same experience.

Unlike a receding hairline, or a particular bald spot forming on a man’s scalp, a woman will generally experience broad hair thinning throughout the entire top of her head. In both cases, men and women, the pattern in which air falls out increases in time.

Many people assume that losing hair as we age is just a normal part of life. This same group of people also assumes that we have no responsibility when it comes to the cause of hair loss or the increased of the amount of hair that is lost in time.

However, this is a wrong assumption. Below are a few examples of how people can directly cause the loss of their hair, whether they realize it or not.

1. Wearing hats most of the time: It is very fashionable these days to sport head coverings and tight caps. However, because hats can affect the blood flow to the scalp, this may cause hair loss.

This is especially true if you wear tight hats. The result of hair loss due to covering your scalp with a hat does take time to make it’s effects known, but once it starts, the pattern of loosing your hair speeds up faster than if you had never started the hat-wearing habit.

2. Oily scalp: Here is another example of a condition that can be directly related to the decrease amount of blood flow that is available to your hair follicles. By not washing your scalp enough a build up of natural skin oils can affect your hair. Regular washing can help reduce this problem.

3. Brushing your hair too much: This is one issue that I have personally experienced myself. I was once told by a hairstylist that if I want to grow my hair long then I should brush it with 50 strokes every time I went into the bathroom.

Needless to say, after about six months, I noticed severe thinning in the areas that I was brushing. Once I stopped, the hair eventually started to come back like normal. Unfortunately, I set forth in motion a pattern that caused my hair to grow back thinner in that area for the rest of my life.

4. Brushing your hair too little: Opposite of brushing your hair too much, by not brushing your hair enough, you may not be stimulating the right amount of blood flow needed to retain growth in hair follicles. It doesn’t take much, but just brushing your hair with a few strokes that hit the scalp will be enough stimulation.