All About Hair Loss When It Is Caused By Hair Shaft Defects – Part 2

The Second Part Of The Article 

A condition called trichophagia is where some individuals who pluck their hair also then eat it. Needing to be treated with some urgency, this is a very dangerous condition. Building up into a hairball, hair is not digestible in the stomach. Leading to severe ulceration, this can severely irritate the stomach lining. Dying from trichophagia is also possible.

Therapists can probably help more than dermatologists as treating trichotillomania is difficult. 

Monilethrix

Making hair fibre look like a string of beads is the condition of monilethrix. Nodes and constrictions are making the edge of the fibre undulate along the length of the hair fibre. Weakening the fibre is the beading that happens with monilethrix. 

Here we find hair fibres to have lost their cuticle thereby covering over the nodes while the constrictions keep their cuticle when seen under a microscope. Once it is exposed above the skin and the fibres rarely grow very long as a result is brittle hair easily breaking. Along with the fibre, breakage occurs in the weak constriction points. 

Having diffuse hair loss are people with monilethrix. Leaving the front of the head relatively unaffected, most frequently the hair loss is at the back of the scalp and neck. In other regions of the body too monilethrix can also affect hair. 

Young adults can also develop it as Monilethrix most often occurs in childhood. Although family members may be affected to different degrees of severity, it is a genetically inherited disease and can run in families. Also changing with the seasons is the severity of monilethrix. Improving in summer, it is often worse in winter. Although many people have monilethrix all their lives, it may spontaneously improve. 

Overprocessing, cuticle stripping, and bubble hair

By far the most common cause of physical hair damage is overprocessing the hair. Involving harsh chemicals that can significantly affect the integrity of hair fibre is perming, straightening, bleaching, and dyeing the hair. Leading to irreversible damage to the hair fibre is using these cosmetic approaches too frequently or inappropriately. The weaker it will be and the more likely it will break off as the more hair fibre is damaged by these processes. 

Which overlap each other like fish scales along the length of the hair fibre, the hair cuticle is a very strong outer sleeve of dead and highly keratinised cells. From damage, the cuticle helps protect the softer inner cortex structure of the hair fibre. If they are exposed to too much processing, the overlapping scales of the cuticle may become damaged and flake up. 

As we watch, it is prominent that the cuticle, therefore, has to be opened up and so that other chemicals can get to their hair cortex and either rearrange the chemical bonds in the hair structure just as with perms and straighteners or in the case to remove or add hair pigment as with bleaching and dyeing when it comes to perms, straighteners, bleaches, and dyes to work. The cuticle may be irreversibly damaged and even stripped away completely if the chemicals to open the cuticle are applied for too long in an unsuitably high concentration or too frequently. 

The softer cortex is exposed to the environment when this happens. Not having the same properties of the cuticle is the cortex. So, at this stage, the hair can look dull, dry, and frizzy as it has a rough surface.

Contributing to further damage and weakening of the hair cortex are chemicals in shampoos, water, and polluted air combined with UV light exposure. The hair may then become so weak as it splits or breaks off completely eventually. This splitting and breaking occur to old hair that is toward the end of the hair fibre more usually. 

All of these contribute to hair loss beyond expectation. So, you have to be cautious when the hair shafts are damaged as it can result in permanent irreversible loss of hair. So always keep the scalp healthy as this is where the shafts grow from the follicles. Make sure the cuticles remain unaffected as it most importantly protects the cortex and the finer layers beneath the cuticle. 

More Causes For Hair Loss Is Discussed In The Next And Final Part 

There remains more research to be done to find an effective remedy for hair loss. So now what do you need to know? Read along for more info from the next part of the discussion and keep the hair healthy and luscious. It is sure to help you on the journey to healthy hair.