There are many reasons for hair loss ranging from adrogenic alopecia (male and female pattern baldness) to anxiety and stress caused by the pace of modern life. You probably haven’t thought that hair loss might also be caused by a change in the season but that’s exactly what new research from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland has indicated.
New type of hair loss research
The research is notable because it didn’t rely on a specific pool of people to arrive at the results unlike other previous research projects which have also indicated a seasonal change in hair loss. In this case the team relied on an online tool called Google Trends which allows the user to measure how many keywords have been searched over a period of time. Looking at the data from January 2004 to October 2016 in 8 countries the study indicated that summer and autumn were the most researched.
Biological reasons not completely understood
This is broadly in line with previous research that has shown an increase in hair loss towards the end of the summer, heading into autumn. Like many other forms of hair loss the biological reasons aren’t completely understood although there are hypotheses. There are some, for example who speculate that the hair naturally thickens at the start of the summer to protect the scalp from harmful UV radiation but as the summer draws on and the risk is diminished the protective layer naturally gets thinner.
Armed with the knowledge that this is a particularly weak time for your hair it might pay to take extra care and avoid over vigorous drying, chemical colourants and generally anything that could exacerbate the situation. The good news, of course is that for most people the extra shedding is strictly temporary and will have stopped in time for Christmas and the New Year.
