Involutional alopecia is a condition related to the natural process of aging, which causes the hair to decay and become thinner in time. It can happen to both males and females, although the patterns are usually different. There are several ways to delay hair decay but it is a normal process that can't be completely reversed.
Aging changes the normal life cycle of the hair, impacting the phases of growth and stagnation. Involutional alopecia makes the telogen phase become longer, while at the same time the anagen (growth) phase shortens.
The end result of this shift is that the hair follicles eventually become thinner. Some people only develop this problem on an area of the scalp, while others are affected on its entire surface. The hair gets thinner and weaker, while also becoming shorter. The final effect of involutional alopecia is hair so thin that it stops growing completely or becomes almost invisible.
The human hair has a natural cycle of life and about 90% of it is growing at any given time. The pattern is not a standard one and every individual follicle has its particular cycle. It consists of three phases: the long one of growth (anagen), the short one of transition (categen) and finally the resting phase (telogen).
The first and longest phase of the cycle is the anagen, or the growth one. The hair shaft emerges from the scalp and continues to develop. It is a lengthy process that can last between 2 and up to 6 years. The exact duration is influenced by several factors, such as nutrition, genetic inheritance and health in general.
Between the long anagen growth period and the telogen, there is a brief transition known as the categen phase. It doesn't normally last longer than 2 or 3 weeks and roughly 3% of human hair is in categen at any given time. The layers at the exterior of the hair start to become thinner and the shaft prepared for the final resting phase, the telogen.
In the telogen phase, which is the end of the cycle, the hair becomes inactive. It remains at the same length and stops growing completely. The telogen period has a variable length but it typically lasts between 3 and 4 months. The hair is basically dead and it will eventually fall off, which restarts its entire cycle of life. Aging reduces the growth phase and makes it reach telogen a lot faster than before. Even the telogen becomes shorter and the hair sheds faster. A normal healthy individual loses between 25 and 100 hairs every day naturally, in the telogen phase.
Involutional alopecia doesn't have any clear direct cause. However, there are a number of factors that can contribute to it. The process can be accelerated by several diseases, improper nutrition or genetic issues. Some available treatments can help counter involutional alopecia, but it is important to detect the condition as early as possible.
Involutional alopecia is a natural process that can't be completely reversed. It is caused by aging decay, which eventually makes the hair too weak to continue its normal growth. However, supplying the body with the right amounts of nutritive compounds can help the follicles recover and grow normally for some time.
The key to hair health is a proper diet with the right amounts of vitamins and minerals needed by the hair. This makes the hair as resilient as possible and allows it to fight back against involutional alopecia. The best treatment that makes hair stronger is the natural product Elma 11 Scalp and Hair Revitalizer.
