How do I stop my hair from falling out?
To stop your hair falling out, first name the type of hair loss. Diffuse shedding all over usually follows a trigger by two to three months, illness, childbirth, crash diets, major stress, or reflects iron or thyroid deficits; it regrows once the cause is fixed. Pattern thinning at the temples or crown is genetic and hormone-driven.
Blood tests for ferritin and thyroid catch the fixable causes. For pattern loss, minoxidil has real evidence and works best started early; prescription options add more.
Avoid the expensive dead ends: biotin without deficiency, most hair gummies and clinic packages sold without a diagnosis. Diagnosis first, then treatment, is the entire game.
Source: NHS, hair loss
See a doctor promptly if
- Iron deficiency in any man, or in any woman past the menopause, without an obvious bleeding cause
- Black tarry stools, visible blood in stool, or vomiting blood or material like coffee grounds
- Iron deficiency with unintentional weight loss, a change in bowel habit lasting over three weeks, or a family history of bowel cancer
- Breathlessness at rest, chest pain, fainting, or a resting heart rate persistently above 100
- Periods needing hourly pad or tampon changes, passing clots larger than a coin, or flooding through clothing and bedding
- Pica. Craving and eating ice, clay, chalk or raw rice
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Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
For flakes and an itchy scalp
Dandruff is a scalp condition, not a hygiene problem, and shampoos with ketoconazole, zinc pyrithione or selenium sulfide treat it. Leave it on the scalp two to three minutes before rinsing; that contact time is most of the trick.
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