Viviscal Hair Loss Treatment & Body Care

We found a particularily interesting article on the website www.vibrantnation.com which discusses how women are more likely to lose their hair in the Fall rather than any other season Check it out and let us know what you think.

Fall can be a particularly challenging time if you have thinning hair. Women naturally tend to lose more hair starting in October, anyway, according to a recent Swedish study.

Hair follows a normal cycle of growth and resting – called the telogen state – before falling out. The rest period can last two to six months before the hair falls out and starts the growth period again.

Researchers followed 800 healthy women for more than six years. They found women have the highest percentage of resting follicles during July, with the resting state ending 100 days later, the Daily Mail reports. That means the highest percentage of hair falls out during the autumn, starting in October, making this the worst month for female hair thinning. The hair follicle lays fallow for about three months before it starts the regrowth process again.

Women are much less likely than men to go bald. But, as we age, our hair does thin. Some of us lose more than others. We can blame our genes, partly. We may be able to slow the shedding. As it turns out, "environmental factors play a much bigger role for ladies than for men," says Bahman Guyuron , chairman of the plastic surgery department at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland. Here are five ways to try to hold on to your hair:

1. Don't smoke. Smoking was a "very significant" risk factor for hair loss in a study Guyuron led among 90 pairs of female identical twins. (Studying twins helps researchers sort out environmental vs. genetic causes). Those who smoked for the most years had the most hair loss around their temples. Smoking impairs blood circulation, which is vital in hair growth, and makes the scalp oilier, Guyuron says, which can encourage bacterial overgrowth and damage harm follicles.

2. Wear a hat. Don't worry so much about messing up your hair style and developing a temporary case of "hat head." You may be rewarded with thicker, healthier hair in the long run if you make a habit of protecting your head from the sun, Guyuron says. (Bonus: You also will protect yourself from wrinkles and from skin cancers on your scalp, face and neck.)

3. Watch what you drink. In the study of twin sisters, those who drank one to two cups of coffee a day and those who had up to four alcoholic beverages a week fared best. The reasons are not clear, Guyuron says. But a bit of alcohol may help by increasing blood circulation to the scalp. (More bonus benefits: Many studies suggest light to moderate coffee and alcohol use are good for your heart.)

4. Stay happily married. Hair loss was greater in women who were divorced, widowed or married multiple times (and in women with multiple children), Guyuron says. The common factor? It's probably stress, he says. Stress raises levels of the hormone cortisol, which might trigger chemical changes that damage hair follicles, he says.

5. Go easy on braids and weaves. Those styles were linked with hair loss by researchers at Cleveland Clinic. They focused on a pattern of hair loss on the crown of the head that is common in African-American women. "I'm not against braiding," says Angela Kyei, a dermatologist who led the study of more than 300 women. But, she says, very tight styles held in place for weeks or months may cause damage. "So just please tell your stylist not to make it so tight that you need Tylenol to sleep." The study could not determine whether chemical hair-straighteners also played roles.

By Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY