Inflammatory Hair Loss

Understanding Inflammatory Hair Loss: The Importance of Knowing Before You Act

When it comes to hair loss, it's crucial to pinpoint exactly what you're dealing with before jumping into a treatment plan. Hair loss can result from various causes, including DHT (dihydrotestosterone), nutritional deficiencies, or inflammation. You might even be dealing with more than one type at once, which means the treatment plan needs to be multi-faceted to address all contributing factors.

This blog will focus on inflammatory hair loss, its connection to gut health, and how a systemic inflammatory response can affect your scalp and hair.

Types of Hair Loss

1. DHT-related (Genetic): Often leads to thinning at the top of the scalp and is common in androgenic alopecia.

2. Nutritional Deficiency: Hair thinning along the sides, temples and can be diffuse globally, can be a sign of poor nutrition, often due to insufficient vitamins and minerals like iron, zinc, or biotin.

3. Inflammatory: Global hair thinning or specific loss in areas below the occipital bone may point to inflammation as the root cause.

You might experience more than one of these types, which is why understanding the cause before treatment is key.

Signs of Inflammatory Hair Loss: The Gut-Hair Connection

Inflammatory hair loss is often linked to the gut's health. Since the gut is the body's primary center for nutrient absorption and immune response, any disruption—whether from poor diet, stress, or medication—can trigger a systemic inflammatory response that affects your hair health.

Symptoms of inflammation can include:

• Constipation, diarrhea or acid reflux
• Flaky, itchy or tight scalp
• Medications affecting digestion or immune function

If you experience two or more of these symptoms, your hair loss could be linked to inflammation. This is where understanding your gut’s role in overall health becomes essential.

Common Causes of Inflammatory Hair Loss

There are numerous reasons why inflammation could be affecting your hair:

• Medications: Certain drugs can trigger inflammation, which in turn affects the hair follicles.
• Genetics: Family history of inflammatory diseases like arthritis or autoimmune disorders can contribute.
• Stress: Emotional and environmental stress are both known to disrupt gut health and trigger inflammatory responses.
• Medical Conditions: Autoimmune diseases, leaky gut syndrome, or nutrient malabsorption can all lead to inflammation.
• Environmental or Dietary Allergies: These trigger an immune response that can affect your scalp and hair follicles.
• Chemotherapy: This treatment leads to hair loss by attacking rapidly dividing cells, including those in hair follicles.

Types of Inflammatory Alopecia

Several types of inflammatory-related alopecia can cause hair thinning or complete hair loss:

• Alopecia Areata, Totalis, or Universalis: These autoimmune conditions target hair follicles, leading to hair loss in patches or globally.
• Telogen Effluvium: Often caused by stress or illness, this condition causes excessive shedding due to inflammation.
• Folliculitis: Inflammation of the hair follicles caused by bacterial infections or parasites (like Demodex) can lead to hair loss.
• Cicatricial (Scarring) Alopecia: This occurs when inflammation destroys hair follicles, leading to permanent hair loss.

Tailoring Your Treatment Plan

Once you’ve identified that inflammation is causing your hair loss, it’s time to take action. Here’s how:

1. Detox Your Life: Identify and remove any environmental or dietary triggers, such as allergens or inflammatory foods. If medications are causing the inflammation, consult with your healthcare provider about possible alternatives.

2. Heal Your Gut: Focus on gut health through proper nutrition. Eating for your blood type or incorporating an anti-inflammatory diet can help. This often includes probiotics, digestive enzymes, and reducing sugar and processed foods.

3. Reduce Stress: Managing stress is crucial for both gut and hair health. Consider lifestyle changes such as mindfulness, yoga, or even adjusting your environment to reduce stress.

4. Treat Allergies: Identify any environmental or dietary allergies and address them. This can help prevent the immune system from overreacting and inflaming the hair follicles.

5. Topical Care: Maintain a healthy scalp by washing your scalp regularly. If you experience itching, scalp tightness, or flaking, shampoo as soon as needed, even if that means daily washes. This helps to remove allergens, bacteria, or parasites that might be contributing to inflammation. Look for shampoos with anti-inflammatory ingredients, like in our Stimulate and Strengthen Shampoo or add in a treatment like our Rejuvenate Dust with calming, soothing, balancing, healing, antimicrobial properties, while treating irritation, dandruff, dry scalp, hair loss and moisture loss or our Revitalise Serum that calms an irritated scalp, and has anti-inflammatory properties and stimulating anti-oxidant power.

The Bottom Line

Inflammatory hair loss is often a symptom of a broader issue, such as poor gut health, stress, or an inflammatory condition. To effectively treat hair loss, you must first determine the root cause—whether it's genetic, nutritional, or inflammatory—or a combination of these. By healing your gut, reducing stress, and treating inflammation on the outside as well as in, you can promote a healthier scalp and hair growth from the inside out.

Healthy hair starts with a healthy body—so listen to your symptoms and take a holistic approach to healing!