For the past seven years, Kathleen Brannon, 50, of Reno, Nev., has been one frustrated and bewildered woman. Her hair was falling out and she didn’t know why it was happening. Or how she could stop it.
As an artist, it wasn’t likely that Brannon would have all the answers. However, her problem was that the medical professionals she consulted didn’t, either. “I went to countless doctors, only to be humiliated and told ‘not to stress’ about it,” she said.
She kept on going, however. “I went to treatment centers, more doctors, libraries, seminars … you name it.”
She started a Women and Hair Loss group in her area and went online looking for information from other women in chat rooms and message boards.
“I came to realize that this journey was a private one,” she said. “And, like other women who suffered with hair loss, I was on my own.”
Losing your hair may be a private journey, but it has a very public face. In an era when a full head of hair is highly touted, women who lack one feel embarrassed. Rather than a crowning glory atop their heads, they have a reminder that something is wrong.
Until recently, the problem has gotten little attention. But that’s beginning to change.
“We were all in the dark about how to approach this,” said Dr. Marty E. Sawaya, an Ocala, Fla., dermatologist and a top investigator on hair loss at Aratec, a research lab. Now that new drugs under the brand names of Propecia and Rogaine have come on the market bringing a measure of relief to some men, she said it’s time to take what has been learned and apply it to solving hair loss problems in women.
At a recent conference organized by dermatologists, gynecologists and endocrinologists and attended by the major pharmaceutical companies, doctors pushed for more work on finding treatments that work specifically for women. “We could all hear the need,” Sawaya said.
There aren’t easy answers. Most hair loss in men is due to genetics and has a specific pattern: Hair is lost on the sides and top, but a permanent zone of hair remains around the back and sides.
In women, hair loss is diffuse, meaning there is thinning all over the head. It may be caused by genetics or by a number of other factors stemming from a woman’s medical condition.
“First of all, it’s important to understand that you cannot treat men and women the same. The diagnosis and the treatment are very different,” said Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, director of the New Hair Institute in New York City and Fort Lee, N.J., and assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“In women, a medical evaluation is extremely important to rule out underlying conditions,” said Bernstein. A few of the more common ones include: anemia, thyroid disease, pregnancy, menopause, medication, lupus, major stress and crash diets.
Kobren should know. He started to lose his hair at age 22, and tried everything to stop it. He then became a consumer advocate and clearinghouse on hair loss causes and treatments. He wrote a book, “The Bald Truth”; runs a Web site, www.thebaldtruth.org; and has a weekly syndicated radio program.
Calling his own experience “like losing a part of myself,” Kobren said, “You’ve got to deal with your own emotional response and the challenge of cutting through the marketing hype to find out what really works.”
What should you do if you are one of the approximately 20 million women experiencing hair loss?