Whilst hair loss in men can be extremely annoying female baldness can lead to emotional distress and upset. To a degree baldness in men is acceptable and even fashionable but thinning hair in women is not. So if you have thinning hair and you're a female how do you stop female baldness?

There's a range of causes of baldness in women. Stress, dietary inadequacy, hormonal imbalances, childbirth, underlying medical conditions and various medications can all lead to a degree of balding in women however in most cases normal hair growth will return. It should be said that if you experience sudden hair loss or balding in patches you should consult your doctor to see if you have an underlying medical problem.

But the biggest cause of female hair loss is exactly the same as it is for men. Female pattern baldness is a women's equivalent of male pattern baldness and is known technically as androgenetic alopecia. This is a condition which you inherit from your forebears which predisposes you to thinning hair. It is estimated that somewhere over 90% of women with thinning hair are experiencing female pattern baldness.

Female pattern balding works in a similar way to male patern baldness. Whilst the areas on the head which experience the loss of hair may differ the basic causes are the same. Pattern baldness is a condition where a hormone in excess quantities attaches to hair follicles on the head and slowly limits their ability to take up essential hair nutrients. As the hair is limited in its ability to absorb nutrients the follicle shrinks, the hair thins, shrivels and dies and is not replaced with a healthy hair as is normally the case when hair dies. It is perfectly natural for hair to die and no hair lives for ever however it is normally replaced, but that does not occur in cases of pattern baldness.

There is only one product recognized by the FDA is a female hair loss treatment. This is the female balding product called minoxidil. It has been approved for use by men and women as a balding treatment and is appropriate to treat cases of women's hair loss. It comes in 2 strengths, a 2% solution and a 5% solution and both solutions are approved for use by men but only the 2% solution is approved for use as a female hair loss treatment.

This product was originally a blood pressure treatment but it was observed that subjects in studies had increased hair growth and for this reason studies were undertaken for using minoxidil as a female hair loss treatment. It has been shown to be effective in cases of female pattern baldness however it is not effective for everyone who uses it. However it is the only FDA recognized product available for women as a female hair loss product.

It is not fully understood how minoxidil works but it is suspected that minoxidil increases the supply of blood to the hair follicle thereby increasing the supply of nutrients available to the follicle. This increases hair nutrition which is essential to optimal hair health.

Whilst it has been fully shown that minoxidil works to prevent female baldness it would make sense that if minoxidil improves the supply of nutrients to the hair follicle that by increasing the amount of those nutrients available in the body the capacity of the hair follicle to take up essential nutrients is optimized. For this reason one clever company has combined the use of minoxidil at 2% with a range of essential hair nutrients in a total hair loss treatment that also includes a natural ingredient which has been shown to limit the effects of DHT.

If you're experiencing baldness it's very important that you tackle the problem as soon as possible. There is no single female hair loss treatment that will work for everybody and minoxidil is the only approved treatment in cases of women's hair loss.