I sometimes get emails from people who ask about their specific hair type and whether or not this contributes to their shedding more or suffering from more hair loss. An example of this is someone who asked: “I have fine hair, but recently it’s more oily. Do people with fine hair shed more? Does my hair becoming more oily have anything to do with me losing more of it?” I’ll answer this question in the following article.
Fine Hair Generally Means That You Have More Of It (So Long As It’s Always Been Fine): In general folks who have fine rather than course textured hair start out with more. Examples are blonds and some brunettes. These folks usually have had the same texture since they were kids. They’ve always had lots of hair, but it didn’t appear to be too much and it wasn’t out of control because the thinner texture will typically help it lay down and behave. If this describes you and your fine texture isn’t just something that has happened recently, then it can be normal to shed a bit more hair than others because what is “normal” or “typical” is really just based on the percentage of hair (taking in account every strand on your head) that is in the resting or shedding phase at one time. Most doctors will tell you that it’s normal to have 10% of you strands in the fall out phase at one time.
For most people, this ten percent equation puts them in the 50 – 100 hairs per day range. But if you have more hair on your head than what is considered normal, then obviously 10 percent of the excess that you have is going to equal more that comes out without anything to worry about.
If You’re Hair Has Just Recently Become Fine: If you really weren’t a kid with fine hair and have just noticed this texture recently, then that can be more problematic. If you had coarse or more normal textured hair before, but has recently noticed that the individual strands are not as substantial or don’t look to be normal for you, then this would suggest that some miniaturization could be taking place. (This is the process by which inflammation and androgens like DHT negatively affect your hair follicles so that they have trouble producing a thick, healthy hair. So, the individual strands become more fine and don’t cover as much or offer as much volume. This cycle can worsen over time to the point where the follicle is only producing a baby hair and eventually, not much at all.) Sometimes, medications (birth control pills and others) can cause this same reaction as can chronic telogen effluvium (CTE or long term shedding) and medical conditions that cause your body to overproduce cortisol or other hormones that your body has developed a sensitivity to.
How Does The Hair Being Oily Fit Into This Loss?: First off, fine hair becomes oilier faster because the strands are not as substantial and become coated with natural oils much more quickly. People who fall into this category are well advised to wash their hair daily and / or find a very light weight conditioner. I know some folks whose hair is very fine and they use a spray conditioner to keep the hair from weighing down. Another alternative is to condition the hair first and then to wash it out with shampoo so that there isn’t any left over residue to make the hair appear oily or to weigh it down.
More problematic is if the oiliness is a new thing. Because if it is, then this is more indicative of the androgen issues that I discussed earlier which would point more to androgenic alopecia as the cause of your hair loss. Now, there are certainly effective treatments for this as well as styling techniques that can make fine hair appear more full and substantial, but it’s important to understand the distinction as to if the oiliness is a new thing or is being caused by androgens so that you can treat it accordingly.