Healthy hair requires a healthy, well-nourished body.  There are many kinds of hair loss.   We’ll define the three main types: 

• Alopecia areata – is characterized by round spots of baldness in the scalp or other areas such  as the eyebrows or even eyelashes.  This is an inflammatory, auto-immune condition.  
• Female pattern baldness – is seen in post-menopausal women, causing thinning of the scalp hair on the top and sides. It is caused by a hormone imbalance and genetic tendency. 
• Telogen effluvium – is a sudden loss of hair due to a stress, surgery or anesthesia, a low or high thyroid hormone level,  low protein weight loss diet, medication, or sudden changes in hormone status (such as stopping birth control pills, or going into a natural post-partum state). 

These are all treatable by addressing the inflammation, the hormone imbalance, and the nutrition.

Inflammation, as we mentioned above, is addressed with attention to fatty acid balance, dysbiosis, avoidance of food allergens, and attention to nutritional deficiencies, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.  

The hair requires an adequate supply of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) particularly sulfur containing amino acids such as cysteine, to make the keratin, which is the main protein in hair.  It also needs the right fatty acids to keep the hair from drying and cracking off. The hair is one of the first places that one can see nutritional deficiencies.