Much of the time, when your hear from people who ask about a loss of hair volume and fullness, you are dealing with someone who has been dealing with hair shedding. But I can’t say that this is always one hundred percent the case. I can hear from someone who hasn’t noticed any distinct increase in hair shedding or loss. In other words, they aren’t noticing any additional hair in their shower drain or clothing. But what they are noticing is that the overall appearance of their hair isn’t nearly as thick and voluminous as it used to be.
So I might hear a comment like: “I have had seasonal hair shedding before. So I know what that feels like. I am not having that now. There isn’t tons of hair in my brush or all over my house. There is nothing that alarms me about the amount of hair that is coming out. What does alarm me is that I can run my hands through my hair and I can tell that it is more thin. I can look at my pony tail and I can tell that it is not as thick as it was. I can’t figure out why this is happening. My hair isn’t falling out any more than is normal for me. So why is my hair suddenly thin?”
I can give you a theory about this, but I am most certainly not a doctor or a specialist. What I know about this topic is from my own research. So if you haven’t seen a professional about this, I’d highly recommend seeing one. But, a very common reason for seeing thinning hair over time when you are not actively shedding is because of a process called hair miniaturization.
What is this process? It is when your hair follicles become sensitive to the androgens that are normally present for most of us. This generally happens with age, but it can happen to people who are younger, who have a family history, or who are naturally more hormonally vulnerable than others. When you have this sensitivity, your scalp has an anti-inflammatory reaction and, as a result, the follicles start to shrink. When your follicles shrink, they can no longer produce a normal diameter strand of hair. So, since you are not shedding, you are retaining the number of hair strands that you have. But when the hair naturally sheds out and then grows back in, it comes in thinner in diameter. Over time, this makes you have a thinner head of hair overall and it would most certainly account for the smaller pony tail.
There are various treatments for this. Some people will approach it by attempting to stop the sensitivity to the androgens and this is done by prescription medications. And others approach it by trying to reduce the inflammation with topical treatments that don’t require a prescription.
That’s not to say that this situation is definitely miniaturization. Because some medications or medical conditions can cause this process to happen. But, if no shedding is present and your hair volume is still noticeably and significantly diminished, then miniaturization is a reasonable consideration because it is quite common among both genders. Many people assume it only affects men, but this absolutely isn’t the case. Women can be affected also.