Daily Hair Loss: What's Normal & When to Worry?

It is completely normal for people to lose about 100 strands of hair every day, according to the National Institutes of Health. As long as your body is producing new hair to make up the difference, there is no reason to be concerned.

Life Cycle

• The average hair strand stays in the head for four and a half years and grows about a half-inch each month. When a hair falls out, it is usually replaced by a new one within six months.

Baldness

• Baldness occurs when the body doesn't create enough new hairs to replace the ones that have fallen out. Hair loss is also known as alopecia.

What's normal?

• People usually lose between 50 and 100 hairs a day, according to the Mayo Clinic. Consult your doctor if you are losing an unusual amount of hair quickly, or if other symptoms of illness accompany the hair loss. Hair loss is particularly unusual in people who are very young.

Causes

• Hair loss has a wide variety of causes, including childbirth, severe trauma, medication, diet and disease. Some people are genetically predisposed to baldness.

Fun fact

• The typical human head contains 100,000 hairs.