Viola
Question: Can females have a receding hairline?
Answer: Hi, Viola. Yes, absolutely - women can have a receding hairline although it is not generally due to the same condition that causes this pattern of hair loss in men.
Whilst men with androgenetic alopecia - or, Male Pattern Baldness - may develop a receding hairline, this hereditary hair loss condition affects women slightly differently.
Female pattern hair loss still only affects the top of the head, however, whilst men tend to experience defined areas of shedding - such as a thinning crown or their hairline forming a widow's peak - the effect is more generalised in women. A woman with this condition is likely to develop thinning hair along the top of her scalp and at her temples, though the pattern is more 'thinning' than 'receding'. As this is a permanent, progressive condition, it worsens over time unless appropriate interventional hair loss treatment is used.
A truly receding hairline is often seen in women with two less common hair loss conditions - Traction Alopecia and Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia. It can also be due to Ophiasic Alopecia - a rare autoimmune disorder which causes balding all the way around the hairline.
Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia comes under the group of scarrring hair loss conditions known as cicatricial alopecia. Inflammation in the scalp - recently linked to hormones as well as sun creams - destroys the hair follicles in cases of FFA. It displays as a smooth, receded hairline of up to eight centimetres in depth. This condition cannot yet be treated although research into potential therapies is currently underway.
Traction Alopecia occurs when the hair follicles are placed under constant strain by damaging hair styling practices. It weakens the follicles, leading to hair loss along the areas that are most significantly impacted upon by this pressure - namely the hairline and wherever the cause was located - for example, at the crown of the head where a high ponytail was worn too frequently.
The main causes of this are people wearing tight hairstyles and/or hair extensions too often. As traditional, culturally significant tautly braided and dreadlock hairstyles have branched out from black men and women into the wider community, so too has the prevalence of this fully preventable form of hair loss. The popularity of hair extensions has further compounded the problem of Traction Alopecia, which is certainly becoming more problematic than in the past among women of all races and hair types. A lesser known fact is that excessive chemical hair treatments, such as over-bleaching, and using scorching heat styling tools too regularly can also cause this issue.
Whilst cicatricial alopecia cannot currently be treated, at Belgravia our specialists have seen numerous regrowth results in clients following custom Traction Alopecia treatment courses. The key, if you are concerned about a receding hairline, is to have a consultation so that you can receive a professional diagnosis as well as advice on how to proceed, including appropriate treatment recommendations where appropriate. It is often the case that the earlier you catch and address any form of hairloss, the better.
The Belgravia Centre is a world-renowned group of a hair loss clinic in Central London, UK. If you are worried about hair loss you can arrange a free consultation with a hair loss expert or complete our Online Consultation from anywhere in the world for home-use treatment.
View our Hair Loss Success Stories, which includes the world's largest gallery of hair growth photos and demonstrates the level of success that so many of Belgravia's patients achieve.