Losing the hair on your head can be disheartening enough, but losing your eyebrows can feel even more so. That’s because your eyebrows are one of your most important and expressive facial features – not only for their aesthetic appeal, but also to shade and protect your eyes from dirt, debris, and sweat.
And yet, we tend to take our eyebrow hairs for granted. Usually, it simply overgrows to the point where it needs to be tweezed or clipped, especially as we get older.
But what in the world would cause your eyebrows to slowly but surely disappear?
Causes of Eyebrow Hair Loss
Actually, there are many possible causes for eyebrow loss. These include:
- Alopecia areata – The same condition that causes hair loss at the top of your scalp can affect your eyebrows as well. It’s a disease in which your immune system mistakes a part of your body – in this case, the hair follicles of your eyebrows – as a foreign invader, like a bacteria or virus, that needs to be attacked. The follicles will, therefore, slow down or halt hair production, resulting in either random spots of hair loss or the total disappearance of all hair in your brows.
- Nutrient deficiencies – Your body requires a variety of nutrients, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and amino and fatty acids – some of which influence hair growth. If you’re lacking in any of the essential nutrients, it could trigger hair loss. For example, a lack of vitamin A or zinc can reduce cell growth, while deficiencies in biotin, iron, vitamin C, cysteine, or vitamins E, B-12, or D can also affect hair loss.
- Eczema – This inflammation of the skin is triggered by an oversensitive immune system, causing redness, itching, oozing, and irritation. It can also interfere with proper hair growth wherever hair follicles are embedded in affected skin.
- Psoriasis – Another autoimmune disorder, psoriasis causes skin cells to multiply so rapidly that they form painful, scaly, red patches that can block hair follicles and halt hair growth.
- Contact dermatitis – caused by an allergen or a toxic irritant, this form of skin inflammation can inhibit hair growth in the follicles in and around your eyebrow area.
- Ringworm – This fungal condition produces ring-like patches that, when appearing over the eyebrows, cause the hair to fall out – thereby leaving bald patches in the brows.
- Thyroid disease – When your thyroid gland produces too much or too little of the hormones that regulate your metabolism, it can also disrupt your body’s normal hair growth processes. Eyebrow loss is, therefore, a common symptom of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism.
- Excessive stress and anxiety – Psychological factors can reduce oxygen to your hair follicles and play havoc with your hormone levels, thus contributing to eyebrow hair loss.
- Pregnancy and childbirth – This can also have a fluctuating effect on a woman’s hormones and biochemistry, leading to hair loss.
- Natural aging – The older you become, the lower your levels of testosterone (in men) or estrogen (in women), which can lead to hair thinning.
- Eyebrow plucking – Plucking the hair from the same eyebrow follicle will eventually cause that follicle to stop growing hair there. People often overpluck their eyebrows, and this eventually causes the area to stop growing hair.
- Chemotherapy – Designed to stop rapidly dividing cancer cells, chemo also temporarily affects follicles and causes hair all over the head to fall out.
Solutions for Eyebrow Loss Repair
If you are experiencing eyebrow hair loss, a permanent way to achieve the full, healthy, attractive brows you really want is with surgical eyebrow restoration.
At Northwest Hair Restoration, Dr. Robert Niedbalski performs eyebrow hair transplant surgery at our Tacoma, Washington office. Depending on your specific needs, we offer various transplant techniques. Dr. Niedbalski takes the time to discuss and outline the results you want to achieve in order to tailor the procedure to your preferred aesthetic look.
To learn more, contact us today at (253) 572-2949 to arrange your free consultation with Dr. Niedbalski at Northwest Hair Restoration of Tacoma, Seattle, and Spokane, Washington. You can also request an appointment online now. We look forward to helping you love what you see in the mirror!
