Women’s hair loss is a symptom that is caused by everything from genetics to a medical issue to a bad reaction to a hair care product to a nutritional deficiency–just to name a few. You’ll have an easier time responding to your hair thinning or falling out if you know what is causing it to happen. Whether you rely on conventional medicine or home remedies, there is usually a way to make your hair healthier and very often these same measures will be good for your health in general.

Although male pattern baldness is a very well known condition, something similar can occur with women. The condition is called androgenetic alopecia–it has the same name no matter who is suffering from it. This is caused by the turning of testosterone (which women have in small amounts) into a chemical called DHT that keeps the hair follicles from growing. In women, this often begins to happen around menopause. Thankfully (for women), while men are usually forced into total baldness by this condition, women usually only have to deal with the slight thinning of their hair in certain places. This causes women’s hair loss but it is not a common cause of this problem.

Hair loss is sometimes the sign of a medical problem and that is why it is important to always ask your doctor about it. Lupus, diabetes and thyroid disorders all can cause hair loss in either men or women, and it’s important to be aware if you have any of these conditions. Another medical condition (which is usually hard to diagnose), fibromyalgia, is also a culprit for hair loss. These types of medical conditions cause your hormones and nutrition to get all out of whack and that can often bring on hair loss. In every single one of these cases, hair loss is actually a minor danger of the condition so take steps to make sure that you are properly diagnosed. When you address the underlying issue, your hair loss should stop too.

Green tea is recommended for everything from cancer prevention to weight loss but did you already know that it can be really good for improving the health of your hair too? Recent studies have shown that EGCG, the powerful antioxidant that makes green tea so healthy, can also promote the growth of your hair follicles. This is just one reason that you should start drinking green tea if you don’t already do so regularly. Green tea is caffeinated but it only has about half the caffeine content of coffee so it also acts as a good stimulant for later in the day. Aside from everything else you want to do to help your hair, you need to think about drinking a few cups of green tea each day as well.

Women’s or female hair loss is not always the easiest thing to deal with because there are so many different variations of it that finding the best and most effective solution can take quite a lot of time. You have to ask your doctor for advice in addition to testing out the remedies we’ve included in this article. It’s also important to stay up to date with the latest research and health news so that you know about any new advances in treating hair loss as they are announced.