Unlike the receding hair line creeping over a man's scalp, hair loss sneaks up on a woman.
Maybe she sees a few more hairs in her favorite brush. Her ponytail feels skinnier. Her part widens. Eventually she notices she can see her scalp peeking through in a photograph.
Whatever the telling sign, female pattern hair loss can be traumatic. But women today are less likely to suffer in silence than a decade ago; doctors report that women increasingly are coming forward to seek remedies.
Locks we love
In some cases, pinpointing the cause is the first step to a cure, though the source of hair loss in women is not always as clear as it is in men.
The hormone fluctuations of puberty, pregnancy and menopause can cause hair to shed. So can the stress of general anesthesia, illness, anemia, crash diets and thyroid abnormalities. Some women -- and a few men, too -- suffer a compulsion to tug at the hair, damaging the follicles.