People all over the world see hair as important. In the west, for instance, almost all brides are prepared for their approach to the altar by the hands of an expert stylist.

We use our hair to express our personalities - to conform, to make a statement, to help us feel good, to attract other people. Sometimes our hair even seems to reflect our mood, especially when we are sad or depressed. Our hair is perhaps our most distinctive feature. Any sudden change in its color or style startles our friends and produces comments from our family. Hair is an amazing material.

In the hands of an expert and with the use of modern hair products, it is soft and shining and seems full of life. Strangely, however, hair is dead. Hair, if properly looked after, made to shine with 'health'.

Yet all too often this 'crowning glory' of ours is neglected. And then it can look shoddy, dull and lifeless. It becomes a constant disappointment, all the worse because we know that, however expensive and beautiful our clothes, if our hair looks a mess we won't be seen as well-groomed, poised and fashionable.

Hair so often fails to do for us exactly what we expected. Its behaviour raises endless questions, sometimes almost despairing: Why did my hair suddenly collapse just before that vital interview? Could I have done anything to avoid that happening?

Why did it look fine when I walked out of the salon yesterday, and terrible this morning?

Why, when it had so much volume and 'body' when I was on that Mediterranean holiday, has all that gone now I'm at home in November?

Why were the results of that home color so disappointing?

Why does a woman's hair so often 'fall out' after she has had a baby?

Why do so many men (and some women) go bald?

Why does so-and-so's lovely red hair never perm very well? Why does my hair go out of condition so easily? What can I do to restore it?

All hairs naturally fall out at the end of the growing period. You can lose between 50 and 80 hairs a day. They tend to come out with brushing and shampooing. So if you wash your hair only once a week, it is perfectly in order for you to lose several hundred hairs at one go!

However, it is possible, a person may start to lose more hairs than usual. If this hair loss is significant, and if it persists, then sooner or later the scalp may become visible through the thinning hair. The condition is called alopecia. The name comes from the Greek word alopekia, which means 'fox': foxes (and also dogs) sometimes suffer from bald patches due to an unpleasant disease called mange. (Fortunately, humans do not get mange!) http://www.overcominghairloss.com