My Beard Hairs are Falling Out (Cause and Prevention)

It’s easy to panic when your beard hairs fall out, but how do you know when it’s not a big deal or when to start buying the miracle grow?

Beard hair falls out faster than head hair, so it’s not always a red flag to lose a few hairs. Larger amounts of hair loss can be caused by stress or sensitive hair follicles. It can also be caused by Alopecia, the auto-immune disease that attacks hair follicles. Either way, it’s essential to identify why you’re losing your hair before trying to prevent it.

Keep reading to learn more about common reasons men lose their beard hair and how to treat it.

Causes for Beard Hair Loss

We’ll explain each of these causes in detail to help you better understand what could be causing your beard hair loss:

•  Natural beard hair loss
• Alopecia
• Hair follicles
• Stress

Natural beard hair loss

It is common to lose a bit of beard hair every, as beard hair grows in cycles.

Beard hair grows from androgen hair follicles. These follicles grow shorter, wiry hair compared to the hair on your head because of the presence of testosterone. These follicles also fall out quicker than head hair before growing more back.

So don’t stress about sacrificing a few hairs to the trash can.

Alopecia

Alopecia is a type of disease where your immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss. Currently, more than 6.8 million people in the United States experience alopecia areata. There are several different types of alopecia:

• Alopecia areata — There are varying subtypes of this form of alopecia, but it predominantly causes hair loss in patches. In serious cases, it can impact your entire chin and scalp and even spread across your entire body.
• Alopecia barbae — This autoimmune disease is a subset of alopecia areata but primarily targets hair on a person’s chin. The affected area commonly occurs in small patches.
• Traction alopecia — This form of alopecia is unlike the others because it is hair loss caused by repeatedly aggravating your hair. If you brush your beard too aggressively or overwash it, you could end up causing traction alopecia.

Hair follicles

Testosterone stimulates hair growth in your beard hair and body hair follicles. However, the actual hair follicles may have more to do with hair loss than your testosterone.

Sometimes hair follicles can be so sensitive that they burn out over time naturally from too many hormones. This can cause beard hair loss because the follicles themselves stop working. While there are medicines that can help fix this, the medicines aren’t going to be found over the counter.  

Stress

Stress can cause our body to shut down in many ways, including shutting down beard hair growth.

When people stress, their bodies create a type of hormone called cortisol. Studies have shown that the cortisol hormone can cause hair loss. Conversely, removing the hormone can cause hair to regrow. So do your best to find a healthy outlet for your stress to keep your hair growing.

Should I worry when my beard hair is falling out?

To figure out when to start worrying, ask yourself how fast are you losing your hair?

Due to the nature of beards, your hair is likely to fall out sometimes. However, a patch of hair loss at once is a red flag. In this case, talk to your doctor about your hair loss and try to determine the cause and, hopefully, the next step.

Do I have Alopecia Barbae?

If you have signs of this autoimmune disease, you should act right away. While there is no serious health risk, many people may struggle emotionally as they lose their hair.

The telltale sign of alopecia barbae is if you’re losing hair in small, quarter-sized patches on your chin. Sometimes people feel pain before the hair falls out. Redness, skin irritation, or inflammation inside the balding area can be a sign of alopecia barbae.

How to prevent beard hair loss

If you’re wondering what you can do to prevent hair loss, there are a few options you should consider:

• Supplements
• Prioritize your health
• Beard maintenance

Supplements

There are plenty of over-the-counter supplements that can both prevent hair loss and stimulate the growth of new hair.

Peppermint oil and Zinc are two simple supplements that are easy to integrate into your routine. Applying peppermint oil can provide quick results without ill effects, given the right circumstances. People who are losing their hair have been found to be zinc deficient. Luckily, there are many options for topical zinc soaps or pills that can help slow hair loss.

Reduce your stress

It’s not impossible to reduce your stress, even if you are plagued by chronic stress.

Basic breathing exercising throughout your day or stretching your muscles have been proven to reduce the build-up of stress. There are many suggestions out there that doctors recommend for reducing your daily stress. Finding the right relaxation motivator may take some time, but you’ll be happy when your hair and body feel healthy in the long run. 

Beard maintenance

Like any important part of your life and body, you must take proper care of your beard.

Many people can tell their head hair needs a wash just from the feel of it; the same should apply to beards. There are so many ways to protect your beard by using different oils or washes. Just be careful to avoid overworking it.