have been a fashion must-have down catwalks and boulevards for over a year now, and it doesn’t seem as though the fad for dark, bushy brows will fade come next season. After all, full eyebrows speak of youth and natural beauty- which is why it is considered a great fashion faux pas and embarrassment to experience the loss of eyebrows.
Besides enhancing your beauty, eyebrows also accentuate the expressions of your face and it is safe to say that no face looks natural without the addition of eyebrows. When shaped correctly, eyebrows can beautifully frame your face and draw attention to your best features. If you have been diligently filling your sparse eyebrows in with an eyebrow pencil for quite some time now, read on as we explain the loss of eyebrows and how the condition can be treated quickly and painlessly.
The Medical Term
The loss of eyebrows is also referred to as superciliary madarosis, which is a form of eyebrow loss due to medical conditions. Generally, medical conditions that require the patient to be subjected to harsh chemicals or treatments will cause hair loss and eyebrow loss.
If you suffer from an autoimmune disease, chronic skin disorders, infections or hormone disorders, then you are very likely to experience eyebrow loss. The good news is that once these conditions are treated, your eyebrows should then continue to grow unhindered, provided that no damage has been done to the hair follicles under the eyebrow bone.
Chemotherapy
We all know that chemotherapy patients go bald as hair loss is one of the side effects of this cancer treatment procedure, but did you know that chemotherapy can also cause the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes? If you are a cancer patient and have (or will be) receiving chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel, , cyclophosphamide, carboplatin, actinomycin-D, vincristine, , altretamine, 5-fluorouracil , bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin and cisplatin, then you should also probably prepare yourself for eyebrow loss usually within three weeks of your chemotherapy session.
The silver lining though is that this eyebrow loss is only a temporary effect, and hair growth is sure to continue upon completion of your chemotherapy treatment.
Hypothyroidism
Your rate of hair re-growth is well connected to the condition of your thyroid hormones. The higher the amount of thyroid hormones in your body, the larger the amount of active hair follicles. In other words, the loss of your eyebrows might mean that you are suffering from hypothyroidism.
If you have other symptoms such as weight gain, chronic fatigue, constipation, weakness and skin dryness, then you might want to undergo an inspection with your medical examiner. Just like chemotherapy, hypothyroidism is also a temporary eyebrow loss problem which can be easily treated with thyroid hormone replacement medication.
Atopic Dermatitis
If your hormones are alright and you’re cancer-free, you might be suffering from a common skin problem known as eczema. Atopic dermatitis happens to be a form of eczema which occurs around the eye area. Just like generic eczema, Atopic dermatitis causes physically inflamed, patchy red areas on the skin. As the surface of the skin is irritated and damaged, hair present along the surface would also fall, thereby creating eyebrow loss.
To treat this condition, one simply has to prevent atopic dermatitis from occurring. A hygienic regiment and only using hypo-allergenic cosmetics should be sufficient to keep the eczema at bay while also allowing you to primp up your looks without harming your eyebrow hair.
Alopecia Areata
Alopecia is a common but scary hair problem in which your hair follicles are being attacked by your very own immune system. Alopecia areata is not only chronic, but it can also affect the hair follicles along the brow bone. As this is an autoimmune disease, the only known method of treating this condition is to physically inject your eyebrow site with corticosteroid. The odd thing is that while this treatment works, there have been reports that the new batch of eyebrow hair grown is of different colour or hair texture.
Hansen’s Disease
Another horrific form of skin disease that can cause the loss of eyebrows is known as Hansen’s disease. This medical condition is also more commonly known as leprosy and is triggered by bacteria infection known as Mycobacterium leprae. Hansen’s Disease usually effects both eyebrows and sadly, is not treatable.
Other Eyebrow Hair Loss Causes
For those of you who are healthy and yet suffer from this medical condition, your reason for suffering from loss of eyebrows could simply be due to excessive plucking. If you are plucking at your eyebrows faster than it takes to re-grow new ones, then all you need to do is to stay away from the tweezers for a month and then observe if there are any changes to your eyebrow conditions.
Just like the hair on your head, your eyebrows can also easily get stressed and strained due to excessive rubbing and pulling so do try to keep your hands and fingers away from your eyebrows. Your eyebrow pencil may also be causing undue pressure to your eyebrow as well, which is why it would be a good idea to slightly blunt the tip of the pencil to prevent scratching the skin along your brow bone.
How to Treat Eyebrow Loss
The treatment for your loss of eyebrows really depends on the cause of the hair loss in the first place. If you haven’t figured out the cause of your eyebrow loss, there are temporary measures which you can take to camouflage the problem. For instance, investing in an eyebrow pencil, dark eye shadow or going for a semi-permanent eyebrow tattoo are all pretty common methods of filling in sparse eyebrows discretely.
It is also possible to self-medicate yourself with off-the-counter topical products such as minoxidil which is believed to be effective in treating hair loss caused by alopecia, although it should also be noted that unlike makeup and tattoos that reflect instant results, topical treatments require several weeks of treatment before any conclusive results can be decided upon. Pregnant women are also advised against taking minoxidil as well.
Just like hair transplants, there are also those who may opt for eyebrow transplant surgery. In this procedure, small sections of skin containing hair are moved to the brow bone area. It should also be noted that patients are required to wait at least two sessions to complete the eyebrow transplant procedure.
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