只有我一个人担心自己要秃了？

你也像她一样焦虑吗？

Tessa was 18 when she started noticing her hair loss. It was gradual, and there was no obvious cause, and so she told herself that nothing was wrong. “Denial,” she says now. A few months later she got COVID.After that, hair started coming out “in droves.” She would softly run her fingers through her hair, and strands would fall all around her.

泰莎在18岁时开始注意到自己的脱发问题。这是一个渐进的过程且没有明显的原因，所以她告诉自己，这并没有什么问题。"我是不愿意承认的，"她现在说道。几个月后，她感染了新冠病毒肺炎。在那之后，头发开始"成群结队地"掉落。当她轻轻地用手指穿过她的头发，头发会一缕一缕地掉落在她周围。

Tessa says her doctor still doesn't know why her hair started falling out—but any extreme stress event, including COVID, can cause hair loss. We’ve all heard that stress can cause illness, though shedding massive amounts of hair makes it feel less like a spa slogan and more like an emergency. Doctors and leaders in the women's hair loss community have a message: Don't panic, and know that you are not alone.

泰莎说她的医生还是不知道为什么她的头发会开始脱落——但任何极大的压力，包括新冠病毒肺炎，都可能导致脱发。我们都听说过压力会导致疾病，尽管脱落大量的头发会让人感觉不太像是疗养院的口号，而更像是紧急情况。妇女脱发社区的医生和领导们有这样一个要旨：不要恐慌，要知道你并不是一个人。

“Watching all the hair fall to the floor—it really changed my outlook on my appearance, and my confidence,” she says. When Tessa was around 10 years old, she cut off all her hair and donated it to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that provides custom hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 across the United States who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss. “I didn’t care what people thought of me,” she says. “But as I got older, social media started to really make me believe that I had to look a certain way. I learned that hair is a part of being feminine.”

“看着所有的头发脱落到在地上——这真的改变了我对外表和自信的看法。”她说。泰莎在10岁的时候剪掉了所有的头发，捐给了爱之锁（Locks of Love）。“爱之锁”是一个非营利性组织，它为美国各地遭受长期接受医疗性脱发的18岁以下经济贫困儿童提供定制假发。“我不在乎人们对我是怎么想的，”她说道，“但随着年龄的增长，社交媒体开始让我相信我必须以某种方式看待它。我发现头发是女性化的一部分。”

For months Tessa wore hats and didn’t tell any of her friends or family what she was going through. But recently she found community online. She shared pictures in a private Facebook group for women with hair loss. “This is absolutely devastating to me,” she captioned her photos. “My hair was my number one source of confidence and my veil to hide behind.” Dozens of empathetic responses rolled in, from some of the tens of thousands of women in the group. Tessa’s hair loss had left her feeling completely alone—but she is part of a big, big club.

几个月来，泰莎一直戴着帽子，她没有告诉她的朋友和家人她经历了什么。但最近，她在网上找到了一个社区。她在一个私人脸书群组中为脱发的女性分享了自己的照片。“这对我来说绝对是毁灭性的，”她为她的照片配上字幕，“我的头发是我自信的源泉和让我隐藏的面纱。”该组织中数万名女性中的很多人做出了富有同情心的回应。泰莎的脱发让她感到十分孤独——但她是大俱乐部的一员。

脱发的影响究竟有多大？

“Hair loss affects 50% to 70% of men and women,” says Jenny Liu, M.D., a professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota. At least 50% of women will experience hair loss of some kind before the age of 50. “It’s not an insignificant number of the population,” says Dr. Liu. “It’s definitely under-talked-about.” And it’s definitely happening. Silk and satin pillowcases, said to reduce hair loss, are everywhere. More and more products promise not just thicker, healthier hair, but more hair growth."

“脱发影响了50%到70%的男性和女性，”明尼苏达大学的皮肤学教授刘珍妮医学博士说。至少有50%的女性在50岁之前会经历某种脱发。“它占人口的数量并非微不足道，”刘博士说，“这绝对是被低估了。”这确实正在发生。据说可以减少脱发的丝绸和缎子枕套无处不在。越来越多的产品不仅能保证头发更厚、更健康，还能保证更多的头发生长。

Sometimes hair loss is part of a bigger health concern, but even when it isn’t, Dr. Goh says hair loss can have a potent effect on a woman’s mental health. “I went through the egg retrieval, and also radiation, and then chemo,” Haley Spangler, a 21-year-old being treated for cancer, tells Glamour. “And losing my hair was the worst part for me.” To a person without a cancer diagnosis, this might be shocking. But for Spangler, it makes sense. “It was part of my identity,” she says of her hair. Every woman who spoke to Glamour for this article used identity or a similar word to describe hair. “I have women who don’t leave the house because of their hair loss,” says Tahnee Brown, “They’re insecure and depressed.”

有时脱发是更大的健康问题的一部分，但吴博士说，即使不是这样，脱发也会对女性的心理健康产生强烈的影响。“我通过提卵手术，还有放疗，然后进行了化疗，”正在接受癌症治疗的21岁女孩海莉·斯潘格勒对Glamour说道，“失去头发对我来说是最糟糕的部分。”对于一个没有被诊断患癌的人来说，这可能会令人震惊。但对斯潘格勒来说，这是有道理的。“这是我身份的一部分，”她谈到自己的头发时说道。每一个为Glamour这篇文章采访人物的女性都用身份或类似的词来描述头发。“我认识一些女性因为脱发而不出门，”塔尼·布朗说，“他们没有安全感并且感到沮丧。”

Spangler’s TikTok about losing hair to chemo received countless heartfelt comments from strangers who were eager to share her pain. But some people left comments that said something to the effect of: It’s just hair. Spangler does her best to ignore these comments. “Most people who say that,” she points out, “have hair.”

斯潘格勒关于化疗导致脱发的抖音收到了无数来自陌生人的真心评论，这些陌生人渴望分享她的痛苦。但有些人留下的评论大意是：你只是掉了些头发而已啊。斯潘格勒尽量无视这些评论。她指出：“大多数这么说的人都是站着说话不腰疼，都没有脱发的困扰。”

I think hair is a big part of our social well-being.” The visual trickery of social media and celebrity styling doesn’t help. Most of us know that celebrities have personal trainers, makeup artists, dental work, and stylists. “What people don’t realize is that all these celebrities, like the Kardashians, they’re all wearing wigs!” says Brown.

“我认为头发是我们社会福利的重要组成部分。”社交媒体和名人造型的视觉技巧并没有什么帮助。我们大多数人都知道，名人有私人教练、化妆师、牙科工作和造型师。“人们没有意识到的是，所有这些名人，就像卡戴珊姐妹一样，他们都戴着假发！”布朗说。

脱发的原因有哪些？

The perception that hair loss is mostly a problem that men deal with, or that women lose hair only in much later years, just isn’t accurate. Women and girls of all ages lose hair, and often experience it with tremendous anxiety and shame. Part of what’s so maddening about hair loss is working out the cause—all of a sudden you’re a deranged Sherlock Holmes, clutching a fistful of loose hairs and interrogating your shampoo bottles. “Hair loss is super tricky,” says Dr. Liu. There are a lot of possible causes: an autoimmune disorder, female pattern hair loss, polycystic ovarian syndrome(PCOS), and more.

人们认为脱发主要是男性需要面对的问题，或者认为女性只在晚年才会脱发，这种看法是不准确的。所有年龄段的妇女和女孩都会脱发，而且通常伴随极大的焦虑和羞愧感。脱发令人发狂的部分原因——突然之间，你是一个神经错乱的夏洛克·福尔摩斯，抓着一把松散的头发，审问你的洗发水瓶。“脱发非常棘手，”刘博士说。有很多可能的原因：自身免疫性疾病、女性型脱发、多囊卵巢综合征(PCOS)等等。

But one of the most common reasons women lose hair is called telogen effluvium—essentially, your scalp’s response to trauma. “It is basically a temporary state where your hair is shedding, often due to a traumatic event, like stress, divorce, postpartum,” says Dr. Liu. “Often it is not permanent, and it is reversible over time once the underlying issue is corrected. It often presents three or four months delayed after that inciting event.”

但女性脱发的最常见原因之一是休止期脱发——本质上，是你的头皮对创伤的反应。“这基本上是一种暂时的脱发状态，通常是由于创伤性事件，比如压力、离婚和产后，”刘博士说，“这种脱发通常不是永久性的，一旦潜在的问题得到解决，它就会随着时间的推移恢复原状。”

That may be why so many people have reported losing hair lately—both people who have had bad cases of COVID and people who have lived under intolerable stress during the pandemic. Carolyn Goh, M.D., a dermatologist at UCLA Health who specializes in hair loss, explains it to patients like this: “Your body has only so many resources and so much energy to take care of itself, and if anything is going on, then it might try to pull some resources from, in this case, your hair. The energy that is put into growing your hair needs to be used somewhere else.”

这可能就是为什么最近有这么多人说他们在脱发的原因——既有新冠肺炎严重病例的人，也有在流行病期间承受着无法承受的压力的人。加州大学洛杉矶分校的一名皮肤科医生，卡罗琳·吴医学博士，专攻脱发，她向病人解释说：“你的身体只有这么多的资源和这么多的能量来照顾自己，如果发生了什么事，那么它可能会试图把一些资源，在这种情况下就是你的头发。你用来长头发的能量需要在其他地方使用。”

Your hair loss could be the result of extreme stress.“The most important thing is to try to keep calm, and make an appointment with a board-certified dermatologist,” says Dr. Goh. Cicatricial alopecia, the scarring form of hair loss, is irreversible and treatment is time-sensitive. And for many women their anxiety is reduced by talking to a professional who can walk through treatment plans.

你的脱发可能是极度压力造成的。“最重要的是尽量保持冷静，并预约一名经委员会认证的皮肤科医生，”吴博士说道。瘢痕状脱发是疤痕形式的脱发，是不可逆的，治疗具有时效性。对许多女性来说，通过与能够完成治疗计划的专业人士交谈，可以减少她们的焦虑。

“Honestly, anybody that’s experiencing hair loss should give topical minoxidil a try,” says Liu. “Because it is the only FDA-approved treatment—the only well-researched product that has shown to regrow hair.” Minoxidil is the generic form of Rogaine, and Liu compares it to tretinoin, or Retin-A—one of the only medications that has been shown to have an effect on aging skin.

老实说，任何经历脱发的人都应该尝试外用米诺地尔，”刘说，“因为这是唯一一种获得FDA批准的治疗方法——唯一一种经过充分研究、被证明可以再生头发的产品。”米诺地尔是落健的仿制药，刘将其与维甲酸或维生素A进行比较，这是唯一被证明对衰老皮肤有影响的药物之一。

Retin-A and its nonprescription alternative, retinol, have been enthusiastically embraced by the beauty community. Rogaine, which is heavily associated with and marketed toward men, has not. Even though, as Dr. Goh points out, “it’s the only thing that has strong scientific evidence that it helps.”

维生素A及其非处方替代品视黄醇已受到美容界的热烈欢迎。落健与男性有密切联系且面向男性市场，却没有受到欢迎。尽管吴博士指出“落健是唯一被有力的科学证据证明有帮助的产品”但它没有受到欢迎。

What about biotin? What about the sweet promise that swallowing velvety supplements will lead to thick, lustrous hair? “There is really a lack of evidence behind these supplements, for example, biotin,” says Dr. Liu. Some might not hurt and could even help, but they’re just not rigorously evidence-tested like other treatments. “I do think it says a lot about just wanting to take something that will fix everything,” Dr. Liu says of hair supplements.

那生物素呢？那些说吞下可口的补充剂就会拥有浓密、有光泽的头发的甜言蜜语呢？“这些补充剂背后确实缺乏证据，例如，生物素，”刘博士说。有些生物素可能不会伤害人，甚至可能有所帮助，但它们只是不像其他治疗方法那样经过严格的证据测试。刘博士说：“我确实认为这充分说明了我只是想要服用一些能解决所有问题的东西。