According to traditional Chinese medical theory, the con-dition of hair is dependant of the state of the blood, and it can reveal the condition of the kidneys. Therefore, people with plentiful blood and kidney qi tend to have black and lustrous hair.
(1) Pathological hair:
1) Presenile grey hair in young people, together with diz-ziness and tinnitus, as well as soreness and weakness in the waist and legs, is caused by deficiency of kidney qi; and pres-enile grey hair in young people, together with symptoms of de-ficiency of heart qi is due to mental fatigue and depletion of blood.
2) Generalized grey hair is caused by albinism; and local-ized white hair is due to vertiligo.
3) Temporary occurrence of much grey hair in people with bad temper, annoyance, flushing face and bitter taste in the mouth is caused by accumulation of heat pathogens in the liver.
4) Yellow hair is caused by deficiency of blood or is due to heat pathogens in qi and blood.
5) Yellow, sparse and dry hair is caused by deficiency of blood and essence; and yellow and dry hair in people with a wan and sallow complexion is due to chronic disease, weak-ness of the body and malnutrition.
6) Straight dry hair is caused by depletion of qi and body fluid; and wet hair due to constant spontaneous sweating in pa-tients with shortness of breath is caused by exhaustion of the lungs.
7) Sparse, thin and soft hair especially remarkable over the vertex and temporal region of head in patients with vertigo, soreness and weakness of the waist and knees, tidal fever and emission of semen is due to deficiency of blood and essence.
8) Sparse hair with itching and desquamation of the scalp is due to seborrheic dermatitis.
9) Loss of hair may be caused by diseases due to attack of wind pathogens, dryness pathogens in the blood, seborrheic dermatitis, alopecia areata, typhoid fever, leprosy, cirrhosis of the liver or malignant tumors.
10) Tangled hair with extremely lean body and distended abdomen may occur in children suffering from indigestive malnutrition.
(2) Loss of hair:
Loss of hair is caused by the mutation of genes. Loss of hair in patches is due to deficiency of Yin and blood in the liver and kidneys, failure of communication between the heart and the kidneys, and invasion of external wind pathogens into a de-ficient body.
1) Loss of hair in patches: Hair may be lost in one or sev-eral patches with regular margin and normal skin. It may oc-cur in patients of alopecia areata or leprosy.
2) Total baldness: The hair over the whole scalp may be completely lost within a short period of time, and it may be gradually caused by the progression of alopecia areata. The skin of the scalp is normal. It may occur in aged people or patients of late-stage typhoid fever.
3) Premature baldness: From the late stage of the prime of life, the gradual loss of hair starts from the corners of the forehead, and then spreads over the vertex to the occipital re-gion of the head, with the hair over the peripheral region of the scalp remaining normal.
4) Diffuse loss of hair: Diffuse loss of hair is caused by acute infectious diseases, chronic diseases or intoxication due to chemicals or drugs.
5) Congenital baldness: This is a dominant genetic disease of the chromosomes occurring in successive generations of a family.
6) False alopecia areata: In middle-aged men, hair may be lost in one or 2 small round patches with clear margins, and then the bare patches may gradually increase in size and fuse together. The local smooth and shiny skin may become atrophic, thinner and depressed. The hair loss may stop spontaneously, but the lost hair can not be regenerated.
7) Postpartum loss of hair: The hair may be gradually lost in women 2-5 months after delivery of a baby, and it may con-tinue for 2-6 months.
8) Loss of hair due to endocrinal diseases: The hair may turn dry, fragile, sparse, thicker or thinner in patients with hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, hypoparathyroidism or dis-eases of the pituitary gland.
9) peripheral baldness: The hair on the peripheral region of the scalp may be lost, with uneven and sparse hair preserved.
10) Loss of hair around the nevus: The hair around the pig-mented nevus on the scalp may be lost, leaving local baldness as a lesion of alopecia areata.
11) Circular baldness: The hair may be lost, leaving a cir-cular naked patch.
(3) Scalp dandruff
Scalp dandruff is the small fine scales detached from the scalp. The formation of excess dandruff is related to heredity and mental agitation.
