Cause of childhood hair loss
In chemotherapy, so-called cytostatic drugs are used, which take advantage of the rapid cell division of cancer cells and attack them there. These cytostatic drugs cannot differentiate between sick and healthy cells, but generally attack all cells that divide quickly. This affects not only the cells in the gastrointestinal tract in the mucous membrane, but also the blood cells and the hair cells.
The hair growth is interrupted and the hair becomes thinner and more brittle. At some point, they then simply detach themselves from their anchoring. Hair normally grows about 0.3 mm per day and about 85% of hair cells are constantly in the phase of cell division. Sometimes the hair loss does not only affect the hair of the head, but also eyebrows fall out, eyelashes and the rest of the body hair.
