Revealed: why so many women’s eyebrows fall out. Doctors explain the real cause, how to stop it… and why it could be a sign of a potentially fatal disease

Model Chrissy Teigen has enviably perfect, bushy eyebrows – but it wasn’t always that way.

In 2021, Teigen revealed on social media that she had undergone an eyebrow transplant, which uses hairs from the back of the scalp to fill in sparse eyebrows.

Ms Teigen said years of excessive plucking had thinned her eyebrows so significantly that she had to resort to plucking them every morning before the transplant – and urged her followers to learn from her mistakes.

But it’s not just overplucking – just as the hair on your head can thin with age, so can the hair on your eyebrows, and it could be a sign of a medical condition. It can also occur without you losing hair on your head.

Whatever the cause, when it does happen, for many the impact of losing their eyebrows is greater than it being ‘just’ a cosmetic problem – dermatologists and trichologists (non-medical specialists in the field of hair health and scalp) report increasing concern about this among their patients – fueling a growing demand for eyebrow transplants. According to 2022 figures from the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, 11 percent of all hair transplant operations in women now consist of eyebrow transplants.

‘The [psychological] The impact on patients is often significant, as loss of eyebrows can greatly affect self-confidence and body image,” says Dr Ellie Rashid, consultant dermatologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and OneWelbeck Health in London.

‘Eyebrows are an important feature in framing the face, and their thinning can make people feel less expressive or less polished.

‘Many patients report spending more time filling in their brows with makeup or seeking cosmetic procedures to restore lost fullness, which can add stress to their daily routine.’

In 2021, model Chrissy Teigen revealed on social media that she had undergone an eyebrow transplant, which uses hair from the back of the scalp to fill in sparse eyebrows.

Although men and women can suffer from it, eyebrow loss “tends to affect women more often, especially in their 30s and 40s, often due to hormonal changes such as those associated with menopause,” says Dr. Rashid.

‘However, men can also experience this condition, and it becomes more common as people get older… [when] hair follicles [the type of pore from which a hair grows] become less productive, leading to finer and less pigmented hair.’

Eyebrow loss can occur regardless of whether a person suffers from hair loss on the head.

In some cases, hair loss occurs gradually, in others it can happen within a few months.

“Patients often describe gaps or thinning of the eyebrows, or thinning of a certain part of the eyebrows, such as the outer third of the eyebrows, or generally sparse eyebrow hairs, and in more severe cases, the absence of eyebrows,” says Dr. Rashid.

The concern about this goes beyond its psychological impact, because losing your eyebrows specifically can be a sign of an underlying health problem, Dr. Rashid adds.

These range from autoimmune diseases, thyroid or inflammatory skin conditions to nutritional deficiencies, especially in iron and zinc (although in the case of nutrient deficiencies, you’ll likely see thinning hair elsewhere as well).

“Autoimmune diseases such as alopecia areata can cause patchy hair loss, including the eyebrows,” says Dr. Rashid.

Dr. Ellie Rashid, a dermatologist, says eyebrow loss can greatly affect people’s self-confidence and body image

This is caused by the immune system becoming overactive and accidentally attacking the hair follicles, causing inflammation and damage, which causes hair to fall out.

It is not known what causes alopecia areata, but both genetic and environmental factors may play a role.

For some women, menopause can be a trigger and although this normally only leads to hair loss on the scalp, in some cases the eyebrows can also be affected.

There’s also a lesser-known form of alopecia, which is even more likely to affect the eyebrows, says Dr. Rashid.

‘Another cause for eyebrow hair loss is frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA), a form of hair loss that causes scarring [which means the hair cannot grow back] that usually affects postmenopausal women and is associated with inflammation that causes the immune system to attack the hair follicles, causing complete loss of eyebrow hair, especially at the outer edges.”

Unlike alopecia areata, which tends to cause patchy hair loss everywhere, FFA mainly affects the front of the scalp and forehead, appearing as a band of receding hair over this area. A 2022 study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that as many as 96 percent of patients with FFA experience hair loss through their eyebrows. And cases of the condition are increasingly being reported, according to a 2020 review published in the Journal Advances In Dermatology And Allergology. Hormone changes are thought to be a factor in FFA, but a definitive cause is not known.

Thinning eyebrows can also be the first outward sign of other underlying health problems, as 53-year-old Sally Woods discovered.

“About seven years ago I started losing the ends of my eyebrows… I was very aware of it at first because I wasn’t wearing glasses at the time, so it was really noticeable,” says Sally, a legal secretary supervisor from Bedfordshire. ‘I felt really exposed. I always drew them with eyebrow pencil.’

She initially accepted it as just part of growing older. Then earlier this year she heard a doctor say on TV that thinning eyebrows could be a sign of a thyroid problem.

This is not uncommon, says Dr. Rashid. ‘Hormonal changes, particularly thyroid dysfunction or menopause, may play an important role in hypothyroidism [an underactive thyroid gland] this is a common cause of thinning of the outer third of the eyebrows.’

This happens when the thyroid gland in the neck stops producing enough hormones that control how our body uses energy. The symptoms can be subtle – in addition to eyebrow loss, they include dry skin, bad mood and feeling cold and tired – but if left untreated they can lead to heart disease, infertility and a rare but life-threatening condition called myxedema coma is mentioned. begin to fail due to thyroid hormone deficiency.

Sally had already had ‘borderline’ blood test results indicating an underactive thyroid, but it wasn’t until she heard the link to eyebrow loss that it ‘made sense’ to her. Two months ago she went back to her doctor and her hypothyroidism was confirmed.

She started taking levothyroxine, a drug that replaces the missing hormone thyroxine, to treat the condition. “We’ll wait and see if things get better… but I can definitely see my eyebrows growing!” she says.

So what can you do if you lose your eyebrows? You may be tempted to buy over-the-counter eyebrow serums that promise to regrow eyebrows, or book microblading – a type of eyebrow tattoo to conceal missing hairs – or even an eyebrow transplant, costing thousands privately. But while these can improve the ‘look’ of your eyebrows, none are medical solutions for any underlying medical problem. For treatment that tackles the problem at its root, rather than just focusing on improving appearance, see your doctor.

‘For some, local treatments such as minoxidil [a solution applied to the skin once or twice a day] can help stimulate regrowth, while patients with alopecia areata may benefit from steroid creams or injections to stimulate hair return,” says Dr. Rashid.

This is because steroids can reduce the inflammation that causes hair loss.

‘If the cause is related to a medical condition such as thyroid dysfunction [or a nutrient deficiency]it is important to address the underlying problem,” she adds.