My hair's falling out :(

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I already posted this topic in the hair loss section but nobody seems to visit that one much, so just in case, ill also post it here, it's related to hair loss, maybe you guys can offer some advice.

I noticed a vast increase in my hair fallout rate around age 17, which never really stopped.  Turns out it was just normal for me...also the longer your hair is, the more noticeable the hairs are when they come out.  Remember that it is normal to lose up to 100 hairs a day.

Do you do anything to it with chemicals?  Straightening, perming, or dye?  Chemicals will cause your fallout rate to increase, but usually not so much that it causes bald spots, its just noticeably thinner to you if you dye it a lot.

If your doc didn't worry about it, it may be because its not as noticeable as you think.  If you really do see bald spots, I would go to another doctor for a second opinion. 

Be careful not to take too many vitamins.  A multivitamin a day is good, but too much vitamin A can cause hair loss (among other health problems). 

I don't really knowhow many hairs I lose a day but I'm pretty sure its a lot,maybe more than 100.  I don't do anything to it with chemicals, I don't straighten, dye or perm it, I do use hair products like gel and hair spray but that's it. I'm sure it's not the vitamins either because regardless of whether I take them or not, it still falls out. I was thinking of getting a perm though, is that a good idea? Will that cause my hair to fall  out even more? If I don't get a perm, I'd probably dye it, I'm getting pretty bored of having the same hairstyle so I either want to perm or dye it, but if that would cause my hair to fall out more then that probably wouldn't be a good idea.

On a normal head, perms will cause some to come off at the scalp when you do it (not so much that it should be noticeably thinner, but you will notice a lot of short hairs growing in a couple of weeks later).  Dyeing it tends to be a little better because its less harsh than perms, and doing it once won't cause that much to fall out.  I used to dye my hair to white, so that took a lot of dye jobs and I could tell my hair was thinner then, but once shouldn't hurt.  I don't think I'd use bleach to go blonde or anything though if you're already concerned.

That said, if your scalp is sometimes red and itchy, and you have bald places, any chemicals you put on it are going to be very irritating to it.  Personally, I'd recommend trying to get the problem of hair loss and the scalp issues dealt with before using such harsh chemicals, I'd hate to see you lose any more hair.

Since you haven't dyed it before, you may want to consider henna for the color.  It should be less irritating to your scalp and not cause hair loss (though I do still recommend working on the problem anyway - if your scalp is red this is not normal, it is getting irritated by something and a dermatologist may be in order).  You should use only Body Art Quality henna, not the stuff they sell in stores which is usually not BAQ - they put lots of metals and other stuff in it which makes it not so good for hair, and I have had my own bad experience with that other stuff so I don't recommend it. You'd have to get BAQ online I think. You would not be able to change your mind later and use chemical dye, because you can't dye over henna (it won't take).  But this type of henna is good for the hair and is permanent.  I'll post you the link for a henna website in case you are interested in it.  This lady was on this forum for awhile and she gives a good description and photos of the difference between store bought and BAQ hennas. http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/rini/
Other people do different things with it for different colors, here are their recipes: http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html