Just like the hair on your head, your eyebrow hair can stop growing or thin out over time. This can happen for many possible reasons, and you are not alone: eyebrow hair loss is actually very common.

Here are 8 of the most common reasons why you might be losing eyebrow hair:

1. Stress: One of the most common reasons behind eyebrow hair loss is Telogen effluvium, a condition that causes your hair to fall out quicker than normal. This can affect not just the hair on your head, but your eyebrows too. (Read More: 3 Things to Know About Stress and Hair Loss)

2. Extreme diets: If you’ve resorted to a crash or extreme diet recently in an effort to lose weight, this could likely be the culprit. The HCG diet is among the most notorious for causing hair loss in eyebrows, due to the fact that it interferes with so many metabolic processes in your body. You can address this by eating healthy and supplementing with vitamins that support hair growth.

3. Thyroid problems: General hair loss and eyebrow hair loss are commonly caused by thyroid issues. Around 10% of the overall population suffer from some form of thyroid problem, and even the tiniest change in thyroid hormones can cause drastic symptoms, some of which manifest on your head and eyebrows. (Read More: How Thyroid Health Affects Hair Loss)

4. Medications: Some medications can cause hair loss, particularly those that are prescribed for high blood pressure or skin disorders. The most common culprits are topical retinoids, heparin, beta blockers, and ACE inhibitors.

5. Over-plucking: Many women are guilty of going over the top with tweezers, especially during the young teenage years. This is normal, although some women experience having their eyebrows never go back. If this sounds like you, this can be remedied by using a hair growth enhancing serum that will polish your brows will helping stimulate growth. (Read More: Overplucked? How to Grow Your Eyebrows Back).

6. Eczema: Eczema is a skin condition characterized by inflammation, resulting redness, itching, and irritation. This is usually caused by hyperactive immune systems and can either occur as an ongoing condition, or it may only happen once. Since the skin has hair follicles, eczema can tamper with healthy hair growth in your eyebrows. Taking medications for eczema will do the trick.

7. Infections: Skin infections, particularly fungal infections, can cause eyebrow hair loss. Other rarer causes are herpes and bacterial infections. The quickest way to know if you have a skin infection is by visiting your doctor, who can recommend effective anti-fungal and anti-viral medications for you. Once the infection has been treated, you should be able to notice a difference in your eyebrows.

8. Aging: Unfortunately, thinning hair throughout the body comes with aging. This is particularly noticeable once you reach your forties, and this applies to both men and women. While this is inevitable, you can slow it down or promote hair growth by using the right products for your hair and skin. (Read More: How Aging Affects Hair Loss).


There are many viable, effective treatments for addressing eyebrow hair loss. It’s never the end of the world, since this condition is treatable provided that you’ve identified the cause of the problem.