Hair Loss And Its Treatment
The excessive loss of hair from the scalp leads to baldness. This can be resulted due to heredity factors, some medications or even due to underlying medical factors. Hair loss can happen in men, women and even in children. For some people their baldness doesn’t bother them and they leave it unhidden and untreated. Some try to cover their baldness with hats, makeup, hairstyles or scarves. Others prefer to treat the hair loss with surgical procedures and medications. Before you look for various treatment options, consulting a doctor will help you very much.
Tips To Maintain Your Hair, Healthy And Normal
Many of you know that eating a healthy balanced diet is vital for many reasons. The interesting thing is that the good diet will also benefit your hair. If you find your hair falling day-by-day, some doctors suggest you to use baby shampoo once a week with lathering gently. Rubbing your hair vigorously using a towel should be avoided. Most of the hair experts recommend you to avoid the use of blow dryer to your hair. If you find hard to put away your blow dryer, you can possibly use it on a setting mode which produces low heat. If you want to style your hair, then do it when the hair is damp or dry. This is because styling the hair when it is wet can lead the hair to become stretched and this eventually causes the breakage. Always avoid tearing the hair because this causes the hair damage. When you deal with chemicals like color on the hair, you should be very careful as it could have negative impact on your hair. Repeated usage of chemical treatments should be avoided to prevent any possible damage.
What are the treatment options you have for hair loss?
If you have hair loss problem don’t be depressed. Here is an encouraging fact for you. There are many treatments available to treat hair loss which promotes the growth of hair or hides your loss of hair. Here are some of the medications to treat hair loss. The medications like minoxidil and finasteride treat the hair loss problem by slowing down the loss of hair from scalp. Let’s see them in detail.
Minoxidil:
The brand name of minoxidil is rogaine. This is a non prescription medication. It is an approved medication for curing of alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia. Minoxidil is over-the counter medication. Minoxidil is nothing but foam or liquid that should be rubbed onto your scalp for the growth of hair. The rubbing should be done twice a day to avoid further hair loss. The effect of minoxidil is maximum on the crown and minimum on the frontal region. The disadvantage of rogaine is that it has some side effects, like scalp irritation and has less effect on the head’s front region. This frontal region is where the baldness occurs in men that worries them most. It is available in a lower strength, i.e. as a solution of 2% and also available in a higher strength 5%. This higher strength solution is much effective than its lower strength counterpart.
The new hair that has grown due to the use of minoxidil is shorter and thinner than the previous hair. After using rogaine, enough hair grows that is large and dense enough to hide the bald areas. If you stop the use of this medication, the growth of new hair stops. It requires a period of 12 weeks for the growth of new hair. If you experience least effects, then it is best to discontinue using this medication.
Finasteride:
The brand name of finasteride is propecia. Unlike rogaine, it is a prescription medication and it treats baldness which is male-patterned. It should be taken in the form of pill daily. This medication when taken slows down the hair loss and causes the growth of new hair. It takes several months for it to produce positive results. The conversion of testosterone into dihydrototosterone is stopped by finasteride. Dihydrotestosterone is a hormone that causes the shrinking of hair follicles. This hormone is a vital factor for the loss of hair in men. The disadvantage is that it reduces the sex drive leading to diminished sexual function. Women are not encouraged to take this finasteride, as it is not approved for women’s usage. This is because it poses a threat to childbearing age in women.
Apart from minoxidil and finasteride, the other medications to treat hair loss includes corticosteroids and anthralin. Corticosteroids, in form of injections, creams or ointments can be used to treat alopecia areata. Anthralin is nothing but an artificial tarry substance that must be applied to the scalp and washed off. This should be done daily. Antriralin can be obtained as an ointment or a cream and it also treats some skin disorders.
What are the other treatment procedures apart from the above mentioned medications?
If your natural system doesn’t respond to the medications, then the best possible thing to do is wearing a hairpiece or a wig. This provides a temporary solution for your baldness. There are quality hairpieces with color similar to that of human hair. The other approach towards hair loss includes treatment with surgical procedures. The various surgical procedures include cutting the bald areas away and the rest is stitched together. This is called scalp reduction. The other surgical procedure is hair transplantation. This produces more natural looking scalp than produced by other treatment procedures.
So, it is important to consult a doctor before pursuing any of the treatment procedures. The doctor finds a treatment that suits you the most.