Hair Loss

January 17th, 2010 | Author:

Andrew Skipper asked:

Susan woke up one fine day to find tufts of hair on her pillow. An extremely worried Susan stood in front of her mirror to examine the gravity of her hair loss. She called up Margaret, a friend and a doctor at the same time.

“Why me?” was Susan’s first question to Margaret. Her question echoes that of almost every person approaching the doctor for hair loss treatment. Margaret assured Susan that hair loss is a normal routine of the hair life cycle. Each hair passes through a particular cycle: it grows, rests, and then sheds. Ten percent of the scalp hair is in a resting phase at any one time. This phase lasts between two and three months. At the end of this stage, it goes through the shedding phase.

Shedding of 50-100 hairs a day is considered normal. They are normally replaced by new hair from the same follicles located just beneath the skin surface. So hair loss within this limited range is not a matter to worry about.

“There are number of hair loss treatments available today, but we need to evaluate the causes of hair loss before you go in for any hair loss solution,” cautions Margaret.

Although there are various reasons for hair loss, the most common is androgenetic alopecia or hereditary hair loss. It is commonly thought that there is little that can be done about hereditary hair loss but it’s just not true. Other causes include hormonal imbalance, stress, hair styling and inadequate intake of proteins and calcium. So teenagers beware! If you have eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia you have a good chance of your hair suffering as well.

In women, childbirth can result in temporary hair fall – this is called postpartum hair loss. Certain medications like those given for gout, arthritis, acne and cancer can result in hair thinning and shedding too.

For men, the Norwood scale is the most common way of evaluating the severity of hair loss while for women it is the Ludwig scale, which determines the severity of hair loss.

Currently, the two popular prescription medications for treating hair loss are Rogaine and Propecia. While Rogaine is a topical solution Propecia is taken orally. Propecia is not suitable for women as it can cause birth defects. Neither medication is ideal as both are only temporary and both offer side-effects.

Revivogen is a natural option that helps stops hair loss and promotes new growth. There are many natural options out there that can offer, in our opinion, better results than the prescription medications.

The final solution to consider is hair transplants, which has advanced over the years, though it is very expensive it is at least permanent, assuming that there are no complications such as scalp infection of course.

“So, it’s important to first rule out any medical reasons for your hair loss first. Once that’s done the next step it to evaluate the severity of your hair loss and we can then decide which hair loss products are best suited to you.” reiterates Margaret.