Hair loss treatments involve surgical intervention, prescription medication, concealment procedures, and alternative treatments. Selecting the right treatment is dependent upon various factors like the cause of hair loss and the amount one is happy to spend on these treatment options. The expense and nature of cure can also vary for men and women as particular causative elements are sex-specific.
Coping with hair loss is a predicament normally linked with aging, although other reasons also are present. Hair loss treatments vary considerably based on the specific nature of the case.
Solutions involve surgery, internal and external medicine, disguising hair loss, and alternative treatments. Picking the right alternative will depend on the problem causing the problem, the budget, and other considerations.
Surgery.
In serious cases that do not respond to other forms of cure, hair transplants are an alternative. In this procedure, the surgeon takes hair from one part of the patients body, commonly the back of the scalp, and transplants it to balding patches. Given that identical twins have the same genetic background, it is also feasible to transplant hair from one identical twin to another.
Hair transplants among people who are not identical twins are more problematic since the body may reject the new hair. In some cases, special prescription medication may help keep the body from rejecting hair from such transplants.
Hair loss prescription medication.
Many pharmaceutical companies market prescriptions for hair loss. Finasteride and Minoxidil (Rogaine) are examples of such medicine. Minoxidil is a topical remedy that can be used by both women and men. Finasteride is used to restrict a substance known as dihydrotestosterone (DHT) that can cause male pattern baldness.
A class of prescriptions known as androgen receptor inhibitors are used to treat hair loss in females. Such medicines involve Tagament, Aldactone, and Cyproterone Acetate. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives can also be employed for androgenetic hair loss.
Hiding hair loss.
Some types of remedy do not actually prevent hair loss or encourage new hair growth, but rather try out to minimize the appearance of hair loss.
For instance, one technique is to expand the scalp with miniature balloons injected under the skin of hairy areas of the scalp. The expanded hairy area is used to surgically patch up balding spots. One more technique is scalp reduction in which surplus skin on the scalp is surgically removed to reduce the size of balding areas.
Different treatments.
Many people like to use natural and other alternative treatment options for hair loss. Such remedies can be much less costly than those mentioned above, although the research to support their performance may be sparse or non-existent. Some of these solutions are based on standard medical practices used in many cultures before the dawn of current medicine.
Some products, for example, use a combination of herbs, vitamins and minerals to induce hair growth or to reduce circumstances that lead to hair loss. Some of these treatments are internal while others use topical application.
A number of cosmetics also are available to help conceal areas of hair loss.
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