Hair Loss | Treating Hair Loss

Hair care Treatment and contrary to general belief the unremitting loss of hair as time passes is not restricted to the male gender.  Women may also be predisposed to male pattern hair loss, although it is not as common.

Male pattern hair loss occurs when, due to a hereditary predisposition, the hair follicles are overly sensitive to normal male hormone levels and effectively burn out.  Less commonly male hormones may be in excess

. Thyroid abnormalities or hormonal imbalance may unmask male pattern hair loss in both sexes, but more commonly in women. 

Therefore it is important to check for these conditions before embarking on a course of treatment.

Age related hair loss may be alleviated by medication, surgery, or camouflage in Hair care Treatment.

Treating Hair Loss with Minoxidil

Avoid broken hair and a medication, known as minoxidil, has provided the first really promising topical solution for the treatment of hair loss. 

Minoxidil is a drug given in tablet form to treat high blood pressure and has the side effect of hair growth on various parts of the body. 

Researchers applied the drug to the skin to determine whether it would have the same effect on hair growth when used externally as it does when taken internally.  The results were positive.

Although minoxidil increases blood circulation to the hair follicles experts are not convinced that this is how the drug really works.

There has been some suggestion that minoxidil may work by prolonging the growth phase of the hair root and preventing its shrinkage over time.

Rogaine, Apogaine, and Minoxigaine are the only products currently available that contain minoxidil to encourage hair growth on the scalp. 

Prior to the availability of Rogaine and its successors, some forward thinking dermatologists were having pharmacists grind minoxidil pills into a base for application to the scalp. 

The advantage of pharmaceutical mixtures over this method is that it is a standardized formula which has the same amount of all the ingredients in each prescription.

Recent studies that using tretinoin (Retin-A, Steiva-A, Vitamin A Acid, Renova, Retisol-A, Rejuva-A) in combination with minoxidil may speed up the process of regrowth by encouraging better penetration by the minoxidil, but more research is necessary to substantiate these findings.     

Does minoxidil work for everyone who is balding?
 
Avoid broken hair and in studies where hundreds of men used minoxidil, not everyone with male pattern baldness responded by growing hair. 

Some grew noticeable amounts of hair, others grew some hair but not in appreciable amounts, in some the balding process was retarded and the growth of new hair equaled the loss of old hair, white some had no change at all.

Several factors determined the extent to which minoxidil was successful in these studies. 

The length of time that balding existed before the use of minoxidil, the less effective the drug was in stimulating new hair growth. 

The hair on the crown of the head appears to respond to minoxidil better than the hair on the front of the scalp.

Age and general physical health is important, since younger, healthy individuals were more responsive to the medication. 

Another factor is the type and cause of hair loss; male pattern hair loss appears to be most responsive to minoxidil.

Avoid broken hair and women who experience male pattern hair loss ten to respond better than men to the regular use of minoxidil.