The fact is, if you are start­ing to lose your hair then the ear­lier you start to deal with the prob­lem the longer you will be able to keep your hair. Like most other med­ical con­di­tions, if you treat the under­ly­ing prob­lem early it is much eas­ier, and much cheaper, than if you wait till it gets out of hand. As soon as you start to see extra hairs lay­ing on your pil­low in the morn­ing, or a clump in the shower drain, you need to have a plan to buy a hair loss treat­ment and start using it.

Of course, the big ques­tion then is which prod­uct or prod­ucts should you buy. Before you can answer that ques­tion you need to under­stand what is the under­ly­ing cause of your hair loss in the first place. Over 9 out of 10 men who expe­ri­ence early hair loss do so because of a hered­i­tary med­ical con­di­tion called Andro­genic Alope­cia. The com­mon name for this is Male Pat­tern Bald­ness. This name comes from the fact that men will tend to lose their hair in one of two pat­tern areas. Either they see thin­ning on the crown of the head which is the top, or they will have a reced­ing hair line above the fore­head. If left untreated these two areas will migrate toward each other and even­tu­ally combine.

The cause of this thin­ning is what you actu­ally need your hair loss rem­edy to treat. Within your body there are many hor­mones and hor­monal sub­stances. They actu­ally are the mes­sen­gers which keep your sys­tems oper­at­ing prop­erly. One of these, the male hor­mone testos­terone has many func­tions, but for our pur­poses we are inter­ested in what hap­pens when it is metab­o­lized by the enzyme 5-alpha reduc­tase. When this hap­pens a new sub­stance is formed called Dihy­drotestos­terone. This is actu­ally the metabo­lite which is respon­si­ble for male pat­tern bald­ness. Many hair replace­ment prod­ucts focus on the scalp and the health of the hair shaft, because this is eas­ier to do, and they neglect the real cause which is DHT. Any prod­uct you choose must deal with what causes hair loss at the root.

There are two meth­ods of slow­ing or stop­ping the affect of DHT. The first is to block the pro­duc­tion of it. The FDA has approved an oral med­ica­tion, Finas­teride, which seems to work well but it has many neg­a­tive side effects. These include loss of libido, sex drive, in men and poten­tial birth defects for preg­nant women. Because of this many peo­ple shy away from this drug. Two nat­ural alter­na­tives are Saw Pal­metto extract and Stingy Net­tle Root. Both of these also seem to limit the amount of DHT produced.

The sec­ond way of deal­ing with the prob­lem is to pro­tect the hair fol­li­cles, (hair roots) from attack in the first place. Another FDA approved drug, Minox­i­dil, does a good job of this by bond­ing with the recep­tors on the hair roots that the dihy­drotestos­terone would nor­mally bond to. This drug is actu­ally used by both men and women and it is applied to the scalp top­i­cally twice a day.

Start today to deal with your hair loss and be sure you are actu­ally treat­ing the root cause and not just the sur­face issues involved.

Hair plays an impor­tant role in the female world. Many women are defined by their outer appear­ance. Hav­ing beau­ti­ful healthy hair is a part of the equa­tion that women use to mea­sure their beauty and appear­ance. Although hair loss in women is just as com­mon as it is in men, it is more dif­fi­cult to deal with. Hair loss occurs for a wide vari­ety of rea­sons and there are a hand­ful causes at the cen­ter of this problem.

One doc­u­mented med­ical con­di­tion know to com­monly to cause hair loss in women is menopause. When a woman begins to enter menopause the lev­els of estro­gen in the body begins to decrease. Estro­gen is needed to help pro­duce testos­terone. The cor­rect lev­els of testos­terone make it pos­si­ble for hair to con­tinue to grow and main­tain a healthy cycle. With­out enough estro­gen and testos­terone the growth of hair begins to slow result­ing in hair loss.

Women pat­tern bald­ness is typ­i­cally the thin­ning of the hair on the top of the scalp. For many, it can get quite thin, leav­ing women feel­ing very inse­cure and try­ing dif­fer­ent hair­styles to con­ceal the prob­lem. Unfor­tu­nately, they usu­ally opt for styles which can fur­ther dam­age hair fol­li­cles, lead­ing to more thinning.

In the past, women teased their hair, pulled it back in pony tails, or permed it to hide their secret. But, now there is some­thing that can be done to treat this prob­lem. In fact, if it is caught in time, hair can be regrown by using the proper treatment.

Sci­en­tist and doc­tors have for­mu­lated var­i­ous drugs, pills, solu­tions, and sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures just to stop hair loss. In many cases sci­ence has suc­cess­fully con­trolled the rate at which DHT has been caus­ing hair loss with prod­ucts. Many of these prod­ucts are also used to stop the onset of hair loss caused by cer­tain body hor­mones such as DHT. These prod­ucts included:

• Provil­lus
• Rogaine
• Nioxin
• Fol­li­cle revitalizers

While these treat­ments may stim­u­late faster hair growth there may be also some side effects that users have to antic­i­pate. Aside from the pro­duc­tion of hair-regrowth sub­stances, doc­tors have also devel­oped hair trans­plant surgery as a means to stim­u­late new hair growth. Hair trans­plant surgery involves trans­fer­ring fol­li­cles from areas where there are no pres­ence of DHT to the bald­ing areas of the head. For patients who pre­fer a nat­ural solu­tion, there are treat­ments that don’t involve the use of tech­nol­ogy or med­ica­tions. Aloe Vera, sting­ing net­tle green tea red pep­per and dong quia are some of the many herbal based treat­ments that users can either apply to their scalp or ingest. It is pointed out that these herbal – based treat­ments also con­tain sub­stances, which inhibit the spread of DHT. How­ever, no mat­ter what treat­ment option is cho­sen, it is always rec­om­mended that hair loss patients con­sult with a doc­tor to get the par­tic­u­lar med­ical diag­no­sis of his/her hair con­di­tion. The specifics of the patient’s case are vital so that he/she can get the most suit­able hair regrowth treatment.

While the loss of hair from the scalp- hair thin­ning, male pat­tern bald­ness, a reced­ing hair­line, and alope­cia– is a very com­mon and frus­trat­ing prob­lem among both men and women, some indi­vid­u­als suf­fer from loss of over­all body hair. There are five main causes of body hair loss– skin con­di­tions, hor­monal dis­or­ders, med­ica­tions and other med­ical ill­nesses, stress, and diet. Cer­tain skin con­di­tions, such as eczema, pso­ri­a­sis, der­mati­tis, skin injury, and burns, cause dam­age to the hair fol­li­cles and sur­round­ing cells mak­ing hair growth impos­si­ble. In some of these instances, espe­cially in the case of severe skin burns, the cell dam­age can be irre­versible so the body hair loss is also permanent.

Aside from hor­monal dis­or­ders and skin injury, cer­tain other med­ical ill­ness can lead to loss of body hair. Can­cer, dis­eases that affect the immune sys­tem, and con­di­tions that dis­rupt organ func­tion can all cause tem­po­rary lapses in the nat­ural hair growth process. In most cases the body hair loss is restricted to one or two areas most affected by the dis­ease or ill­ness, but in some cases the hair loss can be seen all over the body.

Because there are so many dif­fer­ent rea­sons that you may be los­ing the hair all over your body it is imper­a­tive that you see a doc­tor at the first sign of this hair loss. If the hair loss is a result of an under­ly­ing med­ical con­di­tion it is impor­tant that you receive treat­ment for the dis­ease not just the hair loss.

Make sure to pick up NEWSWEEK dou­ble issue: MAY 24 & 31, 2010

John Kahen, M.D the founder and med­ical direc­tor of Bev­erly Hills Hair Restora­tion is cur­rently fea­tured in NEWSWEEK mag­a­zine, an exclu­sive issue fea­tur­ing BEST DOCTORS IN THE GREATER LOS ANGELES.

Top 5 foods for Healthy Hair

When it comes to healthy hair, it’s not just what prod­ucts you use that con­tributes to its heath. Hav­ing healthy hair also includes hav­ing a healthy diet. If you were born with fine, thin hair, you’ll never have rope-thick tresses — no mat­ter what you eat — but a well-balanced diet that includes plenty of growth-promoting pro­tein and iron can make a dif­fer­ence. Read on for the top 5 foods that should be the foun­da­tion of your healthy hair diet.

1. Salmon

When it comes to foods that pack a beauty punch, it’s hard to beat salmon. Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, this high-quality pro­tein source is also filled with vit­a­min B-12 and iron.

2.     Dark Green Vegetables

Spinach, like broc­coli and Swiss chard, is an excel­lent source of vit­a­mins A and C, which your body needs to pro­duce sebum. The oily sub­stance, secreted by your hair fol­li­cles, is the body’s nat­ural hair con­di­tioner. Dark green veg­eta­bles also pro­vide iron and calcium.

3.     Beans

Legumes like kid­ney beans and lentils should be an impor­tant part of your hair-care diet. Not only do they pro­vide plen­ti­ful pro­tein to pro­mote hair growth, but ample iron, zinc, and biotin. While rare, biotin defi­cien­cies can result in brit­tle hair.

4.     Nuts

Brazil nuts are one of nature’s best sources of sele­nium, an impor­tant min­eral for the health of your scalp.Walnuts con­tain alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid that may help con­di­tion your hair. They are also a ter­rific source of zinc, as are cashews, pecans, and almonds. A zinc defi­ciency can lead to hair shed­ding, so make sure nuts are a reg­u­lar on your healthy hair menu.

5.     Poul­try

Chick­ens and turkeys may have feath­ers, but the high-quality pro­tein they pro­vide will help give you the healthy hair you crave. Poul­try also pro­vides iron with a high degree of bioavail­abil­ity, mean­ing your body can eas­ily reap its benefits.

When con­sid­er­ing under­go­ing any type of cos­metic surgery, being con­cerned that there will be prob­lems or side – effects is very nat­ural. Learn­ing the facts is vital for relief of any emo­tions that may be caus­ing hes­i­tance to go for­ward with a pro­ce­dure. Hair restora­tion is a sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure that both men and women are embark­ing to per­ma­nently cor­rect their hair loss.

Hair restora­tion is not a major surgery in fact it is com­monly thought to be eas­ier than vis­it­ing your den­tist. It is an out­pa­tient pro­ce­dure and per­formed with a local anes­thetic. Your scalp is numbed and you are relaxed in a reclined posi­tion while the pro­ce­dure is being per­formed. After your hair trans­plant pro­ce­dure is com­plete you return home that same day and can carry on with the major­ity of your nor­mal activ­i­ties. Patients have even reported no pain and return to work the next day because there are no clear signs of hav­ing a hair trans­plant pro­ce­dure. Anti– inflam­ma­tory med­ica­tion is com­monly pre­scribed to con­trol and reduce any pos­si­ble swelling.

A com­mon ques­tion asked by indi­vid­u­als con­sid­er­ing hair restora­tion is, will there be any scar­ring? Scar­ring in the area where the hair fol­li­cles were implanted is extremely rare. In the area where the donor hair was removed, a trchophytic closer tech­nique is used to elim­i­nate any scar­ring; even under close scrutiny scar­ing is unde­tectable. With all of the mod­ern devel­op­ment in hair replace­ment ther­apy, hair restora­tion is a sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure that has been suc­cess­fully sat­is­fy­ing hair loss patients. In the com­ing post-operative months their hair will begin to grow and thicken, and pos­i­tively impact­ing the rest of their lives.

With hair loss becom­ing a com­mon cause of con­cern amongst mil­lions of peo­ple across the world, every year a large num­ber of med­ica­tions, herbs, spices, nutri­tional sup­ple­ments, oils, sham­poos etc comes up in the mar­ket each claim­ing itself to be the panacea for hair loss. Each year, men suf­fer­ing from hair loss spend bil­lions of dol­lars in an attempt to treat their hair loss. Unfor­tu­nately, a large per­cent­age of all prod­ucts being mar­keted in the less than eth­i­cal hair loss treat­ment indus­try are com­pletely inef­fec­tive for the major­ity of those who use them.

If you are going bald you should seri­ously con­sider hair loss med­ica­tion treat­ments to halt or even reverse your hair loss. While there is no cure for hair loss drugs can often stop or even reverse alope­cia aer­ate in most peo­ple. Med­ica­tion for treat­ing hair loss slows thin­ning of the hair and increases cov­er­age of the scalp by grow­ing new hair and enlarg­ing exist­ing hairs.

Types of Med­ica­tions for Hair loss Treatment

Today there are two FDA approved med­ica­tions for hair growth – minox­i­dil which is sold over the counter as Rogaine, for both men and women, and Finas­teride, a pre­scrip­tion pill sold as Prope­cia, for men only. Two other drugs have been recently approved for hair growth and include a high-estrogen oral con­tra­cep­tive and Aldac­tone (How­ever, these two med­ica­tions are only for women due to their fem­i­niz­ing side effects.

Both these med­ica­tions slow thin­ning of the hair and increase cov­er­age of the scalp by grow­ing new hair and enlarg­ing exist­ing hairs. How­ever, the effec­tive­ness of finas­teride or minox­i­dil depends on your age and the loca­tion of hair loss. These med­ica­tions do not work for every­one, and you should not expect to re-grow a full head of hair.

Hair Fol­li­cles

Hair has two dis­tinct struc­tures — first, the fol­li­cle itself, which resides in the skin, and sec­ond, the shaft, which is what is vis­i­ble above the scalp.

Two sheaths, an inner and outer sheath, sur­round the fol­li­cle. These struc­tures pro­tect and form the grow­ing hair shaft. The inner sheath fol­lows the hair shaft and ends below the open­ing of a seba­ceous (oil) gland, and some­times an apoc­rine (scent) gland. The outer sheath con­tin­ues all the way up to the gland. A mus­cle called an erec­tor pili mus­cle attaches below the gland to a fibrous layer around the outer sheath. When this mus­cle con­tracts, it causes the hair to stand up which also causes the seba­ceous gland to secrete oil.

Hair Shafts

The hair shaft is made of a hard pro­tein called ker­atin and is made in three lay­ers. This pro­tein is actu­ally dead, so the hair that you see is not a liv­ing struc­ture. The inner layer is the medulla. The sec­ond layer is the cor­tex and the outer layer is the cuti­cle. The cor­tex makes up the major­ity of the hair shaft. The cuti­cle is a tightly formed struc­ture made of shingle-like over­lap­ping scales. It is both the cor­tex and the medulla that holds the hair’s pig­ment, giv­ing it its color.

Hair Growth Cycle

Hair on the scalp grows about .3 to .4 mm/day or about 6 inches per year. Unlike other mam­mals, human hair growth and shed­ding is ran­dom and not sea­sonal or cycli­cal. At any given time, a ran­dom num­ber of hairs will be in one of three stages of growth and shed­ding: ana­gen, cata­gen, and telogen.

Causes of hair loss induced by scalp infections.

Fol­li­culi­tis

Fol­li­culi­tis is a term for inflam­ma­tion of hair fol­li­cles. It looks like acne with lit­tle rings of inflam­ma­tion sur­round­ing the open­ing of a hair fol­li­cle. In the early stages of a fol­li­culi­tis, the hair fiber may still be present, but as the fol­li­culi­tis pro­gresses the hair often falls out. There are non-infectious forms of fol­li­culi­tis, such as those caused by oils and greases applied to the skin that clog up the hair fol­li­cles, but fol­li­culi­tis is usu­ally due to a bac­te­r­ial infec­tion. Non­pre­scrip­tion top­i­cal antibi­otics such as bac­i­tracin, myc­i­tracin, or neomycin can be used to treat minor folliculitis

Piedra

Piedra (tri­chomy­co­sis nodu­laris) hap­pens when the hair fibers are infected by a fun­gus. The vis­i­ble indi­ca­tor of a piedra infec­tion is devel­op­ment of hard nod­ules on hair fibers. Indeed, “piedra” is Span­ish for stone. Piedra infec­tion may affect hairs of the scalp, body, and gen­i­tal areas. Usu­ally the infec­tion is rel­a­tively benign. In parts of Malaysia, the nod­ules of black piedra are con­sid­ered attrac­tive and tra­di­tion­ally women encour­aged its growth by sleep­ing with their hair buried in the soil. Treat­ment gen­er­ally involves shav­ing off affected areas. Anti-fungals such as keto­cona­zole or terbinafine are also used.

Demodex fol­licu­lo­rum

Demodex is a lit­tle worm-like crea­ture that likes to live on skin and in hair fol­li­cles. It feeds on dead skin and oils, so it par­tic­u­larly likes to live in hair fol­li­cles where there are lots of both.

Humans are born free of Demodex, but dur­ing child­hood, through con­tact with oth­ers, the skin can become infected with it. For the most part, we never know they are there. They are benign, if repul­sive, lit­tle crea­tures. The most com­mon prob­lem with Demodex is that they may cause irri­ta­tion, par­tic­u­larly in the eye­lashes. If you have itchy eye­lashes, Demodex may be the problem.