Alope­cia means hair loss and hair loss is some­thing many Amer­i­cans are suf­fer­ing from. It is impor­tant to know what your treat­ment options are.

The word alope­cia means “hair loss”. It does not refer to any spe­cific hair dis­eases. There are two types of Alope­cia, per­ma­nent and non– per­ma­nent. Per­ma­nent alope­cia is irre­versible; the hair loss is asso­ci­ated with the destruc­tion of the hair fol­li­cle. Non per­ma­nent alope­cia is reversible; the hair has a chance for regrowth. Scar­ring alope­cia an exam­ple of per­ma­nent alope­cia and is not reversible there is no treat­ment for this dis­ease. Treat­able types of alope­cia are tel­o­gen efflu­vium, ana­gen efflu­vium and alope­cia areata. The treat­ment for tel­o­gen efflu­vium depends on the cause, in some cases a major surgery may cause this type of alope­cia to occur. The med­ica­tion Minox­i­dil can be used to treat this type of alope­cia. It is a direct hair growth stim­u­la­tor; it pro­motes the tel­o­gen hair fol­li­cles to fol­low their nor­mal cycli­cal growth by induc­ing the ana­gen growth phase. There are a range of treat­ments for alope­cia areata but it may not be effec­tive for every­one. The most com­mon treat­ment for this dis­ease involves the use of cor­ti­cos­teroids, hair restora­tion is very com­mon as well for cor­rect­ing this form of alopecia.

1. DHT Hair Loss: A Chem­i­cal Process

Dihy­drotestos­terone (DHT) is a nat­ural metabo­lite in the human body that is the main cause for hair loss.  The trou­ble starts once testos­terone com­bines with an enzyme present in the oil glands found in hair fol­li­cles. DHT shrinks the hair fol­li­cle which causes the hair fol­li­cle gets smaller and finer. This is referred to as minia­tur­iza­tion with which the hair ulti­mately falls off. This is how DHT is respon­si­ble for about 95% of hair loss. The men or women who lose more hair are those who are genet­i­cally pre-disposed in pro­duc­ing more DHT than others.

2. Mir­a­cle Hair Care Prod­ucts for Baldness?

 There is no mir­a­cle hair care prod­uct that will stop bald­ing. How­ever, if a prod­uct blocked enzyme pro­duc­tion in the oil glands and DHT it should result in block­ing the hor­mone that causes balding.

3. FDA Approved Prope­cia for DHT Hair Loss

 Finas­teride is a drug that was used to treat prostate can­cer but the FDA has tested this drug and found that it reduces the pro­duc­tion of the enzyme 5 alpha thereby reduc­ing DHT lev­els. Hair loss is pre­vented when using this drug, how­ever it is only intended for males to use as a pre­ven­ta­tive hair loss solution.