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.

Men and women who lose their hair, are either expe­ri­enc­ing hair thin­ning, com­plete bald­ing, or in most cases suf­fer­ing from a genetic con­di­tion known as andro­ge­netic alope­cia. This is pre­pon­der­ance for los­ing one’s hair on cer­tain areas of the scalp that is passed from one gen­er­a­tion to the next. It used to be believed that the bald­ing prob­lem was only passed down through the mother’s genes but that is no longer true. Now we know that this form of hair loss, or alope­cia, is not deter­mined by one par­ent or the other.

Andro­ge­netic alope­cia, also known as pat­tern bald­ness or pat­tern hair loss, is caused by a sit­u­a­tion that actu­ally stops the hair fol­li­cles from pro­duc­ing hair shaft mate­r­ial. The fol­li­cle can be thought of as the hair fac­to­ries in one’s body. The fol­li­cle is con­nected to the blood sup­ply which pro­vides it with oxy­gen and nutri­ents which are essen­tial for the man­u­fac­tur­ing of hair. When pat­tern bald­ness is active a hor­monal metabo­lite known as DHT is pro­duced in the body and even­tu­ally makes its way to hair fol­li­cle. The DHT bonds to the hair fol­li­cles and causes a dis­rup­tion in the pro­duc­tion of hair mate­r­ial. Nor­mally a hair fol­li­cle will pro­duce hair in a cycli­cal man­ner. It goes through growth and rest stages that can last sev­eral months. The DHT short­ens the growth phase of the fol­li­cle to the point that it can no longer pro­duce a healthy hair shaft and the shaft falls out. If not treated quickly, the pat­tern bald­ness will ren­der the fol­li­cle com­pletely ineffective.

The best hair restora­tion sys­tem involves deal­ing with the affect of DHT and also trans­plant­ing new hair fol­li­cles into the balded area. There are two hair loss treat­ment drugs that have been approved by the US FDA and have proved effec­tive at slow­ing down the loss of hair but they will not do much to re-energize the fol­li­cles that have stopped pro­duc­ing so these hair fol­li­cles must be replaced. Of the two drugs only one, Minox­i­dil, is approved for both men and females. This is a top­i­cal solu­tion that is applied to the scalp and helps to allow the hair fol­li­cles to con­tinue to pro­duce as needed. The sec­ond drug, Finas­teride, is only pre­scribed for men as it can cause birth defects. This drug actu­ally works to limit the amount of DHT that is pro­duced in the body. Hair restora­tion doc­tors will usu­ally use one or both of these drugs to keep what hair there is still grow­ing along with hair implan­ta­tion to pro­vide replace­ment hair fol­li­cles for the bald­ing that has already occurred.

The part of the sys­tem that causes the high­est hair restora­tion costs is the implan­ta­tions. Thus if a per­son can start the treat­ments early to save what hair they still have the hair restora­tion price will be much lower. As is usu­ally the case, the sooner a prob­lem is addressed the cheaper it is to deal with.  Apply­ing the cor­rect hair replace­ment sys­tems can get you the head of hair you deserve. Start today to deter­mine your path to a full head of hair.

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.

When it comes to hair loss the male and female pop­u­la­tion will have expe­ri­enced it before the age 30. How­ever, the process of hair bald­ness dif­fers for each indi­vid­ual. For a num­ber of peo­ple, bald­ness is a genetic con­di­tion like andro­genic alope­cia or pro­gres­sive hair thin­ning, which is a com­mon type of hair loss.

Hair­line in women will not recede as com­pared to men; how­ever, the hair becomes thin­ner all over the head and it may lead to total bald­ness. While men at age 20 or even less get reced­ing hair­lines that look like a let­ter M, wherein hair thin­ning will start at the crown and around the sides of the head.

Another con­di­tion or type that causes hair loss is the alope­cia areata; it is often called spot hair bald­ness and occurs in all areas of the body caus­ing loss of hair, espe­cially on the scalp. There are two types of alope­cia: while alope­cia totalis is a total hair loss on the scalp, the alope­cia uni­ver­salis is a total loss of all body hair.

What­ever term suits the descrip­tion or dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion of hair loss, hair bald­ness, or hair bald­ing, the fact still lies that at some point in an individual’s life the process of going bald may occur. Dev­as­tat­ing as it may seem there are solu­tions and var­i­ous options for hair loss suf­fer­ers and if prop­erly treated in the early stages the pro­gres­sion can be put to a halt.

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.

With today’s advances in cos­metic surgery hair loss suf­fer­ers can regrow the hair they lost with a hair trans­plant pro­ce­dure, but the harsh real­ity is not every­one is a can­di­date. To be a pos­si­ble can­di­date you must have a suf­fi­cient amount of donor hair. The most com­mon donor site for hair trans­plant surgery is on the head.  If the sides and back of your head have full lus­trous hair, you are in luck.  This hair can be used as donor hair to replace hair you have lost on your bald­ing spots.  If your hair in these areas is not healthy, you face a dif­fi­cult problem.

If you have lost your hair due to genet­ics, or a fam­ily his­tory, you will likely be a good can­di­date for hair trans­plant surgery.  Men who have hair loss in their fam­i­lies usu­ally have a good idea of the way the bald­ness pat­tern will play out.

Your rel­a­tives may have had hair that went bald into a horse­shoe pat­tern and held at that stage.  If this is the case, your sur­geon will know what to expect.  Then, he can take hair from the sides and back of your head as donor hair and per­form the hair transplant.

If you have lost your hair because of some kind of trauma or burns, you will also make a good can­di­date for hair trans­plant surgery.  This is because the hair you still have will prob­a­bly still be healthy.  It will pro­vide good donor hair for your hair trans­plant.  The most likely sit­u­a­tion is that you will have enough hair to make this pos­si­ble.  How­ever, if you have lost too much hair, a hair trans­plant may not be possible.

Hair loss suf­fers can ben­e­fit greatly from hair trans­plant surgery. The first step towards find­ing out if you’re a good can­di­date is sched­ul­ing a con­sul­ta­tion with at hair restora­tion sur­geon. At the time of the con­sult the Doc­tor will make a com­plete assess­ment and dis­cuss the options best to fit your indi­vid­ual needs.

Hair restora­tion rever­sals are usu­ally designed to repair poor hair trans­plants rather than return a patient to his orig­i­nal bald state. In most cases, the “rever­sal” actu­ally involves more grafts being added to the pre­vi­ous trans­plant. Today, most pro­fes­sion­als refer to hair trans­plant rever­sals as “repairs” to be more pre­cise about the nature of the operation.

There are two types of hair-transplant rever­sal. A real rever­sal involves the phys­i­cal removal from the head of the hair plugs or grafts. A hair repair, on the other hand, adds more hair to alter the hair­line and hide the poor work­man­ship of the first trans­plant. The effects of hair-transplant rever­sals vary widely depend­ing on why the first trans­plant did not work. If you are sim­ply unre­cep­tive to the process, you may end up deal­ing with more of the same prob­lems if only part of the hair “takes” or you do not get the nat­ural look you hoped for. On the other hand, if the ini­tial prob­lem was a lack of skill on the part of the sur­geon, a rever­sal will likely solve the prob­lem by hid­ing the scars or other cos­metic issues the first trans­plant did not solve.

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.

Hair loss is one of the most con­found­ing con­di­tions a woman could ever expe­ri­ence. Women con­sider their hair as kings con­sider their crown; an impor­tant part of one’s iden­tity, an impor­tant part of one’s self. With that in mind, woman may often believe what­ever they hear and do what­ever they can just to sus­tain healthy hair.

In most cases when women notice increased hair loss and thin­ning it can be dev­as­tat­ing and affects their emo­tional state of con­fi­dence. How­ever women should not despair – hair loss can be pre­vented and stopped once you know what causes it and what you should do to.

There is a lot of infor­ma­tion that may dis­pel the “myths” of women’s hair loss but some of these so-called “myths” do have a basis for truth. I have exam­ined many of these pop­u­lar “myths” to facil­i­tate a bal­anced response.

 Myth Num­ber One: Fre­quent sham­poo­ing con­tributes to hair loss. It is rec­om­mended that extra care should be taken for frag­ile and thin­ning hair. These mea­sures include using gen­tle sham­poos; heav­ily med­icated sham­poos can affect the scalp. So, it’s not so much how fre­quently you wash your hair but what you wash your hair with!

Myth Num­ber Two: 100 strokes of the hair brush daily will cre­ate health­ier hair. Brush­ing your hair does stim­u­late the glands on your scalp to pro­duce oil that will keep your hair healthy. How­ever, a hun­dred brush strokes on thin­ning and frag­ile hair will be more dev­as­tat­ing than help­ful. It is impor­tant to look after thin­ning and frag­ile hair. Gen­tle brush­ing may be suf­fi­cient to the con­di­tion of your hair as well as sep­a­rat­ing tan­gles with your fin­gers. (Try­ing to brush out tan­gles may con­se­quently pull out your hair).

Myth Num­ber Three: Stand­ing on one’s head will cause increased cir­cu­la­tion and thereby stim­u­late hair growth. Although poor blood cir­cu­la­tion may cause some hair loss, increas­ing blood cir­cu­la­tion just does not stim­u­late hair growth either.

Myth Num­ber Four: Shav­ing one’s head will cause the hair to grow back thicker. This is just not true. In fact, if you are suf­fer­ing from andro­genetiic alope­cia, this will actu­ally severely quicken your hair loss.

Myth Num­ber Five: Hair loss does not occur in the late teens or early twen­ties. Although rea­son­ably rare this is not true. Alope­cia or hair loss may hap­pen to any­one regard­less of their age.