When Hair May Regrow On Its Own
Yes, your hair may regrow on its own. This can happen if you recently:
-
Had a baby
-
Recovered from a major illness or had surgery
-
Underwent cancer treatment
-
Lost 20 pounds or more
-
Developed a mild case of a disease called alopecia areata, which causes your immune system to attack your hair follicles
-
Got rid of psoriasis on your scalp
Your dermatologist can tell you whether your hair may start to grow again on its own.
Sometimes to see regrowth, you need to make some changes.
Treatment For Hair Loss
Although there is no cure for hair loss, a number of treatments can slow or reduce hair loss, stimulate partial regrowth or replace damaged hair. Surgical hair transplantation can help some men who have advanced balding.Despite advances in our understanding of hair loss, there are limits to current treatment. In particular, age-related hair loss and inherited forms of hair loss are difficult to reverse, although treatment may prevent further loss and produce partial regrowth. Non-surgical treatments include lotions and tablets. These generally need to be used continuously for the benefits to be maintained. If you stop treatment, regrowth will cease and hair loss will resume.Cosmetic options include wigs and hairpieces.A number of other treatments have been suggested for hair loss, including massage, vitamin supplements, herbal remedies , zinc, amino acids, hair lotions and tonics. None of these have been shown to promote hair growth or prevent hair loss. There is also no scientific evidence that the use of lasers is effective.If you are unsure, consult with your doctor before starting treatment.
Why Does My Hair Fall Out During Menopause
If your hair is thinning or falling out during perimenopause or after menopause, the first thing you need to do is identify the cause. EFFLUVIUM is responsible for 80% of perimenopause and postmenopausal hair loss.
How to grow hair backHow I regrew my hair naturally? Another way to grow hair naturally is to massage your scalp. Massage increases blood flow, allowing nutrients to enter the hair follicles. Massaging with oil, such as olive oil, has the added benefit of moisturizing the area.How can I get my hair back naturally?10 Tips for Natural Hair Growth Scalp massage can help restore hair growth and can be used with hair oils and face masks
You May Like: Is Rogaine Good For Hair Loss
Contact Channels For Consultation And Treatment:
- Dr. Ratchathorn started a public Facebook group, by Bevita, for discussion and education about hair care tips, and how to solve thinning hair, hair loss, and baldness problems, in a friendly environment, but guided by medical principles.
- People seeking help with hair thinning and hair loss problems can contact Hair and Scalp Clinic, Division of Dermatology, Por Por Ror Building, 14th Floor, Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society Tel. +66-2256-4000.
Hair Loss Treatments That Can Help
While research into new hair loss medications and scalp creams are constant, only two products have been consistently effective:
Minoxidil â Also known as Rogaine, Minoxidil is an over-the-counter solution you apply twice-daily to your scalp. It works by increasing blood circulation to the affected area of your scalp, thickening and strengthening the hair follicles. Both men and women can use Rogaine. Results usually show after four to eight months of application.
âIf people use it twice per day religiously, it works. If they only use it once a day or skip a day, less so. Rogaine can be sticky, messy, and uncomfortable on the scalp, so the compliance rate is not that great,â says Kahen.
Finasteride â Finasteride is a prescription pill that addresses genetic hair loss by preventing testosterone from being converted to a substance called DHC which weakens hair follicles. An FDA-approved medication for male pattern baldness, Finasteride is taken once daily and if used consistently, has a high success rate at slowing down genetic hair loss.
While âresults are very predictableâ with both medications, some side effects do arise which can include skin irritations and headaches with Minoxidil, and decreased libido or sexual dysfunction with Finasteride, explains Susan Bard, MD, and a dermatologist in New York.
Recommended Reading: What Doctor Treats Hair Loss
Procedures To Help Regrow Hair
While at-home treatments offer convenience, a procedure performed by a board-certified dermatologist tends to be more effective. For this reason, your dermatologist may include one of the following in your treatment plan.
Injections of corticosteroids: To help your hair regrow, your dermatologist injects this medication into the bald areas. These injections are usually given every 4 to 8 weeks as needed, so you will need to return to your dermatologists office for treatment.
This is considered the most effective treatment for people who have a few patches of alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss. In one study of 127 patients with patchy alopecia areata, more than 80% who were treated with these injections had at least half of their hair regrow within 12 weeks.
Hair transplant: If you have an area of thinning or balding due to male pattern baldness, your dermatologist may mention a hair transplant as an option. This can be an effective and permanent solution.
Laser therapy: If using minoxidil every day or taking medication to treat hair loss seems unappealing to you, laser therapy may be an option. Also called low-level laser therapy, a few studies suggest that this may help:
-
Hereditary hair loss
-
Hair loss due to chemotherapy
-
Stimulate healing and hair growth after a hair transplant
Studies indicate that laser therapy is safe and painless but requires many treatment sessions. To see a bit of hair growth, you may need several treatments a week for many months.
Vitamins Minerals And Other Supplements
If your blood test reveals that youre not getting enough biotin, iron, or zinc, your dermatologist may recommend taking a supplement. If youre not getting enough protein, your dermatologist can tell you how to boost your intake.
You should only take biotin, iron, or zinc when your blood test shows that you have a deficiency. If your levels are normal, taking a supplement can be harmful. For example, if you take too much iron, you can develop iron poisoning. Early signs of this include stomach pain and vomiting.
Other supplements meant to help with hair loss tend to contain a lot of one nutrient. Because this can cause you to get too much of the nutrient, many dermatologists recommend taking a multivitamin instead.
Also Check: Does Benlysta Cause Hair Loss
Can Alopecia Be Reversed
Whether your hair loss is caused by hormones or an autoimmune disorder, regrowing your hair by using new medications and modifying your diet can be possible as long as you start treatment early. According to a 2017 article in Nature Reviews Disease Primers, hair loss becomes irreversible once the hair follicle is destroyed.
Is There A Way To Stop Male Pattern Baldness
Like most signs of aging, male pattern baldness doesnt happen overnight. In fact, for most men, going bald is a gradual process. One of the keys to stopping hair loss is noticing the signs of baldness and taking action as early as possible. Simply put, the earlier you take action to prevent hair loss, the more hair youll be able to save.
Don’t Miss: How Much Is Hair Loss Treatment
It’s Nature Not Nurture
Despite what people may say about hair washing and hat wearing, patterned hair loss is a result of genetic and hormonal factors.
It’s the androgen hormones in our body that we think make hair follicles shrink and stop growing in people with a genetic susceptibility.
Whether or not this happens in a particular person, at what age it starts, as well as how extensive it will be is determined by the person’s genes.
It’s thought that several genes determine how susceptible you are to losing your hair, and these can come from your mother’s and father’s side of your family.
“It’s how those genes interplay that determines what’s happening in the offspring,” Professor Sinclair says.
“It’s not an all or nothing phenomena it’s not like brown eyes or blue eyes. It’s a quantitative trait so the question is not will you go bald, but how much baldness will you get.”
Male Pattern Hair Loss
In men, hair loss can begin any time after puberty and progress over the course of years or decades. It starts above the temples and continues around the perimeter and the top of the head, often leaving a ring of hair along the bottom of the scalp. Many men with male pattern hair loss eventually become bald.
Recommended Reading: What Kind Of Doctor Treats Hair Loss
Does It Run In The Family
Look into your family’s history with hair loss. Male Pattern Baldness is typically a genetic condition, so your first step in determining if you are balding is finding out if you are genetically prone to baldness.
In the event you have a family history of male pattern baldness, then there is a good chance your hair loss is not the result of stress or another factor. It may come down to genetics, and there is not much you can do about that.
At this point, you should speak with a dermatologist to go over your hair restoration options. There is a lot of information you can find online, but the internet is also filled with half-truths and myths. The only way to get good information you can trust is to go directly to a medical professional who can review your hair loss.
What Is Hair Miniaturization
Hair strands are long chains of proteins referred to as protein filaments that grow from special follicles located on most parts of the body.
In individuals with healthy follicles, hair growth will follow the cycle of growth, rest, and shedding for the entirety of ones life.
This means a full head of hair with little to no thinning or loss.
Unfortunately, not all people will be so lucky.
In the photo below you can see the beginning stages of thinning and recession, starting with the frontal hairline.
Actually, a large number of the worlds population will at some point or another struggle with baldness, and those individuals will likely undergo a process known as hair miniaturization.
In simplest terms, hair miniaturization is the shrinking of the hair follicle that is accompanied by a thinner hair shaft. This is common in those with male pattern baldness . It is actually a hallmark of pattern baldness, and one of the easiest ways for doctors to distinguish AGA from other types of hair loss.
Follicle miniaturization is a hallmark of pattern baldness, and one of the easiest ways for doctors to distinguish it from other types of hair loss.
If you dont treat hair miniaturization in time, it will be irreversible.
You May Like: Why Is My Hair Thinning At The Front Female
Get Enough Of These Vitamins And Minerals
There are a lot of vitamin and nutritional supplements on the market that claim to regrow hair or make it thicker or shinier. But theres actually little evidence that vitamins and supplements can help with hair loss with two notable exceptions.In a 2019 review of studies published in the journal Dermatology and Therapy, researchers said there was insufficient data to recommend many of the vitamins and minerals touted to help with hair growth, including zinc, riboflavin, folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin E, and biotin .But, the researchers noted, studies show supplementing your diet with vitamin D or ironif you are deficient in themcan improve symptoms of androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium , a temporary condition in which hair loss is caused by shock, stress or trauma.Vitamin D is naturally produced by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. We also get it in food like milk and eggs. But a lot of Americans, pasty people that we tend to be, are vitamin D deficient. If you have thinning hair, you might want to get your vitamin D level checked by a healthcare provider. Its not a magic bullet, but there are other benefits to vitamin D: It may play a role in protection against many forms of cancer . Iron is a mineral that people get in their diet, in things like red meat or spinach. Iron deficiency is also commoneven more so in women. Being deficient in iron can make you anemic . You can get this level checked by a healthcare provider, too.
When Men Start To Go Bald
In some males, the hair growth process slows right down.
The growth phase of each hair gradually becomes shorter, and the resting phase becomes longer. Eventually the hairs that are growing become so short that they barely emerge from their hair follicle.
The process begins at the sides of the head and at a patch on the crown, and spreads from there. As the hairline recedes backwards, the patch gets larger too.
This is known as male “pattern baldness”, or androgenetic alopecia. It’s the most common type of baldness, affecting about half of all men by the age of 50 and more than 80 per cent by the age of 70.
Recommended Reading: How To Stop Hair Loss At A Young Age
Other Causes Of Hair Loss
- Hair loss doesn’t just come down to genetics there are a number of reasons people may lose their hair.
- Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition in which a person’s own immune system attacks their body’s hair follicles. It often appears as one or several patches, but in severe cases can affect their whole body.
- Hair loss can be a side effect of some medications, medical treatments and illnesses. It can also happen after major surgery, periods of stress, and after people experience sudden shock, such as bereavement. Hair loss in these instances is usually temporary but it can become chronic.
- Excessive hair styling or treatments can cause hair loss.
- Hormonal changes or imbalances can also cause hair loss.
Warning Signs Of Unusual Hair Loss
Whenever more than 70 to 100 strands of hair fall off each day, thats a sign of abnormal hair loss. This needs immediate attention and consultation with dermatologists, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ratchathorn.
Normally, you can lose some hair when shampooing, blow-drying, or combing every day. However, if you encounter unusual hair loss during the day, e.g. during meals or walking around at work, that is another sign of abnormality, and you should see a hair-and-scalp specialist. Men have short hair, and its hard to notice hair loss during the day. You should pay attention right after you wake up to see if there is any hair on the pillow.
For men, thinning hair, and hereditary hair loss usually starts in the front and recedes into an M-shaped hairline. Some develop a bald patch in the crown that gradually spreads out. For women, thinning tends to start at where the hair parts, and gradually worsen as time passes.
Genetic hair loss in men and women
Hair thinning and genetic hair loss are different from thinning hair caused by an abnormal immune system that causes round patches of hair loss the size of a 10-baht coin, Assoc. Dr. Ratchathorn, M.D. added.
Don’t Miss: Does Xeljanz Cause Hair Loss