What Questions Should I Ask My Healthcare Provider
- What is the cause of my hair loss?
- How many strands of hair am I losing per day?
- What type of hair loss do I have?
- Will my hair loss be permanent?
- Whats the best treatment for me?
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Hair loss may cause you distress whether it happens because of genetics, a disease, or even stress. Know that there are some treatments you can try, and expert dermatologists are there to help you. Your hair loss may be able to be reversed. See your healthcare provider as soon as you notice something wrong because the sooner you start treatment, the better.
Prescription And Otc Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved two drugs to treat male pattern baldness:
- Minoxidil : Rogaine is available over the counter as a liquid or foam. Apply it to the scalp twice a day to grow hair and prevent hair loss.
- Finasteride :This is a pill that you take daily. Its only available with a prescription from your doctor.
For both of these drugs, it may take up to a year to see results, and youll need to keep taking them to maintain the benefits.
The two most popular hair transplant procedures are follicular unit transplantation and follicular unit extraction:
Follicular unit transplantation
FUT is the more classic method. It involves removing some skin from the back of your scalp where theres an abundance of hair, removing the follicles from that strip of skin, and then reinserting the hair follicles into the part of the scalp where youre experiencing hair loss.
Follicular unit extraction
In FUE, hair follicles are removed directly from the scalp and transplanted to the bald parts of the scalp.
Keep in mind that a hair transplant is considered a surgery, so it can be expensive and may be painful.
There are also certain risks, including infections and scarring. You may also need to do multiple hair transplant treatments to get the desired outcome.
How Will A Healthcare Provider Diagnose Hair Loss In Women What Tests Are Done
The tests performed to diagnose hair loss in women can be simple or complicated:
- Gently pulling on your hair to see how many hairs come out.
- Blood tests. These check for vitamin and mineral levels and hormone levels .
- Scalp examination under a microscope and trichoscopy.
- Scalp biopsy to remove and examine a very small piece of scalp skin.
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What Is The Relationship Between Hair Loss In Women And Menopause
During menopause, you might see one of two things happen with your hair. You might start growing hair where you didnt before. Or, you might see the hair you have start to thin. One cause may be changing levels of hormones during menopause. Estrogen and progesterone levels fall, meaning that the effects of the androgens, male hormones, are increased.
During and after menopause, hair might become finer because hair follicles shrink. Hair grows more slowly and falls out more easily in these cases.
Your healthcare provider will do a thorough examination and take a detailed history to help you deal with changes in hair growth. You may be directed to have your iron levels or thyroid hormone levels tested. Your medications might be changed if what you take is found to affect hair loss or growth.
Can Hair Loss Be Prevented
While there are ways to curb your losses, at the moment, theres no known way of preventing male pattern baldness. The key is to catch it as early as possible, ideally, says Dr Friedmann. As soon as you notice any thinning, the sooner you can begin treatment, the greater your chance of achieving a good recovery.
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How To Prevent Hair Fall
- Avoid tying your hair tight.
- Do not twist, rub, or pull your hair.
- Handle your hair gently while combing and washing.
- Avoid using harsh treatments on your hair like curling irons, hot oil treatments, or hot rollers.
- Stop taking medications or supplements that could be contributing to hair fall.
- Protect your hair from the damaging sun rays by using hats and scarves when you step out.
- Quit smoking.
- Ask your doctor for a cooling cap if you are undergoing chemotherapy.
If you want luscious locks, you need to invest in a good hair care regimen. Treating your hair with care from a young age can help prevent hair loss and thinning that occurs due to damage. If you are experiencing hair loss due to hereditary or other underlying factors, it is best to consult with a doctor and use the remedies and tips listed here to assist ongoing medical treatments.
Hope you found this post helpful. For any further queries, use the comments box below.
How To Test Hair Fall
Your doctor may suggest one or more of the following tests to find out the cause of your condition:
- Blood test
- Pull test that includes pulling several strands of your hair by the doctor to determine the stage of the shedding process.
- Scalp biopsy, where the sample from your scalp or hair plucked from the scalp is tested.
- Light microscopy to examine hairs that are trimmed at their bases.
Once the cause of your hair loss is determined, you can discuss the treatment options with your doctor.
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Change Your Hair Products
There is some evidence that many gels and other styling products may contribute to hair loss, as the chemicals within these products stay on the scalp and become trapped in the follicles, preventing the hair from coming to the surface. Avoid excessive use of hair gels and try more natural styling products, which contain fewer chemicals.
Ouai Thin Hair Supplement
- Price: $$$
OUAI is famous for its celebrity endorsed hair care products, but the company offers hair-supporting supplements as well.
These supplements are a powerhouse of healthy hair ingredients, including:
- vitamins A, B, C, D, E
- zinc
- biotin
- omega fatty acids
You simply take one pill per day and can expect to see results in 90 days. The vitamins, like all OUAI products, are free of gluten, parabens, phthalates, sodium laurel sulfate , and sodium laureth sulfate .
Positive reviews note the product may have helped hair grow back after chemotherapy treatment. Another notes thicker hair and 1 to 2 inches of growth in the first 90 days of use. Single star reviews cite acne as a side effect, as well as no positive effects on hair.
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Study Discovers Cells That Put Hair Follicles To Sleep
In male and female pattern baldness, many hair follicles still exist but are dormant. The search for new drugs that reawaken follicles and induce hair growth has been limited by the fields focus on finding drugs that work along the same pathways as finasteride and minoxidil, the only two drugs currently available for men with male pattern baldness.
Christiano and her colleagues previously discovered a new pathway, called JAK-STAT, that is active inside the stem cells of resting hair follicles and keeps them in a dormant state. They previously demonstrated that JAK inhibitors applied to mouse skin are a potent way to reawaken resting hair follicles in mice.
In their latest study, the researchers wanted to get a detailed picture of the natural processes that keep follicles dormant, so they looked for factors that controlled the JAK pathway activity in the hair follicle.
Vegamour Gro Hair Serum
- Price: $$$
This vegan hair serum contains caffeine and clover seed extract, phyto-actives that have been shown to increase the look of hair density and reduce signs of shedding for fuller, thicker hair.
According to the companys clinical trials, the product can increase the appearance of hair density by up to 52 percent and reduce signs of shedding by up to 76 percent. The product website states that you can expect fuller-looking hair in as little as 90 days, with best results at 120 days.
Overall, the serum receives a 4.4 out of 5 stars with over 2,300 reviews. Most of the reviews are glowing, while many of the 1-star reviews simply say the product didnt work.
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Hair Farms Could Expand Availability Of Hair Restoration
Though the method needs to be optimized, engineered human hair follicles created in this way could generate an unlimited source of new hair follicles for patients undergoing robotic hair restoration surgery.
Hair restoration surgery requires the transfer of approximately 2,000 hair follicles from the back of the head to the front and top. It is usually reserved for male patients whose hair loss has stabilized and who have enough hair to donate.
What we’ve shown is that we can basically create a hair farm: a grid of hairs that are patterned correctly and engineered so they can be transplanted back into that same patient’s scalp, Christiano says.
That expands the availability of hair restoration to all patientsincluding the 30 million women in the United States who experience hair thinning and young men whose hairlines are still receding. Hair restoration surgery would no longer be limited by the number of donor hairs.
The engineered follicles also could be used by the pharmaceutical industry to screen for new hair growth drugs. Currently, high throughput screening for new hair drugs has been hampered by the inability to grow human hair follicles in a lab dish. No drugs have been found by screening the only two approved for the treatment of pattern hair lossfinasteride and minoxidilwere initially investigated as treatments for other conditions.
Simple Steps To Regrow Your Hair And Boost Your Health At The Same Time
Having a bad hair day? Our hair is incredibly important to how we feel about ourselves. But did you know that its also a reflection of our health? Common imbalances in our body can impact the health of our hair and the amount of hair we have on the top of our head. As a physician, women come to see me every day with the complaint of hair loss. I am glad they do, because there are many medical imbalances and nutritional deficiencies that can cause hair loss. There is a lot you can do through your diet and lifestyle choices that can impact quality and quantity of your hair.
The first three things I evaluate when a woman comes to see me with hair loss are their thyroid, iron levels and blood sugar balance. Having any of these areas significantly out of balance can have a tremendous impact on hair growth.
One of the first signs of an underactive thyroid is hair loss. The thyroid is the centerpiece of your metabolism, which impacts the turnover of cells in your body. When someone has an underactive thyroid, their metabolism slows down and hair loss speeds up. There are many nutritional changes that a woman can make to support her thyroid and improve her hair. Additionally, your physician may find that if your thyroid is depressed significantly enough, you may also need thyroid medication to support metabolism and hair growth.
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Managing Your Hair Loss
Losing your hair can cause more than a change in your physical appearance. It can be an emotional challenge that affects your self-image and quality of life. It is important to be kind to yourself during this stressful time.
People cope with hair loss in different ways. Thinking about how you feel most comfortable in managing hair loss before, during, and after treatment may help. And, your choices may change over time.
Cold cap therapy
Wearing a cap that cools the scalp can help prevent hair loss from drugs given through a vein. This treatment is called scalp cryotherapy. You wear the cap before, during, and after chemotherapy.
The cold makes the blood vessels in the skin of your head narrower. Less blood and less of the chemotherapy drug reaches your hair follicles through the blood vessels. Keeping your scalp very cold also helps prevent damage to the hair follicles. Talk with your health care team to learn if cold cap therapy is available and might work for you.
Medications
An over-the-counter medication called minoxidil may help thinning hair from hormonal therapy or targeted therapy. It may also help if your hair does not grow back completely after chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or a stem cell/bone marrow transplant.
There are also other medications you can take by mouth. These include spironolactone and finasteride .
Buying Guide For Best Hair Loss Treatments For Women
Hair loss is usually thought as a problem that affects only men, but many women experience hair thinning and loss as they age, too. There are many reasons why someone might start to lose hair, but regardless of the cause, it can wreak havoc on a womans self-esteem and confidence.
Fortunately, there are plenty of OTC hair loss treatments that can help slow the loss or even regrow hair. But not all hair loss treatments for women are the same. If you dont choose an effective product, youll just be wasting your time and money.
Fortunately, our handy shopping guide has plenty of tips to help you pick the best hair loss treatment for your needs. If youre ready to buy, check out our top recommendations.
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Early Signs Of Balding And How To Stop Hair Loss
Medically reviewed by Kristin Hall, FNP
Like most signs of aging, androgenetic alopecia, also known as 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 learning about the common 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.
Unfortunately, identifying hair loss isnt always easy. With many myths about balding circling the internet, it is easy to mistake normal hair loss for male pattern baldness.
Luckily, there are some real signs of male pattern baldness that you can use to identify and deal with hair loss. Learn about hair loss treatments from Hims.
Q Is A Hair Plant Advisable In Case Of Balding
A. Having a natural mop of hair post hair transplant is not something that happens instantly. It takes around 6 months for the roots to take. Along with this, there are complications associated with the recovery period. Its best to consult a trichologist regarding this as only after a full check-up you can understand whether this procedure is needed or not.
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