Monday, July 23, 2007

Surgical Hair Loss Treatment

By Carl DiNello

An increasingly popular solution to hair loss is the surgical hair loss treatment. These surgical treatments have proven to be very successful alleviating the appearance of baldness.

Some popular examples of surgical treatments that can help with hair loss are:

Scalp Reductions - This surgery involves the removal of small balding areas from the scalp. Today, this method is considered out-of-date, and potentially very dangerous. There is also a high risk of infection, as well as the potential for an unnatural appearance after the surgery.

Scalp Lifts - This procedure takes a large hairy section of the person's scalp, and rotates it into the area that is bald. This is actually a more radical form of scalp reduction requiring hospitalization and can result in a permanent numbing of a portion of the scalp.

Hair Transplants - This is a micrograft procedure that fills in bald patches on the head with hair follicles that are taken from a hairy part of the scalp. Several hundred “hair plugs” may be necessary to cover the balding area. These new hair plugs may themselves fall out, but new hair will be stimulated to grow over the next several months.

None of these procedures offers a full head of hair and an instant fix, as each of these hair loss surgical treatments requires some time, and multiple visits to the surgeon before the results can be fully appreciated. In fact, it will typically take a number of months before the procedures will produce noticeable, and long-lasting hair growth on a person's head.

For someone who has suffered a great deal of hair loss as a result of an accident involving scalp injury, the most common surgical procedure to restore hair is scalp reduction. Serious injuries like this may require a section of the scalp to be removed with the edges that surround the removed patch of skin then being pulled together and sewn.

While this drastic type of treatment for hair loss may seem to provide the quickest results, and at one time was quite common, it is now used primarily when serious scalp injury has occurred. The great majority of people who have suffered hair loss now opt for the less extreme treatment of micrografts. Although the results using this hair loss treatment are quite a bit slower, this method will result in the most natural looking regrowth of hair.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Effective Hair Loss Baldness Treatment Options

By Patricia Hammond

Hair loss is a very common occurrence, with more than 60 million Americans suffering from it. Since baldness is inherited, a lot of people think that there is no hair loss baldness treatment available for them. The good news is that there are several ways that deal with hair loss problems.

There is a hair loss baldness treatment available for different people. However, the first step in dealing with hair loss is to consult with a doctor and to get a complete medical examination. This is one way of knowing the precise cause of hair loss and determining the best hair loss baldness treatment. Hair loss in men and women can be due to heredity, illness, malnutrition and side effects from medications. The only way to know the cause of baldness for every individual is to consult with a physician.

Hereditary baldness is a condition that medical practitioners don’t have the capability to treat yet. But there have been hair loss baldness treatment options available in the market that can deal with the problem effectively, whether the problem is due to genetics, illness, drugs or malnutrition. Two of these medications have been approved by the FDA. They are dutasteride and finasteride.

Many people consider dutasteride as the most advanced hair loss baldness treatment to suppress dehydrotestosterone (DHT), the main cause of hair fall among men. Dutasteride has shown that it is capable of inhibiting the two kinds of enzymes that convert testosterone into DHT. Generic Dutasteride works by reducing the size of the enlarged prostate and diminishing the levels of DHT by 90% at two weeks and 93% at two years.

Finasteride (propecia) is another hair loss baldness treatment that stops hair loss. Propecia is the brand name being used in hair loss treatments that contain finasteride. Finasteride has been proven in scientific studies to prevent hair loss. Finasteride works by blocking 5-alpha reductase, which is an enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT. In theory, propecia stops the conversion of testesterone into DHT, thereby preventing DHT from binding to the follicles. Propecia is considered one of the best hair loss treatments. The medication is specifically good for people with minimal loss of hair as users are able to keep their hair without further hair loss advancement.

Propecia is undoubtedly one of the best hair loss treatments because it has proven to work and is also very convenient. Just pop in a small pill everyday and there is no need to mess with the hair. It is particularly good for those with minimal hair loss because users can be confident of keeping their hair without further progression of hair loss.

Another FDA-approved hair loss baldness treatment is minoxidil 2% solution. Minoxidil is considered an effective hair loss baldness treatment since it is efficient in recruiting hair at the follicles, especially when taken together with DHT inhibitors like propecia.

These are three products that are part of an increasing trend towards natural hair loss baldness treatment products that counteract the effects of DHT. Aside from the three medications, other methods for treating hair loss include acupuncture, aromatherapy and even hair transplants.