The average typical loss of hair amounts to about 100 strands a day. And the average human head has about 100,000 hair follicles. Each one of these follicles can grow about 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime. Female or male pattern baldness varies from population to population based on genetic background. It’s important to understand the cause of your hair loss before you undergo any hair loss remedy or treatment.
Some drugs or medications can actually cause hair loss, which improves when you stop taking the medicine. Medications that can cause hair loss include the blood thinners, medicines used for gout and gouty arthritis, chemotherapy drugs used for cancer, too much vitamin A supplementation, birth control pills and antidepressants. Hypothyroidism can cause it, especially the thinning of the outer third of the eyebrows. Many women notice hair loss about three months after they’ve had a baby. During pregnancy, high levels of certain hormones cause the body to keep hair that would normally fall out. So when the hormones return to pre-pregnancy levels that hair falls out and the normal cycle of growth and loss starts up all over again.
And some mycotic infections can cause massive hair loss. Fungal infections of the scalp can cause it in children, which is usually easily treated with antifungal medicines. About three or four months after an illness or a major surgery, you can suddenly lose a large amount of hair temporarily. This loss is related to the extreme stress of the illness.
Recognizing and properly treating an infection may help stop the loss. If the thyroid gland is either overactive or underactive, hair may fall out. However treating thyroid disease will remedy this. Poor digestion, parasites and nutrient deficiencies such as iron or biotin deficiency shouldn’t be overlooked as possible causes.
There are prescription drugs, herbal remedies and topical applications available for hair loss. Surgical methods used include hair transplantation, whereby hair-producing follicles are taken from the back and sides of the head and injected into bald or thinning areas, but this is very expensive and requires several sessions. Try to go a more natural way with treatment if possible. Taking drugs means many months of exposure to chemicals causing side effects and possibly irreversible damage.
Minoxidil is a very expensive drug, which costs about one hundred dollars per month for daily treatment. Very little testing has been done on the long-term effects of Minoxidil on women. Surgery is another method of reversing hair loss and baldness, although it should be considered an extreme measure. There are both natural products and chemical-based products for it.
Some of the products for hair loss include: shampoos, shampoos and conditioners, conditioners, lotions, creams, concealers, thinning hair shampoos, laser combs, laser brushes, the Lasertron Hair Growth Brush, herbal based products, chemical based pills or tablets, Nizoral shampoo and Neutrogena T-Gel. Stress reduction can be very helpful in slowing it down.
Polygonum Multiflorum is a traditional Chinese cure or remedy for hair loss. Whether or not the plant itself is useful, the general safety and quality control of herbs imported from China is now questionable. And saw Palmetto is an herbal DHT inhibitor often claimed to be cheaper and have fewer side effects than either finasteride or dutasteride. And unlike other 5alpha-reductase inhibitors, saw palmetto induces its effects without interfering with the cellular capacity to secrete PSA (protein specific antigen).
Garlic as a hair loss remedy - an hour before bedtime, slice open a clove of garlic and rub it on the area of loss, wait for an hour and then massage the scalp with olive oil, put on a cap, go to bed, shampoo your hair in the morning, repeat for a few weeks, and hopefully hair will stop falling out and regrowth will be evident.
One patient reported that he used virgin coconut oil on his hair and scalp for a year. During that time his hair became thicker and he hade more of it on the top of his head where he had been receding a bit. It’s good as a hair gel too. Some people lie on a slant board with their heads down for about 15 minutes a day, but clear it with your doctor first if you decide to try it.
The onion juice and honey remedy: prepare a hair-growing elixir by combining 1/4 cup of onion juice with one tablespoon of honey. Massage the scalp with this mixture every day.
Resveratrol, from grape skins, is a lipase (relevant to the hair loss process) and by decreasing the body’s ability to absorb fat through the intestinal walls, it reduces the total fat and calorie content of a person’s diet. Beta Sitosterol, which is a constituent in many seed oils, can help to treat BHP (benign prostatic hypertrophy) by lowering cholesterol. But consuming large amounts of it to get at small quantities of beta sitosterol is likely to exacerbate male pattern baldness. So be careful if you have BPH and are taking it.
The Asian remedy - rub sesame oil onto your scalp every night, cover with a cap or old towel. In the morning wash with an herbal shampoo, rinse with a solution of one tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar to one quart of water.
The olive oil and rosemary remedy - use equal amounts of olive oil and oil of rosemary. Combine them in a bottle, shake vigorously, massage onto the scalp, put on a cap and shampoo in the morning.
Massage the affected scalp areas with the fingers each day. And raw apple cider vinegar used as a hair rinse may stimulate hair growth.
Remember that any drugs you take for hair loss will be a long term commitment. When they are stopped the hair loss returns. Make sure you consider the risks to your health before doing this. If you experience any form of loss that causes you concern, make an appointment with your dermatologist, hair loss doctor or regular doctor to discuss the treatment options available to you for your particular condition. It’s important to find out exactly what is causing your problem in order for you to choose the right hair loss remedy or approach.
