Are hair fall and baldness two different things?
Most Indian males have witnessed hair thinning and male pattern baldness even after taking tremendous care of their scalp and mane. losing hair with age is normal they say, it’s normal to lose some hair from your scalp each day, about 100 strands, but if you are in your twenties and thirties, maybe it isn’t normal. For some it’s genetic and they are aware of it but for those who are suffering from hair shedding at a faster pace, you may be experiencing androgenetic alopecia.
You can take a sigh of relief as it can be treated and in most cases androgenetic alopecia is preventable.
You might be wondering, what “androgenetic alopecia” is?
Androgenetic alopecia also called male-pattern baldness in men is a common form of hair loss in which hair is lost in a well-defined pattern. The hair starts thinning and the hairline starts receding above both temples, gradually forming an ‘M’ shape.
How can it be treated?
From oral medication to stimulate hair regrowth to cosmetic and technology-based therapies to reinsert patches of hair into the scalp, there are several treatment options available today for balding.
Hair Transplant: A hair transplant is a procedure in which a plastic or dermatological surgeon moves hair to a bald area of the head. The surgeon usually moves hair from the back or side of the head to the front or top of the head as the hair on the neck does not fall. Hair transplants typically occur in a medical office under local anaesthesia. About 90-95% of all implanted grafts easily grow in the transplanted area, making hair transplantation a successful and popular mode of male-pattern baldness treatment.
Scalp tissue expansion: What tissue expansion involves is essentially the stretching out of a portion of the scalp—and sometimes the forehead or other area—with a balloon tissue expander. This balloon tissue expander is surgically inserted under the scalp, then over the span of 4 to 10 weeks, progressively filled with saline. The stretched tissue, usually containing hair, can then be used to cover over large scars or bald areas of the scalp, providing unsurpassed impressive results.
Flap Surgery: Flap surgery is a hair restoration treatment for baldness. It involves moving a “flap” of skin from one area of the body to another. Scalp flap surgery has an important but limited role in hair restoration. Scalp flap surgery moves hair-bearing scalp to the bald area providing instantaneous hair coverage. Narrow gaps between transferred flaps may require some “touch-up” by hair transplantation or scalp reduction later.More extensively those using this treatment for baldness as a hair restoration option may benefit substantially from scalp flap surgery with proper preoperative planning and when the procedure is performed by a skilled, experienced hair surgeon.
Laser therapy: Laser hair therapy uses medical-grade lasers to deliver safe, low level laser light to your scalp. Laser therapy is similar to watering plants. Like the water and nutrients absorbed by plants, the light energy is absorbed by your hair follicles so that your hair can continue to grow. As the light is absorbed, microcirculation increases, therefore distributing a more abundant blood supply and nutrients to the hair follicle. Low level laser light stimulates cellular activity in your follicles to help diminish hair loss while helping regrow hair.
Protein-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections: PRP injection therapy has become one of the most popular ways to treat androgenetic alopecia. This treatment involves taking platelets from your blood in concentrated form and injecting it into bald spots on your scalp. This protein-rich plasma treatment helps promote hair growth.
What can you do at home to manage hair fall ?
When you go to a skin specialist for management of hair fall they would advise you to do these things:
Reduce Stress. Stress is one of the biggest factors promoting hair fall. Stress reduction can go a long way in helping you stay young not just on the top floor but the middle ones too.
Supplementation with Zinc and Folic Acid. These two nutrients have a big role in promoting hair growth and preventing hair fall.
Topical lotions of Minoxidil. Minoxidil is a commonly prescribed lotion for applying it over bald patches and it does work. Only thing is that you have to be careful when applying it by using a brush and not applying it in areas where you don’t need hair like the face etc.
Finasteride is another drug that can boost hair growth but at the cost of certain side effects on your manhood like low libido and erectile dysfunction.
We hope that this article can help you grow more hair and help you help other too with hair fall.