Say bye-bye to hair loss woes

From your shower drain to your hairbrush to your sheets to your clothes, it can sometimes feel like your hair is everywhere. Should you be worried?  Well, it is believed that everyone loses up to 100 strands of hair daily, but losing clumps of hair is a cause for concern without any doubt.

But you think that you are too young to take the issue of hair fall seriously? It is time to think again as it can affect anybody — age no bar. And this explains the reason why $1.5 billion industry has sprung up, offering men and women hair loss treatments from laser procedures like the ones available at Dr Cure and Care to herbal methods to products which can help them restore their ‘crowning glory’ — which is a direct expression of your individual personality and style.

According to a survey, 30-50 percent of men experience significant hair loss till the time they reach 50, and nearly 60 percent of women experience hair thinning or hair loss at some point in their lives.

And hair loss doesn’t only signal some health issue, but makes life psychologically more challenging because it decreases one’s self-confidence, self-esteem and leads to psychological issues.

Another survey states that 36 percent of men referred to hair loss as one of their biggest worries and said it negatively impacted their self-esteem, and 38 percent reported that hair loss makes them depressed. And many shared that hair loss impacted their social and romantic lives negatively.

But what is causing this? Pollution, work-related stress, diet, lifestyle, chemical-loaded hair-care products, there are several reasons contributing to hair loss — making it the most common problem these days. If you are afflicted with a receding hairline, it is time you tackle your hair loss problem head on.

Getting to the root of the cause

It is important to first understand the cause of the issue which is leading to hair loss. There can be plenty of reasons — external and internal factors — leading to hair problems.

One of the most common causes of hair loss is stress and fatigue. Be it due to lack of sleep, job tension or poor diet, stress can cause hair to shed excessively.

There are other variety of health concerns like hormonal changes, anemia, thyroid disorder, deficiency of protein, iron or zinc that can lead to hair loss. Alopecia, an auto-immune condition that causes the destruction of hair follicles, is also another issue that leads to excess hair loss.

And mental stress can also lead to balding.

Poor nutrition and lifestyle are also linked to hair loss. Diet plays an important role in keeping the health of the mane in check. According to a research conducted by Dr. Emily L. Guo, a resident physician at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, severely reduced protein consumption as well as deficiencies in zinc, vitamin D, and other nutrients can negatively affect hair growth.

Apart from this, using heat tools, over-dyeing, how you wear your hair and using excessive chemical-laden hair products which do not suit your hair — can also be a major cause of your worry.

Finding the right treatment

It is important to find the right treatment which works for you. For this, there are several parameters one needs to go through and study closely with a doctor before going for any treatment. A thorough physical examination will indicate the pattern and distribution of hair loss. And special attention should be paid to how easily your hair break. If they are easily breakable, it shows that the hair damage is due to over-processing — which include damage due to heat coming from curling irons, straightening, perms, or hair colouring.

Some of the factors which contribute to the findings are:

• Trace the whole duration and pattern of hair loss.
• Check whether the lost hair is broken or intact.
• Go through your current diet and see if there was any change in your weight in the last six months.
• Keep a track of your surgeries in the last six months, medications, illnesses or infections within the last six months.
• Check for any other symptoms.
• See if you have ever experienced similar hair loss before, or go through your family history of hair loss or other medical conditions. This may indicate if hair loss problem is hereditary or not.
• In the case of women, it is important to keep a track of menstrual cycle and note the date of most recent menstrual period.
• Last, but not the least, analyse your daily hair and beauty routine.

Fixing the mane issues

The first step is to schedule a visit with a doctor or dermatologist. The experts will examine your scalp thoroughly and take a history of medical or stressful events to see what’s been going on in your life to find what triggered the issue.

You must take a holistic approach when addressing any hair loss issue, which involves getting the right nutrition, leading a stress-free life and making your hair healthy with the right moisturising treatments.

The hair loss remedies range from the mild to the extreme and the inexpensive to the costly — and your doctor will tell you which one you need to pick depending on the your hair health and how much hair has gone.

There are prescription drugs like Minoxidil, which promotes hair growth. The medicine contains 5 percent of active Regaine that prevents hair loss. It needs to be applied to the scalp twice a day to grow hair and prevent hair loss. Another prescribed drug is Finasteride, which works on the lines of minoxidil and is more effective in cases where men get bald. It promotes hair growth in the crown region and helps in preventing the receding hairline.

Another popular procedure to treat hair loss is going for hair transplant. Increasing celebrity influence and growing awareness to take care of one’s appearance are turning out to be the drivers for the hair transplant market.

The two most popular hair transplant procedures are follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE). FUT is considered to be the more classic method. How is it done? It involves removing some skin from the back of your scalp where there is enough of hair and then removing the follicles from that strip and re-inserting the hair follicles into the part of the scalp where you are experiencing hair loss.

When it comes to FUE, hair follicles are removed directly from the scalp and transplanted to the bald parts of the scalp. Point to be noted is that you may need to undergo multiple hair transplant treatments to get the desired outcome.

Another and more effective treatment is laser treatment or Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) — which enhances hair growth by increasing the blood flow in the scalp.

Various scientific studies state that the results of LLLT hair loss treatment can slow down or even stop hair loss in 85 percent of the patients. And growth of new hair is observed in 55 percent of the cases. Along with treating, the therapy promises improvement in the texture, appearance and the volume of the hair.

It’s both safe and effective. In the case of LLLT treatment — as offered with the products at Dr Cure and Care, the lasers used for the therapy are referred to as ‘cold’ because their light is absorbed by target tissue but does not heat the target area. The light wavelength emitted from a low-level laser works and repair tissues by stimulating blood circulation, encouraging regeneration of normal healthy tissues — without burning the skin or scalp.

Going the natural way

Sometimes hair loss issues can be prevented by eating a nutritionally balanced diet, not taking stress, ditching tight hairstyles like braids, buns or ponytails and letting your tresses lay loose, avoid rubbing or pulling your hair, using hair products which suit you, treating your hair gently when washing and brushing and avoiding harsh treatments like using hot rollers and curling irons frequently.

In the end remember — Bald is beautiful when it comes as a choice not a burden.