Hair Restoration and Replacement

Did you know that men and women who suffer hair loss generally both suffer from the same genetic condition? Androgenic alopecia is the medical term for the genetic problem that is usually responsible for thinning and balding hair. Of course there are other potential causes such as diet, hormone imbalance, rarer forms of alopecia, and certain medical treatments; but usually androgenic alopecia is the cause. In fact, 95% of men who experience premature hair loss do so because of the effects of this genetically derived condition. Also, 40% of all baldness cases involve women so you can see it is a big problem. The question, then, is are there any female hair loss treatments that can actually help a woman to treat hair thinning and balding.

It historically has been hard to find a female hair loss treatment for two reasons. First, there has not been very much medical research directed to the hair loss problem for women. Men and their balding issues have been in the spot light for years, and several methods have been developed to treat their hair loss, but for women the answer has usually been to buy a wig. Part of this was societal pressure. Women were not supposed to share with anyone that they were developing a thinning hair problem because the hair is directly tied to a women’s sexuality. Even when it was not Kosher to talk about female sexuality there was still an unspoken rule that women did not discuss problems like this. They were supposed to buy a wig and pretend that everything was OK.

The second reason is actually because of how the medical condition is manifested in women versus men. When men have androgenic alopecia the problem is referred to as male pattern baldness. Men will tend to lose their hair in set patterns on the head. Usually there is balding at the crown or vertex of the scalp and you see a receding hair line. There is hardly ever substantial hair loss at the back of the scalp or on the sides. Women, on the other hand, will see hair thinning over the entire scalp. Certain other problems may result in bald spots but, in general, the female patient will experience an overall loss of hair. This means that, unlike men, women do not have areas where there is still good hair growth.

This fact makes female hair restoration very difficult because hair transplantation surgery requires an area of hair growth to be used as a donation site. Hair implants work well for men because the thick hair growth at the back of the head allows for several hundred or a few thousand follicles to be removed with no noticeable effect. These implant units can then be transplanted to the bald spot. Without thick hair growth on a women’s head, the hair implantation surgery has not be successful as a treatment for female hair loss.

This has now changed some as a new technique known as follicular unit extraction makes it possible to transplant body hairs into the bald spot. These hairs are not of the exact texture as scalp hair but they work well as a filler. By strategically placing these hairs the hair restoration surgeon can fill in the most noticeable thin areas. This method has become one of the treatments for female hair loss which offer some hope.

The other female hair loss treatment that seems to help is the FDA approved drug Minoxidil. This is a topical solution that is applied to the scalp twice a day. It literally goes to the route of the problem and rejuvenates the hair follicles by protecting them from attack. Most female hair loss remedies with this drug have a 2% Minoxidil solution but many women have used the 5% solution designed for men with good results.

Female hair loss treatments are not very well researched as of yet but that is changing. Hopefully, as more and more women stand up and require help there will be even more hair loss treatments for women made available.