Hair Restoration and Replacement

Most people are concerned enough about their physical appearance that they are willing to spend quite a lot of money on products that are supposed to clear up pimples, shrink your waist, get rid of warts, make your skin smoother, and so forth. The problem is that most of these products don’t work nearly as well as advertised, while many are utterly worthless. This holds true especially for products that claim to reverse processes that occur naturally as we age, such as the various supplements, creams, pills and ointments that promise to make hair grow faster or reverse hair loss. There are a few products that really do help hair grow, but they are greatly outnumbered by the hundreds that don’t. A full 99% of products for growing hair or stopping hair loss do not work at all for most people!

If you want to avoid being ripped off when buying hair growth products, you first need to understand how hair growth naturally occurs and what causes this natural process to be retarded. Hair grows in cycles with periods of rest in between, during which some falls out. For men, by far the most common cause of hair loss is the male pattern baldness that occurs with age and that is almost entirely due to heredity. What is inherited is a sensitivity to dihydrotestosterone or DHT, which over time cause the hair follicles to get smaller and eventually stop producing new hair when old hair falls out.

For men, the only two products that work and are approved by the FDA are the drugs minoxidil and finasteride. Minoxidil was originally used in pills. for treating the condition of high blood pressure, until it was discovered that that it could grow hair. The disadvantage of this drug is that it doesn’t work that well, and not at all for many men.

Finasteride, which is marketed as Propecia or Proscar, is much more effective. It was originally used for treatment of prostate glands that were enlarged, and lowers DHT by over 50%. The great majority of men find that hair loss is stopped by this drug, while over 60% also experience faster hair growth. In reality, the hair is not growing faster, but since more follicles are producing hair that’s what it looks like.

For women, while the pattern baldness men suffer from is not much of an issue, they can lose hair for a variety of other reasons. Often it is temporary, and due to factors such as stress, certain medications, or pregnancy. As with men, DHT can play a role, but the use of finasteride is definitely not recommended for women who have any chance of becoming pregnant, since it can cause birth defects. Women have fewer real options for treatment.

Faster hair growth is not really possible, but if you want to minimize hair loss without using drugs, there are several things you can do which help some people, although not a lot. They include taking multivitamins, avoiding dramatic weight loss, not using blow dryers, exercise, and getting enough sleep.