Determining what is a good hair loss treatment for women can be difficult because there aren’t near as many possible women hair loss treatments as there for men. There is two reasons for this problem and we will discuss them before looking at some female hair loss solutions. Don’t give up hope there are answers to your balding question you just need to be aware of what the problems are so you can avoid the mishaps.
The first problem with finding a women hair loss treatment is the fact that the medical establishment has not spent much time and effort on trying to find a solution. One cause of this is the fact that women did not make public their need for balding treatments until just lately. This was a personal matter which was not talked about. Instead, the woman with the hair loss was expected to try to hide the problem as much as possible. Thus women wore wigs, scarves, and hats to cover up their balding and thinning hair. While men were having several different hair loss treatment options discovered there was no work on finding answers to the problems directed at women. It was almost like the problem didn’t matter. Society did such a good job of keeping this problem under wraps that most people have no clue as to the percentage of hair loss cases that involve women, it is 40%. Almost half the people with bald spots or thin spots are women. Surprising, huh?
The second problem that makes finding hair loss treatments for women possible is the manifestation of the hair loss in women VS men. 95% of men, and a like percentage of women, who complain of hair loss have a medical condition called androgenic alopecia. The genetic medical problem is passed down from either the patient’s mother or father or both.
In men, androgenic alopecia is called male pattern baldness. The name is derived from the fact that male will tend to lose their hair only in localized patches on the head instead of over the entire head. In fact I am sure you have seen the results of this problem in men with hair on the sides and back of the head but nothing on top. This pattern hair loss makes possible the hair transplantation surgery because the surgeon can remove some of the hair at the back of the head and implant it into the balding area. This give a very good result for attacking male pattern baldness.
When women suffer from androgenic alopecia it is called female pattern baldness but in reality there is no pattern effect. Instead the woman will tend to have hair fall out over the entire scalp causing thinning hair. This means there is no good hair donation area in which to harvest hairs to implant into the balding spot. And in fact it wouldn’t help anyway because the entire scalp will be having thinning problems. This fact has kept women out of the hair transplantation market since is was initiated over 60 years ago.
The womens hair loss treatment that shows the most promise is a drug that has been approved by the US FDA as a treatment for female hair loss. Minoxidil is the name of the drug and seems to be an effective hair loss product. This is really the only treatment for hair loss in women that has gone through the trials to prove efficacy. Minoxidil is applied topically to the scalp twice a day in a 2% solution. Men use a 5% solution, and many women have with good results and no side effects, but the FDA only recommends a 2% solution as a hair loss treatment for women.
21. January 2010 at 7:16 am
Indeed this such an extensive post focusing on the treatment of hair loss concerns by women. The content is well pointed-out and a must read topic definitely by women I must say.