A Guide To Hair Restoration
Posted: Wednesday, May 06, 2009
by Jami Wright
Hair Restoration guide
It wasn't only hair my husband lost when he starting going bald. He lost his energy, his excitement for doing things, his desire to go out with friends, and I started to lose my best friend because the time we spent together got less and less as he got more irritable with everything. I knew I needed to do something so I started researching ways for hair restoration. There are many factors when looking for treatments and many options when choosing the treatment that is right for you.
First discover what the cause of the hair loss is. There are many different causes of hair loss; stress, medicines, hormonal changes, vitamins, your diet (could all cause temporary hair loss), and genetics caused by the passing along of the hair loss gene in chromosome 20 from mother or father (androgenetic alopecia) or damage to the hair follicle or scalp (results in more permanent hair loss). Knowing the cause of your hair loss will help you to decide on a treatment.
TREATMENT:
Some things you can do right away is make sure your diet is healthy and promotes good hair health. Also avoid pulling your hair tight in ponytails, braids, or dreadlocks. Make sure you haven't changed your shampoo or conditioner lately and check into any medication or vitamin side effects you are taking. This first list are options for treating your hair loss without a doctors consultation.
1. Shave it all off. You will notice a trend among men these days, whether they are losing hair or not, men are enjoying the freedom and macho style of a shiny fully shaved head. Some women shave their heads but this is a less likely choice for most women.
2. Over the counter products. There are products you can buy over the counter that have been tested and proven to regrow hair (remember cause has a lot to do with this). These are a little more expensive than shaving your head but a moe comfortable choice for women perhaps. Just make sure to play it safe and insure that the product is FDA (food and drug administration) approved, like Rogaine and Propecia.
3. Wigs or hair products. There are some great products available on the market in wigs and toupee. Don't discount this option. For women this is a likely choice and most wigs would be comparable in pricing to the over the counter products. Men are less comfortable with toupees.
This list will give you a guide to hair restoration with doctor's consultation. The doctor will meet with you and do a checkup and get a complete medical history on you. He/she will diagnose the cause and work with you to find the best treatment possible to help cure your hair loss. The great news is that with today's technology you have many options and these options have a great track record.
1. Prescription products. These may be taken orally or placed on your skin. The doctor may decide to try these on you depending upon the first consultation and the cause. Prescription products are stronger than over the counter and may get you better results.
2. Hair graft is an outpatient surgical procedure. In this procedure the doctor will take pieces of the scalp that have hair and transplant them to the sites on your head that have lost hair. the areas that he/she took the graft from would then be stitched up to help in healing. This can be a long process as several sessions may need to be done and you need a recovery time of 2-4 months in between sessions, however, the success rate of this procedure is high.
3. Scalp reduction is a procedure used mainly for top or back of head not front. The process is exactly as the name. You will lose about 50% of your baldness. The doctor will cut out the bald areas and stretch the areas of scalp with hair over the areas he/she just cut out. The newly stretched skin in stitched to the edge of where the skin was cut and once the stitches are taken out you now have what appears to be more hair.
These are the most common hair restoration procedures today. There are many more to choose from and you and your doctor will have the opportunity to discuss what is the best procedure for you. Before opting for any surgery understand the side effects and risks, which are a part of any medical procedure.
My husband discovered that his hair loss was temporary and we were able to reverse this with changing his diet and reducing his stress. Regardless of the route you go hair restoration is a journey that many men and women take and they do this because it makes them feel better, or more confident, or just themselves.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Great article. Well done.I have never experienced hair loss thankfully.
hi jami,i have often wondered what it would feel like to be losing one's hair. i'm glad there are so many more treatments now to help those that do.thank you for sharing a well written an informative article,my best regards,sue thom
Hi Jami. Thank you for writing this article. It is informative as well as interesting.Best regards,Nenita
Did his energy return? What is the age? Braids and dreadlocks are African Americans standard (Not counting, the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Africa...etc)As a man, some will loose their hair and some will not. Regardless of what you eat or medicine you take.
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