If you are losing your hair and trying to find a suitable treatment, it’s better to know the structure of your hair first. Hair has two or three layers; cuticle, cortex and sometimes the medulla.
The hair cuticle is the outer layer of the hair shaft. It is made up of dead cells and formed as scales. It’s the thickest part of the hair and contains most of the pigments, giving the hair its colour. The medulla is the innermost part of the hair which is soft and fragile.
How does the hair grow?
Healthy hair growth has three phases; anagen, catagen, and telogen. At the anagen phase is your hair grows continuously. The catagen phase is a resting phase before it falls out. Telogen is the last phase of the cycle when you lose hair. It is normal to lose 50-100 hair in a day. If this cycle is not working as it should be, you may experience hair loss.
Reasons
There might be a great number of reasons that you are losing your hair. Genetics play a great role in hair loss, while the reasons might be external.
Androgenetic alopecia is a term used for both male and female pattern hair loss. This is completely genetic. Males tend to lose their hair from the temples while female hair might become thinner all over. Androgenetic alopecia can start any time after puberty.
Conditions such as hormonal changes (decrease of estrogen hormone in females and increase of testosterone hormone in males) can cause hair loss.
Your hair can remain in the telogen phase due to many reasons. If this natural shedding phase takes longer, you might also lose your hair. The other possible causes include stress, surgery, and certain medications.
What are the treatment options?
To prevent hair loss, you might change your lifestyle and reduce stress. You should avoid harsh treatments and using chemicals on your hair. Try to apply simple home remedies to keep your hair moisturized. Also, heat dries the hair and makes it weaker. Do not use straighteners and curling irons if possible.
Besides the things you can change at home, you can see a hair loss specialist and start using prescription medication. If you lost the parts of your hair permanently, you could try a hair transplant. A hair transplant can be made from most of the hair you have left.
During a hair transplant procedure, the doctor removes tiny patches of skin from the back or side of your scalp, then implants the hair follicles into the bald sections. You may need more than one surgery, depending on the result wanted. Surgical procedures to treat baldness are usually the most effective ones.
Low- level laser therapy is also another hair loss treatment for both men and women; it is a brand new technique.
An active ingredient found in some medications, minoxidil, also widens blood vessels and allows more oxygen to reach the hair follicles.
It’s important to take care of your hair and change your bad hair habits. When the things that you do doesn’t work, by consulting our doctors, you can choose another treatment that suits you.