Treatment Options for Women with Hair Loss

If you are a woman who is losing hair, there are a lot of questions you probably have. Learning more about the reasons for your hair loss and the ways that you can treat it will help you to deal with the feelings you experience.

Massaging your scalp increases blood circulation which helps stimulate hair growth. Hair loss victims and experts alike recommend using oils such as almond and coconut oil. Olive oil can also be used. A scalp massage is not only highly effective but also very easy to incorporate into one’s hair loss treatment regimen.

Henna leaves and mustard oil are very effective hair regrowth treatments. Mix them together to stimulate your follicles. Boil some henna leaves with about 250 grams of mustard oil. Use a piece of cloth to strain the oil. Rub the mixture onto your scalp.

Saw palmetto has been proven to be one of the world’s best herbs for female baldness or alopecia. Saw palmetto is actually rich in dihydrotestosterone-inhibiting components and hence acts as one of the most effective anti-androgen agents. Applying a hair loss shampoo formulated with saw palmetto extracts can help you stop losing hair. The DHT-inhibiting components of saw palmetto work on the follicles and hair roots, thereby strengthening the hair and scalp both on the surface and within.

Vitamin deficiency is common among women with thinning hair. The strands need vitamin B in order to grow and remain strong. Vitamin B also helps the body produce the type of protein the strands need.

The Orient has given us lots of natural hair loss remedies. They comprise mixtures of aloe, arnica, honey, brahmi and mulberries, amongst others. Ayurveda, an olden day’s medical discipline from India, involves massages with and ingestion of certain herbal formulations. Obviously, these approaches can be benefited if only an experienced practitioner is involved.

Your Hair Is What You Eat

Some men see having a full head of hair as good luck, but research shows it could be the result of a good diet. A well-balanced diet enhances the nourishment of the cells, tissues, and more importantly, the hair follicles in the scalp. Without proper nourishment, the hair follicles cease to properly function, that is, to grow healthy hair.

Fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods ought to be grocery list regulars. But do you know which ones can actually improve the state and health of your hair and scalp?

Scientists say eating prunes, kidney beans and green peas can tame your mane, and that shrimp contains key vitamins and minerals that battle hair loss.

The list does not stop there. Walnuts, pumpkin seeds and steel-cut oats contain zinc, iron and omega-6 fatty acids which research shows are essential to healthy hair growth.

Scientists say a bowl of oatmeal a day can make a difference. Eggs are also on the healthy hair diet. They are rich in vitamin B-7, which is often prescribed alongside other medications that fight hair loss.

Then there also the ‘perhaps less appetising’ foods that can, all the more, help your hair grow with volume and lustre: sardines and calf liver. Research shows both are excellent sources of vitamin B-12 and sardines are rich in vitamin D, which is has been shown to effectively prevent hair loss in chemotherapy patients.

Your hair can only be as good as the foods you eat every day. Having a healthy diet is one of the easiest and most prime ways to keep the scalp and hair healthy. Take note that the hair is observed to be the last of the body parts to be able to take up nutrients.

So if you are worried about what is on top of your head, you may want to be more mindful of what you are putting in your stomach.

Treatment Mechanism of Saw Palmetto as a Hair Loss Remedy

Saw palmetto hair loss treatment is a type of herbal remedy that can be used to treat a type of hair loss and baldness called androgenic alopecia.

This condition is also called male or female pattern baldness. This is characterised by hair loss that is usually greatest at the top of the head or around the temples.

Saw Palmetto Hair Loss Remedy: Where It Comes From

The saw palmetto is actually a dwarf palm plant that is native to North America. It primarily grows along the Atlantic Coast of Florida and Georgia. It has been noted that the active ingredient that is responsible for preventing hair loss can be found in the black-brown berries of the saw palmetto plant.

This plant has been widely used by the Native Americans for its medicinal benefits such as treating urinary conditions in men and breast disorders in women. Later on, it has become an accepted treatment for a disease called benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, which is one of the most common disorders occurring among men. The plant is popular for treating BPH in areas such as Europe and New Zealand.

Saw Palmetto Hair Loss Treatment: How It Works

Although there are no concrete research studies that have been made about this plant and how it works for hair loss, it is believed that the plant can block an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. This enzyme is responsible for converting testosterone into another hormone called Dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. This hormone is responsible for causing hair loss because it binds itself to the hair follicles, decreasing the amount of nutrients that the hair can extract from the blood. The follicles gradually shrink in size and the hair that grows on them consequently becomes thinner. If no action is taken against DHT, this could cause the hair to disappear completely.

Because saw palmetto inhibits 5-alpha reductase, there is no enzyme that can convert testosterone to DHT. This leaves the hair safe from this unwanted hormone.

There are other drugs that can inhibit the conversion of testosterone to DHT; however, these synthetic drugs are taken in orally and can produce side effects such as erectile dysfunction and gynecomastia. The good thing about saw palmetto is that it is an herbal treatment which has a similar effect to the drug finasteride, but does not affect the entire organism and therefore has no side effects associated with finasteride and other prescription drugs.

How to Use Saw Palmetto Hair Loss Treatment

Saw palmetto for hair loss can be purchased as an oil extract or as an ointment. When purchased as either, it can be used by directly massaging the oil or ointment onto the scalp. The massaging motion on the scalp also promotes blood circulation that brings life-giving oxygen to the hair follicles, promoting rejuvenation of the hair cells. The oil is also easily absorbed by the scalp, making it a very effective treatment.

How to Naturally Revive Healthy Hair Growth

Before you check out the numerous products and remedies in the marketplace to stop hair loss or regrow hair, it’s best to first understand hair loss and growth before deciding on the best avenue for you to pursue, as it may be possible to regrow your hair naturally. Here is a look at some steps to get you started on the right path:

1. Have a balanced diet

While this is a good idea for your overall health and body, this is also good for your scalp. Going on crash diets, starving yourself, or just general bad eating habits will cause your hair to be lacking in much needed nutrients it requires for growth and health.

Required daily amounts of B vitamins and healthy oils that contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are critical if you want to have healthy hair that’s nice and full. Because our bodies can’t manufacture omega-3 and omega-6, it’s important that we get them from foods.

Omega-3 is found in vegetables, cold-water fish and other food sources. Foods where you’ll find omega-3 include canola oil, soybean oil, lake trout, salmon, beans and walnuts. Omega-6 can be found in plant-based oils and animal-based foods. Omega-6 sources would include sunflower oil, safflower oil and corn oil.

If you don’t use any of the above products, you also have the option of taking omega-3 and omega-6 supplements that are available and you could use instead.

2. Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Long periods of stress can contribute to hair loss. Stress comes in multiple forms — physical, emotional, or psychological — which can be brought about by certain experiences or daily activities occurring in your life. It’s very important to find ways to reduce the stress you face either through meditation, prayer, exercise or recreational activities.

3. Get enough protein

Your hair is made up of almost 91% protein. The key amino acid in this is called cysteine. By including foods in your diet which include cysteine, it’ll provide your hair with the protein needed to help it grow. Here is a list of the some of the foods to target: eggs, milk, broccoli, granola, yoghurt, garlic, and onions.

4. Try aromatherapy

Using oils every day and massaging them into your scalp can help promote hair growth. Studies have shown that some people see a significant amount of re-growth in their hair after massaging a mixture of essential oil and carrier oils.

How to Get Your Hair Constantly Growing

Hair grows in phases. Any hair growth discussion would be incomplete without talking about the follicle. The follicle is the part of the scalp from which the hair grows. These are essentially skin organs that build the shaft of the hair and then the hair itself. During the 3 phases of hair growth — which last for varying durations of time and differ from person to person — the hair continues to grow, stops growing and then falls off.

According to accepted definitions, it is normal for the human scalp to lose 50 to 100 hair strands every day. However, when the amount of hair that is lost exceeds this number, the need for intervention to promote natural hair regrowth is desired.

What can you do to promote hair growth?

In order to promote hair growth, what is required is an understanding of how hair grows, what are the problems that affect it and the causes for such problems. Today, many are faced with problems of male pattern baldness. It is prevalent in all countries and is a reason for concern for most men. Therefore, a lot of time, effort and money are spent on research in order to develop products that induce natural hair regrowth. Some of them can be used by people themselves at home while others may require the assistance of a specialist for administration.

How do you know if a product can work for you?

There is no definite way to know if a product that is known to induce natural hair regrowth can work for you or not. What you have, as an individual, to weigh if a product is good or not is the reputation of the product, the experiences of the people who have used it and of course your own reservations about trying it. It must be added here that your reservations for trying a product that helps the hair regrow naturally should be well founded, since most natural products do not have side effects. Hence most of them can be tried without worsening the problem. Unlike synthetic or artificial preparations which may cause unintended effects, natural products are safe for trying.

What are the commonly used natural extracts?

For natural hair regrowth, the commonly used extracts today include ginseng root, vital amino acids and vitamins that are required in the body, ginkgo biloba, rehmannia, horsetail plant and nettle extract among others. These extracts are not quick fix solutions. They are meant to help the body repair itself and so as to allow natural regrowth of hair. Hence, when you try them, you should not do so with the aim of achieving results in a restricted or predetermined span of time. Rather you should try them and measure results in a liberal manner, so as to ascertain their effectiveness.

Stem Cell Hair Regrowth: Revolutionising the World of Hair Loss Treatment

The world of stem cell research has extensive coverage — even delving into stem cell hair regrowth. Stem cell hair regrowth is all about using stem cells to treat hair loss.

The concept of stem cell hair regrowth is still currently a theory but scientists are looking into the possibility of using stem cells in order to produce healthy hair follicles. Scientists believe that placing stem cells near dying or damaged cells and stumped hair follicles will revive the said cells and follicles back into life. Since stem cells can grow and transform into specialised cells, it has been considered to be an effective means of regrowing hair.

Stem Cell Hair Regrowth: Innovative Treatment

Growing hair follicles by stem cells is an innovative treatment that can recover lost hair. The avenue is now open for stem cell hair regrowth and many clinics and doctors are immersing their practices in this brand-new concept. Stem cell hair growth is a promising non-invasive and non-surgical treatment but as effective as hair implants, which is the surgical treatment for hair loss.

The promise of stem cell hair growth is backed up studies and experiments done on mice, on the specific purpose of growing hair and combating hair loss. The stem cell hair regrowth treatment is still in its initial and research stage. Some say it may take a decade or more before stem cell hair regrowth can be perfected and used by men who have frontal hair loss. There is also a considerable amount of time before the treatment can be launched into mainstream medicine.

Surgical and Non-Surgical Hair Regrowth Solutions

In the mean time, there are available treatments, both surgical and non-surgical, aside from the possibility of stem cell hair regrowth. Surgical methods often include hair transplant wherein healthy hair follicles are transported from the back and sides of the head to the bald scalp areas. Non-surgical methods many include oral medication, creams, hairpieces and other means to cover the balding patches.

The costs of hair loss treatments vary from one kind to another but the most expensive remains to be hair transplantation. This is due to the price of hair grafts. A hair graft’s average cost revolves around 6 dollars per graft. If there are many hair grafts to be transported to cover a bald area, it would be costly for the patient and would require a number of sessions to complete the whole transplant.

Non-surgical methods are comparatively cheaper than a hair transplant but these require constant reapplication or ingestion, depending on the treatment’s mechanism.

For the meantime, these are the hair loss treatment options. However, with stem cell hair regrowth, treatment of hair loss will be revolutionised.

Proven, Approved, and Foremost Hair Loss Products

Studies show that more than three and a half billion dollars a year is spent on hair loss treatments. The bad news is that studies also show that nearly all of these products don’t work at all for most of the people who buy them.

Losing one’s hair is a very depressing situation that can affect both men and women. The American Hair Loss Association advises people who experience thinning of hair to only use products approved by the FDA. Excessive falling or thinning of hair and weak hair regeneration or growth can be caused by numerous things, from inherited genes to excessive use of hair products.

Getting professional hair loss treatment is common nowadays and is done differently between men and women. Hence, anyone experiencing a significant loss of hair would try some sort of treatment since a thinning hairline or going bald isn’t really appealing. With that in mind, here are some popular treatments for men and women experiencing thinning of hair.

Finasteride

This drug was first approved by the FDA to treat problems with the prostate glands, but it was noticed that it grew hair, so the company decided to see if that side effect could be turned into a way to help balding men.

In 1997, it was approved as an advanced hair loss treatment and is considered a successful drug in the pursuit of growing hair and helping treat male baldness. It was found to help in 85 per cent of the time in trials. Today, it is a widely used drug to counter baldness among men.

Minoxidil

Minoxidil was discovered similar to finasteride; it had a side effect of growing hair in its original use for high blood pressure. It caused people taking it to grow hair on their foreheads and even eyebrows. When rubbed onto the bald spots on the head, it was shown to slow down thinning of hair. Unfortunately, it also has been found to not give a permanent and a lasting effect.

When it comes to women who are suffering from baldness, it’s hard to know what sort of hair loss treatment to give since a lot of these treatments have androgen properties, which would end up causing women to develop male characteristics, so not many doctors would be advising those mentioned above to women.

Also, women need to tackle their baldness right when they first notice it or else many of their hair follicles will be permanently destroyed and any hair loss treatment would not help very much. The same goes if treatment is stopped. On the other hand, minoxidil is approved to be used by women topically in a two per cent solution only. The stronger five per cent used by the guys is not approved for women, but is still prescribed by some doctors.

A study involving women ageing from 18-45 with mild up to moderate balding showed 19 per cent had moderate hair growth, and 40 per cent had at least some hair growth. This was after using the minoxidil solution for eight months.

Other types of hair loss treatments for men and women could include natural treatments such as certain herbal treatments or special washes. There are plenty of hair thinning treatment products available today. If you are experiencing significant loss of hair and plan to use one of those mentioned above, consult your doctor first and have a clear and better understanding of what you would be getting into. Remember that these are actual drugs also used for something else.