Hair Loss
Introduction: Hair is the most important part of our personality and looks in both males and females. Good healthy hair is an indication of youth and health. In today’s times of selfies preserving your hair adds to confidence and social media interaction.
Q. What Are The Reasons For Hair Loss ?
A. 1. Stress
2. Nutritional : deficiency of Vitamins, Proteins
3. Hormonal: most common thyroid problems, in females Polycystic Ovaries, Raised Testosterone or Prolactin
4. After any major illness: like Dengue, Malaria, Typhoid or any major Surgical Procedure
5. Medicines: certain drugs like chemotherapy medicines oral contraceptives, cause temporary hair loss
6. Genetics : Genetic pre-disposition of hormonal balances or imbalances which can be inherited from either your mother’s or your father’s side of the family. And yes, women can inherit the problem just like men!
Q. What Are The Treatment Options For Hair Loss ?
A. Medical treatment:always given, it has a combination of necessary Vitamins, minoxidil lotion in male patients and different types of growth factors solutions in females.
Q. How Long Do These Medicines Take To Show Results?
A. Response to treatment depends on the age, type of hair loss and also differs between men and women. a minimum course of 3 to 4 month is needed to show response and then a further 3 to 4 months for newer hair growth to be visible. This is also variable and is not the same in every patient.
Q. What If The Hair Loss Does Not Respond To The Tablets And Lotions ?
A. The other options are: PRP (ie. Platelet Rich Plasma) treatment, Stem Cell Therapy, solution of growth factors and Vitamins, Microneedling.
Q. What Is PRP ?
A. PRP is the best alternative to medical line of treatment. Tt is the best alternative to any surgical intervention and should always be tried in patients who are undecided about hair transplant. Here we take the patient’s own blood, separate the platelets and the scalp is then treated with this solution. PRP helps in stopping hair loss and also stimulates new hair growth. A patient may need to do 3 to 4 sessions of PRP to get the best results.
Q. What Is Stem Cell Therapy ?
A. In stem cell therapy we use readymade stem cell solutions which may help to stop hair loss and stimulate newer hair growth in patients where tablets and lotions have not worked. In stem cell treatment we may need 4 to 5 sessions.
Q. What Is Microneedling ? How Is It Help Full In Hair Loss ?
A. Micorneedling is a procedure where we use dermaroller to treat the scalp skin. The dermaroller helps to stimulate the scalp skin to produce growth factors which in turn helps the cells in the hair to start growing and thus lead to hairgrowth. Microneedling is best combined with PRP or stemcells.
Q. How Is Hair Loss In Males Different From Females ?
A. Males generally have androgentic alopecia i.e. male pattern baldness which is a natural process of hair loss in males, generally starts at the age of 25 to 30 and then progresses with age. Females do not have hair loss in younger age unless they have hormonal imbalance or nutritional. Females have hair loss after menopause when estrogen levels reduce.