Facing the Facts of Hair Loss

Hey, baldy! Bet you’re tired of hearing that. The problem with losing your hair is everybody thinks they can make fun of you and make jokes about you. Those of us who have hair loss issues would never consider making fun of someone who is overweight for example. Can you imagine what would happen if you walked up to an overweight person and said, “Hey fatty”? That would be inconsiderate and just plain mean. But just about everybody on the planet thinks it’s fine to make bald jokes about men who are losing their hair.

Enough about the jokes, let’s start taking steps. It might be hard to admit, but cynicism was a natural reaction to the wide array of topical hair loss treatments available just about anywhere. Perhaps a few of us have tried going into a hair loss treatment for a few months. Of course, results weren’t sudden. But we decided to persist with the application of the treatment. Eventually, we notice a smaller amount of hair in the sink, shower drain, or in our brush.

With the use of organic-based hair loss products, hope for hair loss is to be found. Less hair in the hairbrush is to be noticed although hair regrowth may not be readily observed. Continuing the use of natural hair loss products needs dedication and sincerity from every hair loss sufferer.

Applying topical creams and serums that are formulated with natural ingredients such as extracts from saw palmetto, nettle, rosemary, and fennel can eventually provide the much-desired result of hair regrowth. Vigilant application of such hair loss products can even lead to gaining comments such as “What are you doing with your hair? You really look younger” or “How did you manage to regain your former mane?” Organic-based hair loss treatments can truly amaze us.

There are a lot of other solutions for hair loss. You can get plugs, which really don’t look normal. There are advertisements for those products, which show only the best results, not the average results. You can try a hair weave. Sure, these look like real hair. The problem with hair weaves is that they happen immediately. Then your friends will know you’re wearing a wig. The jokes will start all over again about your wig. So when you use a natural and steady way to hair restoration, you’ll be glad you did. It works for most people who really try it.

It is greatly encouraged that natural hair loss products be used because you have nothing to lose but your hair. They even have a no risks or harmful side effects. It works for approximately 80% of the people who try it. Chances are you will be one of them.

Causal Factors of Hair Loss

On average, a person loses about 50–100 hair shafts a day. It is normal and rarely noticed because hairs grow back at a steady rate. Hair loss and thinning hair occurs when hairs don’t grow back or when hair follicles go into resting phase for longer than usual. Baldness can be genetic and is common in aging adults. Even with proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle, excessive hair loss can also happen due to medical and environmental conditions.

Alopecia
Alopecia is a medical condition that is characterized by excessive hair loss. Androgenic alopecia is hereditary. The genes determine when your hair will start to fall out and when the hair follicles will enter the resting phase. Scarring alopecia occurs when the hair follicles are damaged due to a disease, such as lupus. Hair follicles become inflamed and are permanently scarred, preventing hair growth. Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease. The exact cause of it is unknown. Traction alopecia develops from excessive hairstyling and pulling on hair strands.

Medications and Medical Treatments
Certain medications can cause hair loss. Drugs that treat gout, arthritis, depression, heart problems and high blood pressure may cause excessive hair loss in some people. Birth control pills may also cause hair loss.

Undergoing cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, will cause hair loss. Patients lose all hair during the treatment but it starts growing back once the treatment ends.

Hormonal Changes
Hormonal changes and imbalances cause excessive hair loss. Pregnancy changes how hair grows. Some women may experience hair loss during pregnancy. For others, hair may be growing thicker and fuller but starts falling out shortly after childbirth. Shedding of hair usually occurs about three months after the delivery. Hormonal imbalances accompany menopause and may cause excessive hair loss and even baldness in some women.

Hair Treatments
Chemical hair treatments, such as coloring, bleaching, straightening or permanent curls, can dry out the hair shafts and cause breakage and hair loss. Styling and brushing hair too much may also cause excessive shedding.

Infections
Fungal infections, such as ringworm, affect hair and scalp and cause hair loss. If the condition is treated with medication in a timely manner, hair starts to grow back at a normal rate.

Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder)
Trichotillomania is a mental illness characterized by a patient’s impulsive urge to pull on his/her hair. It often leads to bald spots. The exact cause of this illness is unknown.

Herbs for His and Her Hair Loss

Hair loss is a devastating experience for anyone faced with it. It was found out that almost all men and women will have to deal with this problem at some point in their life. The former notion was that hair loss only occurred in aging people; however, it has been made clear that the condition can also be experienced by infants, teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged people—that is, a person of any age may be afflicted with hair loss problems.

Higher than the rate of scalp denudation is the rate of how much one loses confidence or self-esteem. To battle hair loss problems, herbs have been proven helpful and effective. The application of herbs to treat hair loss may need a lot of patience from you since results don’t magically take place overnight.

The herb most notable for its ability to treat and prevent further hair loss is saw palmetto. One of the most renowned herbal hair loss treatments, saw palmetto has been used for thousands of years to combat hair loss. Saw palmetto works by blocking the buildup of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) in the scalp. DHT formation is the primary cause of the cessation of hair growth on the scalp. Saw palmetto extracts is the usual ingredient in hair loss products that come in capsules, topical creams, or hair oils.

Another herb useful to treat hair loss is rosemary. Rosemary primarily works in obtaining hair regrowth or recovering lost hair shafts. The application of the essential oil of rosemary helps in activating dormant hair follicles and unclogs the pores from dirt, grime, and excess sebum. Rosemary also contains properties similar to that of antioxidants.


An herb that may be found right on your gardens is nettle. Nettles also serve as hair loss treatments. The application of hair loss products containing nettle extracts can lead to stimulation of better blood circulation to the scalp. This herb is known for its rich content of vitamins and minerals for healthy hair growth.

The use of herbal extracts, essential oils, natural hair loss treatments, or organic-based products for hair loss has been proven to be equally effective in inhibiting the formation of DHT in the scalp. More importantly, natural treatments for hair loss have been proven to cause no harmful side effects, as opposed to synthetic products and medications for baldness.

Hair Loss Treatment: Inexpensive Alternatives

Hair loss can occur for different reasons. As of now, there still is no definite treatment that is applicable for those who are worried about the state of their hair. To be able to get the right hair loss treatments, a person would have to identify what type of hair problem he or she should deal with.

Therefore, the first step to treating alopecia is to identify, with the help of an expert, the type of alopecia that hit you and so you could proceed with the treatment options. If the hair loss is due to stress, illness, sudden and drastic weight loss or the like, doctors would tell you to just keep yourself off whatever it is that you are thinking or to give your hair time to grow back. These would not trigger hair fall for a very long time.

The sudden changes in the hormones due to stress or illness would cause hair to fall but once the balance is attained again, things will be back to normal and your hair would grow again. The same thing is true with those who are into crash dieting. When the nutrition level changes rapidly, the hair would fall but once proper nutrition intake is re-attained, the hair could grow back normally again.

Those who went through illness would also notice that their hair fall would be excessive but as long as they recovered from that, the hair would also grow back even without any effort or use of hair treatments. Should you have hair loss due to a different and slightly permanent cause, such as alopecia areata’s different forms—androgenic alopecia, traction alopecia and alopecia universalis—you would have to settle for certain methods. Usually, the condition would last for a year or so and the patches would disappear and hair would grow back. But since a year is a bit too long a time to wait, the best that a person could do is to resort to various treatments available.

There are approved medications for hair loss which a patient could use conveniently but there are also clinical procedures as treatments hair loss for those who would want more results or expert inputs in their efforts to grow their hair back. Severe hair loss especially one that has been bothering a person for a decade or so would be a hard thing to deal with and often, there are no treatments that could grow the hair back. Hairstyles that could hide the thinning of the hair could be a very good option for some, while others stick to wigs and extensions to get a full hair effect.

Another popular option for some people now is to have hair transplant which is a process where the hair from the healthy areas of the scalp (those parts where hair grows healthily) are harvested and transplanted to the part where hair loss is very visible. When administered by an expert, the result could be very pleasing as if hair loss never occurred. To ensure the effectiveness of these hair loss treatments, the word of a physician would be your best reference.

Seasonality of Hair Loss

Many people, especially women, complain about increased, seasonally-determined hair loss. This applies to women who suffer from female hair loss as well as those who don't. A recent study tried to determine whether there was any truth behind such claims. The study was conducted over a period of six years with subjects that were not suffering from any clinically proven form of hair loss, though all of them complained about seasonally recurring shedding. Subjects taking medications, which could cause increased hair loss, were also excluded from this study. 823 women participated.

Analysis of trichograms clearly showed regular periodicity in hair growth and shedding during the year. The maximum percentage of hairs in the telogen (resting phase) was registered in summer, with early spring showing a second peak. The lowest percentage of hairs in the resting phase - and, therefore, the highest hair density - occurred in late winter. This confirms the results of earlier studies that annual periodicity in hair growth and shedding exists; but this was the first systematic, large scale study.

Other Related Topic : Hair Loss Product | Female Baldness | Laser Therapy