Are you finding quite a lot of fallen hairs on your pillow and bed when you wake up in the morning? Take a good look at your hair brush or comb, do you see more than the usual hairs being stuck on it? Are you noticing that your hair is thinning out and you are beginning to go bald? If the answer is yes, are you terrified of the thought that you may be going to be completely bald one day soon?

The cold hard fact of dropping hair regularly and the prospect of going bald can be very depressing and even terrifying to many men. Almost all men will experience some kind of noticeable hair loss when they are in their 50s although for the unfortunate ones, they will even begin the balding process when they were much younger. It is roughly estimated that about 30% of men in their thirties and up to 50% of 50 year old males will have already developed rather extensive balding. 
 

So can we slow down hair loss and prevent ourselves from becoming bald? Well, there are many things that can cause your hair to fall out such as stress, anxiety, certain illnesses and medications, chemotherapy treatment, certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies and so on, but the most common culprit of balding is the androgenetic alopecia or what is commonly known as the male pattern hair loss although some women can be affected by it too since the hair loss problem is not entirely in the male domain alone.

Male pattern hair loss is usually genetic and hereditary in nature. If your close or immediate family members have male pattern baldness, then you are very likely to have this hair loss gene programmed into your DNA blueprint as well. For most men with this genetic condition, their hair will continue to fall out for as long 12 to 20 years before they are completely bald. For the unlucky ones, all it takes is merely 5 years or so to have a shiny hairless scalp.







 

In the male pattern balding syndrome, hair typically begins to fall out from the crown of the head or at the forehead. These two receding hair lines will spread wider and wider until eventually the entire scalp will be left bereft of any hair. Look around you, this typical pattern of balding progression can be seen everywhere with men having some hair at the side and back of their heads, but having a shiny hairless scalp at the top of their heads just like they are wearing a bishop's skull cap.

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In a healthy scalp, a hair usually sprouts out from a follicle and will remain there for around three years or so. Thereafter, it will then fall out of the hair follicle and a new hair begins to grow out from the same follicle. 

In the case of male pattern baldness, hair loss begins with some hair follicles shriveling up and getting smaller and smaller in size. As the follicles shrink further progressively, new hair growth from the same follicles gets thinner and thinner than the earlier ones.

To make matters worse, the new hairs growing out from the shriveled follicles also fall out earlier than the usual 3 year cycle. As the shriveling up of the hair follicles progresses further, new hair cannot grow out of them anymore and the follicles eventually close up completely and permanently prohibiting any more new hair to grow out from them.

Once the follicles close up for good, the situation is no longer reversible. Meaning nothing can be done to have new hair growth from the sealed up follicles. So the main aim is to prevent the follicles from closing up in order to put a stop to the balding process. Can this be done? The answer is yes, at least for some lucky men.

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​The male hormone testosterone do play some part in male pattern baldness since the scalp converts testosterone into another hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and this unbound hormone affects the hair follicles in a rather negative way as it causes the follicles to shrivel up and eventually closing up permanently. However not everbody's hair follicles react to DHT in the same manner. The men with better genetic predisposition on their hair growth cycles may have more DHTs than the other guys but yet are able to keep their crowning glory intact. So it all largely boils down to your genes.

Nobody has yet to find out why DHT strangely affects only the hair follicles on the scalp but not on the hair follicles on other parts of the body such as on the face, arms, legs, chest and the genital area. Besides making guys to lose their hair, DHT is also linked to prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate) and even prostate cancer, but this will be a subject for another discussion altogether.

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To many men, becoming completely bald is a cold hard fact of life and they have to accept it as part and parcel of the aging process whether they like it or not. Although no treatment is required since losing one's hair is not a serious medical condition, many men are still distressed by it and are seeking ways to reverse their hair loss and to grow new hair predominantly for aesthetic reasons rather than anything else.

As at of this moment, there are two generally accepted medications that can combat hair loss and to grow new hair. The active ingredients are minoxidil and finasteride and they come in various brands such as Regaine, Propecia, Proscar and other generic brands. 

Although finasteride is an active ingredient for both Propecia and Proscar, the latter is used more to treat male prostate problems and is higher in dosage per tablet. Finasteride for hair loss works by suppressing the formation of DHT. 

You can use Proscar, usually 5mg per tablet by breaking the tablets into 1mg pieces which will make it as the same dosage as in Propecia and so is much cheaper than the latter brand. Also do note that these medications do not work on women with the same hair loss condition. 

Finasteride is an oral medication and minoxidil is a topical application to be massaged onto the scalp. You will need a doctor's prescription to buy finasteride because of some contraindications. No prescription is required for minoxidil since minoxidil improves and facilitates better blood circulation to the area in which the medication is applied on and thus bringing more nutrients and oxygen to your hair follicles there. To get better results, you can use both finasteride and monoxidil together to fight hair loss more effectively.

Not all men on these medications will regain their full head of hair, but more than half of them do experience some new hair growth. How much new hair growth will depend on each individual's response to the medications. However, once the hair follicles are all closed up, no medication nor any supplement can reverse the hair dropping process to stimulate new hair growth. It also takes about 2 to 3 months or even longer to notice any good tangible results from using the medications.

The downside is that if you want to keep your hair, then you must be on the medications for the rest of your life because the cycle of hair loss starts all over again once you stop using the medications. Also about 2% of men reported some side effects such lowered libido and erectile dysfunction when they take finasteride (propecia or proscar). This can be easily remedied by stopping the medication's usage.

However many people will balk at the idea of ingesting or infusing chemically produced drugs for the rest of their lives and will prefer a more natural treatment for their balding condition. If you are one of them, then Profollica is formulated just for you.

Profollica is a natural home hair loss treatment system in which both men and women can use because unlike some other hair loss medications, it does not have any affect your hormones at all. It works by stopping the devastating effect of DHT which is shriveling up your hair follicles. Since it is all natural and is without any harmful chemicals, there are no known reports or complaints of any negative side effects till date. You can read more about Profollica here.

Other than taking or applying medication to stimulate hair growth, some people may opt for wearing wigs and toupees. The problem with this is that most people can tell if you are wearing them as usually the hair and the partings will look kind of weird and awkward. So the other alternative is to go for hair transplant.




 

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Hair transplant or hair replacement do look more natural than putting on a wig or a toupee. Furthermore it is of a more permanent feature and the hair being transplanted is not artificial hair but is your own healthy hair. As a result of this, one can hardly tell that a person has had a hair transplantation procedure done or not. Cool isn't it?

The hair Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) method for hair transplantation was first expounded upon by a Japanese physician called Dr Masumi Inaba as far back as in 1988 when he first presented the use of a 1mm needle for FUE. Sadly though, he passed on shortly after making public his thesis in 1996 called the Androgenetic Alopecia - The Modern Concepts of Pathogenesis and Treatment.

The Follicular Unit Extraction Procedure -  There are basically two main types of hair transplant procedures at the moment. They are the Follicular Unit Extraction and the Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) techniques. The differentiation of these two procedures lies in the methods of hair follicle extraction from the donor area of the patient's scalp.

 

In the FUE method, each follicular unit is meticulously taken out one at a time without other tissues around it being affected along the way, very much unlike in strip harvesting as in the FUT method where a strip of the scalp's skin is being removed and then divided into many individual units.

Thus the FUE technique of extricating each follicle is therefore less painful but is much more time consuming and since these follicles are extracted randomly, the areas where the follicles are taken from will not show any bare patches and thus it is less obvious.  Since the procedure do not do much damage to the skin of the scalp except for very tiny pin prick perforations on the skin, patients will be fully recovered in a week or less.

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The downside of the FUE method is the cost since your dermatologist or doctor must painstakingly remove the hair follicles one at a time and this takes quite a lot of time and a fine set of skill set to do so and therefore it is usually a lot more expensive than the FUT technique.

 

The Follicular Unit Transplantation Procedure - As described earlier, the FUT method requires the removal of a strip of skin from the area of the scalp from which the hair follicles are then extricated from it.

These follicles are then harvested from the strip of skin before being individually transplanted into the bald areas of the scalp. As a result of this, the FUT methodology allows for a larger number of grafts that can be transplanted in each session and therefore is a much quicker and simpler procedure to carry out.

As this methodology is more invasive than that of the FUE procedure, the discomfort level is felt more acutely by the patients concerned. There may also be some swelling, minor bleeding and some agitating pain in the areas where the strips of skin were extricated from and patients are sometimes given pain killers for this purpose.
 

At times, there may also be some scarring. However since the the scarring is not deep, it can be hidden by the hair in the area and after some time, the scars will eventually fade away on its own accord.

1) How can I tell if my hair loss condition is as a result of male pattern baldness and is not caused by something else? - 

Well, you can start by examining the areas where the hair thinning is occurring. Androgenetic alopecia is usually well confined to the area at the top of the head or your crown. This is why balding men are most often left with hair on their sides and back of their heads, but bald at the top.

Take a look at the chart on progressive male pattern hair loss earlier in this article. Is your hair thinning progression similar to what the diagram shows you? If so, it is highly probable that you are a victim of the male pattern baldness syndrome. 


2) How can I know if my hair loss condition is just temporary in nature or permanent? -  If your condition is due to male pattern baldness, then it is going to be a permanent condition. The good news is that you can stop the hair loss regression and even reversing it by using medically proven medication and the right hair restoration treatments.

Temporarily losing some hair is more common in women than in men such as during pre or post pregnancy stages. Some situations such as stress, immunological issues, allergies, certain medications and so on can also cause people to temporarily lose their hair. Usually in temporarily hair loss, the dropping of hair will stop when the aggravating factors are eradicated.

3) What are the natural ways to prevent or at least slow down hair loss? - Well, for starters, treat your hair and scalp with tender loving care. 

Keep your hair and scalp clean by washing them regularly. When washing your hair, use mild and when possible, chemical free shampoo. Then massage your scalp gently instead of using scrubs or your nails for that will damage the skin of the scalp and your hair. Furthermore, clean hair gives it more volume too, so it will look as if you have more hair than you actually do.

Since hair is made up of protein (keratin), this goes to say that you should consume enough protein such as fish and lean meat for healthy hair growth. When there is a keratin deficiency, your hair is more prone to breakages and starts falling off. You can also occasionally go to your favorite hair salon for a protein treatment for your hair.

Have a well balanced diet and supplement your diet with multi vitamins and minerals in order to have enough nutrition to sustain overall good health. When you are brimming with good health, your hair will also look likewise. Furthermore, certain vitamins and minerals are needed by your hair to be strong and healthy.

Take up a regular exercise program. When you exercise, you are improving your blood circulation as well as infusing more oxygen into your system and in turn providing more nutrients to your scalp.

Avoid brushing or combing your hair when they are wet since by doing this, you will yank away your hair strands from your scalp and thus thin out your hair even more.

Always keep yourself well hydrated. So drink plenty of water since water makes up about one quarter of your hair's composition. By the same token, avoid alcohol consumption since drinking alcohol makes you pass out more urine which in turn dehydrates you. Not being well hydrated can also complicate many other health issues too.

Quit smoking as smoking constricts your blood capillaries and as such, reducing blood flow to your scalp resulting in less nutrients being efficiently delivered to your scalp. 

Try to lead a stress free life. It is a fact that stress induces hair loss. Take up meditation classes, go for leisurely walks in scenic parks or gardens, watch funny movies, treat yourself with massages in relaxing spas, have enough sleep and so on. Just be relaxed and do things in a relaxed manner.

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