Hair Loss Prevention: Are There Remedies or Am I Genetically Doomed?

istock_000004409273xsmallGenetics plays a huge role in androgenetic alopecia, male balding pattern. When hair loss prevention is your goal, you really need to look to your relatives to see if you’ll have a problem. If your father and maternal grandfather have male balding pattern, consider it an omen that you’ll end up with a shiny dome, too.  Male balding pattern is genetic and so is the degree of balding that takes place. You genetically receive the speed and time that the balding begins through your genes. When the balding pattern starts at an early age, the amount of hair lost is usually greater.

Even though this sounds as though you might as well ask the barber for the Bruce Willis look and get used to it, it doesn’t have to be the final verdict.  The scientific community believes that the pattern of balding comes from a predisposition of the scalp hairs to be affected by DHT and testosterone.

These two androgens are responsible for the increase in size of body hair and facial hair in puberty, but cause the follicles on the head of those predisposed to androgenetic alopecia, to shrivel up and eventually die later in life.

Right now the treatment for male balding pattern can only slow down the progression and not completely cure the problem. But, the longer you forestall the death of hair follicles the more potential you have of them being available if a true cure is found.  The most acceptable treatment is Rogaine and Alopecia in the area of prescription drugs.  There are surgical procedures also available. These include Follicular Micro Grafting, the preferred technique and the older form of surgery where plugs were used. The larger clumps of hair, grafted onto the head, were never as natural. The micro grafting looks like the hair belongs.

Rogaine and Propecia are two of the prescription drugs for hair loss prevention.  They both work on some people and they both work on some areas. Since each man or woman has varying degrees of success with the drugs, you may not be one that finds new hairs sprouting after you start taking the drug.  About one third of all men find that Rogain and Propecia increase the number of hairs. Most men either show no difference or find the drugs are better and preventing hair loss.

There are shampoos that claim to not only slow down hair loss but also reverse and create new hair growth. Some of these also work to varying degrees on different people.  The various classes of shampoo for hair loss include those that stimulate the scalp and clean out the pores, those that inhibit DHT and those that feed the hair.

If you want to use a hair loss prevention method, shop around a bit. In the mean time, make sure that you eat healthy, do aerobic exercises and find a time to unwind.  A good diet can help delay the onset. Aerobic exercises increase circulation and relieving stress prevents acceleration of follicle destruction. Take a vitamin B complex and the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E to give your system an extra boot.


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