stop hair loss

Men have been seeking an ultimate cure for baldness for ages but until quite recently all available remedies were either cosmetic cover-ups or vitamin/mineral pills and herbal lotions, with too many of them just being scams. It was only with the advent of finasteride and minoxidil and improvements made in hair transplantation techniques in recent years that the new era began, enabling hair loss sufferers to halt the further progression of the balding process and replace the missing hair on top of their head using the hair left at the back of their scalp. However, to this day no ultimate cure for baldness exists. Nevertheless, there are presently several promising drugs and new techniques under development but none of these new therapies is expected to hit the market before 2010.

To start with, NEOSH101 is being developed by the US firm Neosil and it is currently undergoing phase IIb clinical testing. NEOSH101 has been proven to be a more powerful and faster-acting hair growth stimulant than minoxidil while it only needs applying once daily. Though significantly improving the current hair loss treatment options, NEOSH101 is not going to become an ultimate cure for baldness. The clinical trials seem to be advancing slower than most hair loss sufferers would like and, therefore, do not hold your breath for it hitting the market anytime soon. NEOSH101 is mainly expected to replace minoxidil and other existing hair growth stimulants.

Another promising line of development seems to be the telomerase research. Telomerase is an enzyme that is said to able to put natural caps on telomeres and thus protect them from shortening. Telomerase thereby maintains the genomic integrity. Shortened telomeres are associated with the premature aging processes. However, the uncontrolled activation of telomerase can cause cancer. Cancer research happens to be the main focus of the telomerase study but scientists are also looking for other applications, such as anti-aging drugs and drugs against hair loss and grey hair. Although still under development, there are already some products available on the market that seek to emulate the mechanism of telomerase action but they have no scientific backing and should better be avoided. Telomerase research could really change the world of medicine but its commercial application might be a good decade away.

Hair multiplication, often called hair cloning or follicular neogenesis, is the next hopeful treatment option being currently developed. This technique involves extracting the hair follicles from the back of the patient’s scalp, culturing and multiplying them and injecting the newly-grown hair cells into the bald scalp. Among several teams of scientists on three continents researching hair multiplication, the UK healthcare firm Intercytex appears to be the frontrunner. However, Intercytex is currently facing financial difficulties and is looking to sign-up a partner, which can delay the development process. This therapy might hit the market in 2013 at the earliest. The main benefit of hair multiplication would be solving the chronic shortage of donor hair that is the main limiting factor in hair transplantation.

Generating hair follicles in hair-free skin wounds is an utterly new approach to regrowing hair. It was discovered accidentally as wounded skin in mice started growing new hair. This technology is currently being developed by the US medical device company, Follica that licensed this technology from the University of Pennsylvania. Though this method may sound weird it only uses common instruments and drugs that have already been medically approved and thus it might not take too long for it to become available to the public.

This is the list of only a few promising treatments for hair loss that are being currently developed but many others seem to be in the pipeline. It appears that becoming bald will soon be by choice rather than destiny.

The first and the most common mistake most hair loss sufferers make is having unrealistic expectations. This will always lead to frustrations, no matter how good or bad the treatment was. Irrespective of what the manufacturers and marketers of any hair loss product say, do not believe that you can recover all of your lost hair. The best available treatments only enable you to slow down the balding process or, in better instances, to keep the existing hair. The ultimate achievement you can expect from any hair loss treatment is to regrow the hair you have lost in the previous three years. But this is only possible if you start treating your condition at an early stage of the balding process. This brings us to the second mistake many hair loss sufferers make - denying their hair loss and starting to treat their condition only once they have already developed a bald patch. The later you start treating the baldness, the less chances you have of regrowing lost hair. In order to regrow hair you should have fine miniaturised hair left in your bald areas. This hair is often called peach fuzz. Once your hair follicles have died and there is no baby hair left, no miracle can rejuvenate them.

Many hair loss sufferers, as they start conducting their research, become scared reading about the potential side effects of proven medicinal treatments such as finasteride or minoxidil and opt for allegedly safer alternative treatments. Marketers of natural, hair loss remedies tend to overexaggerate the negative side effects of medicinal drugs in order to lure you into buying their product. The chances that you will lose your sex drive from finasteride or grow additional facial hair because of minoxidil are typically less than 1%. You should first try the proven medicinal treatments and only if you have experienced negative side effects try some alternative therapy. Starting with unproven products right away deprives you of the opportunity to test some of the best remedies available out there. If you begin treating your condition with an alternative treatment, the likelihood you pick the one that works well for you is close to nothing. Thus, you are almost certainly wasting time while the hair loss continues to advance. And do not believe that all natural, hair loss treatments are safe. That is not true either.

Another common mistake is to use multiple treatments at the same time. If you wish to try different things, do not try them all simultaneously. Any treatment requires a minimum of four months to kick in and you should allow it at least six months to deliver results. Overdosing will not speed up or improve results either.

And lastly, do not overreact to seasonal shedding periods. Shedding is common to almost any hair loss treatment. If you start a new treatment such as Rogaine, you will first have to shed the old hair. Rogaine will stimulate your hair follicles, resulting in increasing the thickness of your miniaturised hair. But this will not happen overnight. First, the old thin fibber must be shed, then the hair follicles rearrange themselves in order to start producing thicker hair. Typically, the first signal that the treatment is working is accelerated hair loss.