stop hair loss

Every hair loss newbe starting to conduct his own research into the most effective hair loss treatments has got one thing in the back of his mind – to find a pill that would be harmless in terms of its potential side effects but effective in regrowing lost hair. Topical applications are less desirable due to uncomfort of using them let alone hair transplantation. By the time he gets to the next stage of identifying the most suitable treatment he understands that a topical application would be a necessary component of any hair regrowth strategy. It is only after many hours of tedious hair loss research and dissapointnents with some ineffective treatments that he acknowledges the fact that hair transplantation is the only way of restoring his old glory naturally.

So let’s cut the long story short – why don’t we realise right away that the only way is the proven hard way. The best that the hair restoration science has to offer today are two FDA approved medications for maintaining and in some lucky individuals also regrowing some of their lost hair and hair transplantation. Hair transplantation or hair surgery is at the moment the ony ultimate method of restoring lost hair due to the hereditary factors. Hair transplantation has many limitations though. It is not suitable for alopecia areata patients, it does not work too well for women who are usually suffering from diffuse form of hair loss and it is not suitable for patients who have thin hair in the back of their head. However, for the most male patients hair restoration, abstracting from the pain and the cost involved, is the ultimate hair restoration option available today as transplanted hair is permanent; it is your own genetic material and therefore looks natural and feels like your own. And it can cover your bald area in a few weeks, which no other permanent treatment can achieve.

Medicinal hair loss treatments happen to be the only clinically proven options to effectively treat hair loss. Despite this fact they are often being avoided by hair loss patients in their fear that these substances are causing negative side effects. As a result many hair loss sufferers will rather use some freely available though unproven alternative treatment than visit their doctor and have some medical treatment prescribed.

The best known medicinal treatment that is suitable for both men and women is minoxidil. Minoxidil is the name of the active substance but most people better know it as Rogaine, which was the first product that used minoxidil to treat hair loss. Minoxidil is now freely available in pharmacies around the world and in the most countries it does not require doctor’s prescription.

Finasteride (trade name Propecia) is probably the most effective hair loss treatment for men but also the one blamed for causing numerous side effects. Some stories of its negative side effects have been vastly exaggerated in order to convince the consumer to buy alternative treatments. However, the truth is that finasteride can cause sexual side effects in about 1% of the patients. Dutasteride is finasteride’s closest relative and it is currently in Phase III clinical testing for treating hair loss in men and it is also thought to cause similar negative side effects as finasteride. Both finasteride and dutasteride are prescription medicals.

What finasteride is to balding men, spironolactone is to women suffering from hereditary hair loss. It is also an anti-androgen drug like the two previous drugs but this one can only be used by women due to its strong feminizing effects on males. Flutamide is another strong anti-androgen that is occasionally used to treat hair loss in women and should be avoided by male patients. Spironolactone and flutamide are prescription drugs.

The list of other medicinal hair loss treatments that can be prescribed to treat hair loss includes superoxide-dismutase, copper-peptides, fluridil, aminexil, alfatradiol, etc but none of these drugs has been approved by the FDA for treating hair loss so far though some clinical proof of their efficacy exists.