Alter Hair Loss Problems with Alternative Treatments

You don’t have to use medications or expensive surgeries in order to stop your hair from thinning. Natural hair growth treatments can offer results that are just as good without posing an unnecessary risk to your health. Some of these treatments involve using natural ingredients to stimulate the strands to grow. Others involve doing simple routines to stop hair loss.

Massage Your Scalp to Increase Blood Flow

A scalp massage is one of the best hair growth treatments because it’s very effective and it’ll not cost you anything except a few minutes of your time. By massaging your scalp, you’re helping your strands get the nutrients they must have in order to grow.

The reason for this is that a scalp massage increases circulation or blood flow. As the blood travels to the scalp, it carries important proteins, minerals, and vitamins to the hair roots, which feed the strands. Another benefit is that massaging the scalp removes dirt and bacteria which may clog the follicles and prevent the nutrients from reaching the roots.

Aromatherapy

You can use aromatherapy as a remedy to get your strands growing. It involves using natural oils, which are good natural hair growth treatments. Take 6 drops each of bay oil and lavender oil and combine it with 4 ounces of almond oil. Massage the mixture into your scalp.

Herbal Hair Growth Treatments

Certain herbs are effective hair growth treatments for people who have androgenic alopecia, which is also known as male or female pattern baldness. Medical experts believe this condition is caused by the build-up of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the scalp. This hormone attacks the follicles, which causes the strands to fall out.

Saw palmetto allows the strands to grow back because it curbs the over-production of DHT. Green tea prevents the enzyme 5-alpha reductase from converting testosterone into DHT.

It’s very important for you to begin treatment for your hair loss as soon as you notice that your strands are thinning. This will significantly increase your chances of getting your strands to grow back. If the follicles sit there for too long without strands, the follicles will lose their ability to function and the hair loss will become permanent.

A Healthy Lifestyle for Healthier Hair

Some men look regal sans their crowning glory. Actors Patrick Stewart, Jason Statham and Bruce Willis, and singer-composer Pitbull can carry off their shaved heads with gusto and cool confidence.

But for many, hair loss makes a huge dent on self-esteem. I know a few men who, under their manly composure, would quietly slab on hair tonic or seek treatment for their receding hairlines. They no longer think that just because they are men, it’s fine to be bald.

The problem with losing hair is that sometimes, you are just predisposed to it. It’s a genetic thing. If your father’s hairline recedes early, chances are, so will yours.

The most common type of hair loss is pattern baldness or androgenetic alopecia, which affects both men and women. Half of all men and women over 60 suffer from this. It ‘runs in the family’ and is genetically determined.

We all have androgen receptor genes, which hold the key to whether we are genetically predisposed to hair loss or not.

Lifestyle also affects the condition of our hair. So if we cannot control our genes, a healthier lifestyle may help us retain our crowning glory longer.

The difference between 30 years ago and now is that people today are more stressed. Adding to the damage is the unhealthy environment, such as air pollution. Also, our typical diet consists of more processed food. What is bad for the body is bad for the hair.

Our hair is also constantly being subjected to strong chemical treatments in line with fashion. In the long run, hair will be damaged. Finally, many of us don’t get enough rest and sleep, which do not give hair ample time to regenerate.

Shampooing also plays a role in hair loss. We want to emphasise proper hair and scalp care because excessive hair loss can be exacerbated by unhygienic scalp conditions. There is always a need for greater awareness and education — many people still focus on the hair and neglect the scalp which has an important role in determining hair health.

How to Regrow Your Hair Right at Home

Hair loss has plagued men and women for as long as we can remember; fortunately, home remedies for hair growth have also continued to evolve with time. What’s interesting to note, though, is that most modern treatments go back to the wisdom of our forefathers’ old practices.

At the onset of hair thinning or hair loss, worrying about it is quite common, although not at all beneficial. In fact, stress can play a role in the early thinning/loss of hair. People generally go all out when they first realize they might have a problem with hair loss and, in the process of looking for hair growth solutions, end up trying things that do more harm than good. Moreover, there is no dearth of unscrupulous elements out there hoping to make a quick buck through unsuspecting hopefuls.

Since hair loss is attributed to different reasons, the solutions should take into account an individual’s particular case. Know that different treatments are suggested for different kinds of hair loss and while one treatment might work on someone else, there is no guarantee that it will work on you too. The good thing is that there are various home remedies for hair growth that you can try before getting all worked up and visiting your family physician.

Go Herbal

Many eastern cultures make use of herbs in more ways than just cooking, and herbs are often used to treat an assortment of medical problems. When it comes to hair growth, herbs such as stinging nettle, gotu kola, saw palmetto, and ginseng are believed to be helpful, and these can be found in many commonly available hair growth products and supplements in the market today.

Think Coconuts

Coconut milk and oil both have a beneficial effect when it comes to home remedies for hair growth. With coconut milk, apply it on your scalp for approximately half an hour and rinse it with slightly warm water. The oil can be left on the scalp overnight.

Coconut oil is massaged onto the scalp and left overnight for best results, and this is something that certain cultures practice from a rather young age (prevention, after all, is better than cure). Coconut milk can also help, although washing it off in about half an hour after application is suggested.

Apply Apple Cider Vinegar

This easy-to-find solution has been recommended for hair growth for quite some time now and has some effect for most users. When applied on the scalp, it helps clear up the layer of dead cells from the surface, thereby promoting the growth of hair.

There are other things that you can do to try and get your hair growth back to normal; however, bear in mind that not all the solutions work equally well for everyone. And in the event that you feel your condition is progressing quickly, consulting a medical professional is highly recommended.

Surgical Hair Restoration: A Stigma or a Satisfying Solution?

Hair restoration or hair transplants used to be taboo but not anymore. It may sound like a cliché, but for many, it’s given them their lives back. Male hair loss can be deeply traumatic. Some pass it off as insignificant and live with the ‘bald jokes’ quite happily. But for others, it is a different story. For a great many men, going bald is life-altering and, unless treated, can have tragic consequences.

Signs of baldness can cause bouts of anxiety, psychological stress, emotional distress, lack of self-confidence and even depression. Brad — who once had a glorious mane but now self-deprecatingly calls himself ‘another bald man’ — admits his ‘self-image took a beating’. For a fair number, the thinning of hair psychologically denotes loss of virility, attractiveness and even decline in sexuality.

Off-Limits Subject

Such is the stigma around hair loss and transplants that many men did not even want to talk about the subject; they thought it was an invasion of privacy and believed the subject was off limits.

Norman says, ‘You become obsessed. Every moment is spent looking at yourself in the mirror, looking at your hair, analysing what could be and how and why’. Norman’s wife said that he had ‘real identity and confidence issues’ when he started going bald ‘because he took it as a sign of ageing’. Some men take to wearing a hat and hiding behind it.

Hair transplant candidates are strangely reticent, as if discussing or showing an inclination or opting for a transplant depicts a weakness; as Norman says, of ‘not being a real man’. He adds, ‘It might have something to do with the image of bald men and potbellied stars trying to behave like youngsters when, in reality, they look very old. That reminds us of old age’. Another reason could be that a bald head remains one of the few physical flaws used as a butt of jokes.

Either way, it is ludicrous that in today’s cosmetic frenzy to shy away when it can be easily rectified and that’s just what seems is happening. Secrecy and shame and embarrassment continue to shroud hair transplants and premature male baldness in general. Strange given that hair loss affects 60% of men before the age of 40 and that of those affected, one in four will begin the process before the age of 21.

Baldness or alopecia usually follows a typical pattern of receding hairline and hair thinning on the crown. This happens because of an excess of a chemical called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, which causes the hair follicles to make thinner and thinner hair until they eventually pack up completely.

Today, it’s more acceptable for men to worry about their hair and spend money on correcting things they don’t like about themselves. It seems that the psychological factors in male hair loss have been vastly underestimated.

Hair transplant techniques have become more sophisticated. Old methods involved taking large sections of skin from the back of the head and grafting them on top of the scalp, resulting in erratic and unnatural-looking regrowth. But follicular unit extraction, or FUE, is almost undetectable. FUE allows surgeons to place individual follicles back into the thinner parts of the hairline around the top and the front of the scalp. The results are sometimes dramatic and, more to the point, very natural in appearance. ‘Transplants have changed my way of life. It was horrible going bald’, Nick shares. He adds, ‘Anyone who says he doesn’t mind going bald is lying. It is debilitating and creates another persona, which is not you at all’.

Not everyone is a good candidate for hair transplantation, though, and not just those with conditions such as alopecia totalis, which leaves them without any suitable donor sites. Some have behavioural issues that need to be addressed.