For those fighting thinning hair, here’s a list of balding remedies that just might do the trick.

Basic Remedies

Some basic remedies exist in the hair-loss battle. These remedies are simple devices that provide low-cost tactics to camouflage your balding pate.

Clever/Strategic haircuts

The easiest solution is simply to work with what you have… left. Depending on the severity of your situation, you can work with a stylist to craft a haircut that works for you and your fading tresses: Longer bangs disguise receding hairlines and longer cuts make hair look fuller. Or, if you dare, go for a clipper cut or a clean shave; honesty is the best policy!

Thickening shampoos

Thickening shampoos line store shelves everywhere, but your best option is brands found at hair salons. (Ask your stylist for recommendations or try Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree Lemon Sage Thickening Shampoo.) Thickening shampoos utilize natural extracts and chemicals to boost volume, “plump” hair strands and strengthen follicles. The idea is good in theory, but results vary: Some guys will see thicker, more voluminous hair, but for others it’ll be a wash — literally.

Hair dyes and cover-ups

For thinning hair, the ever-faithful cosmetics industry offers several inventive dyes and cover-ups to create the optical illusion of hair. For instance, one option, Toppik, consists of organic keratin fibers that intertwine with your own hair, making your mane appear full and thick. Similar products exist and can be found easily online. Just remember these options are costly and sometimes obvious; the only person you may end up fooling is yourself.

Pharmaceutical Options

Only two FDA-approved balding “remedies” exist: Rogaine and Propecia. These medications go beyond cover-up attempts by trying to prevent loss and actually regrowing hair. Both drugs are serious alternatives and should be used in consultation with your doctor, even if one is available over-the-counter.

Rogaine

Since earning its FDA-approval in 1988, Rogaine (minoxidil) has become a household name. At its core, the product is a vasodilator — a chemical that dilates the smooth muscles in blood vessels — thus, when applied directly to the scalp, it revitalizes shrunken hair follicles and increases their size, eventually leading to thicker-looking hair and new hair growth. But proven results aside, Rogaine may not be the miracle cure you seek. The average user must apply it twice a day for four months before any results are visible (and results vary). That’s a big time and money investment for potentially miniscule results. On top of that, discontinuation usually leads back to square one within twelve months. And though side effects are generally mild, Rogaine can cause serious conditions like low blood pressure, vision loss, abnormal heart rhythms, and chest pain. Rogaine undoubtedly works for some, but it doesn’t work for all.

Propecia

Propecia (finasteride) earned its FDA pedigree almost ten years after Rogaine. An enzyme inhibitor, Propecia blocks DHT, a chemical that can shrink hair follicles until they’re almost nonexistent. What’s more, the drug has also caused hair to regrow in some cases. Average users saw results in about three months. (And similar to Rogaine, discontinuation leads back to where you started in less than a year.) One of Propecia’s best aspects is that it’s administered as a once-a-day pill. But the flip side is that it’s a prescription, so the price always varies and a prescription can be more difficult to obtain. And last but not least, some potential side effects make Propecia a double-edged sword: They range from decreased sex drive and sperm ejaculation to abdominal pain and impotence. Who needs hair if you can’t have sex?

Surgical procedures

The most serious contenders looking for balding remedies opt for surgical procedures. Since the severity of each alternative varies, guys contemplating any of these options should carefully consider the expected outcome, cost and risk associated with each procedure.

Hair transplants

The most invasive surgical option in regards to balding remedied, hair transplants are more effective and less conspicuous than ever before. Today’s procedures are less painful, less expensive and exhibit less scarring but still require several visits to complete, which means an obvious transition period. Transplants operate by grafting tiny follicular units from hair-growing sections of the scalp to problem areas, so the tiny grafts will be visible until the transplant is finished. (Note: Sometimes “plugs” fall out, take three months to grow and are still visible afterward.) Several options exist (mini-grafts, micro-grafts and follicular-unit relocation), so conduct pre-consultation research before making a decision. Hair transplant surgeons and clinics are abound, so begin you’re research here. Should you go this route, a hair transplant could leave you with a much fuller head of hair; but once you’re in this hair club, it’s hard to get out.

Flap procedure

A more radical option, flap procedures are conducted in three phases and consist of surgically moving a flap of hair-growing scalp to a bald area. While the first two phases are minimally evasive, the third requires a section of skin be moved from point A to point B. But once completed, you have naturally growing hair where there was none before. These procedures can be highly effective when performed properly — again, do your research on the front end — but they do come with setbacks as well.

For one, there’s nothing subtle about the procedure: You’ll need bandages for a few weeks, and you’ll suddenly have hair once those come off. Also, scarring can occur at both the donor and relocation sites, so you may have new “hairlines” all throughout. Despite the time, cost and pain, flap procedures do provide a realistic solution to bald spots.

Scalp reduction

This one is just what it sounds like! In scalp reductions, bald areas of your scalp are surgically removed, and hair-baring tissue is stretched over these areas to offset the difference. Scalp reductions are usually performed in conjunction with flap procedures, but not always. Choosing this alternative means electing the most serious surgical option, and should only be pursued under the care of a highly reputable surgeon. If the procedure is not done properly, permanent “stretch-back” scars can appear at sites where the incisions were made — sure, you’ll have less baldness on your head, but you’ll have jagged scarring to go with it.

It was there before

Thinning hair becomes an issue most of us have to face. Some will simply let nature run its course, and others will tackle it head-on. Regardless of which path we choose, we should know that several balding remedies do exist and the best option is always the one that makes us comfortable in our own skin.

Source: Brandon Dyce, AskMen.Com

Barely a month goes by without another male celebrity admitting to a hair transplant. Earlier in the year, TV chef Gordon Ramsay was photographed leaving a Los Angeles clinic sporting the telltale surgical cap. Strictly Come Dancing judge Jason Gardener chose the show’s final episode to reveal his newly transplanted locks.

The latest reported fan is Michael Eavis, the 74-year-old Glastonbury Festival organiser, who has said he was inspired to consider the operation by Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United ace unveiled his replenished head on Twitter last month, telling fans that it was “still a bit bloody”.

This celebrity endorsement looks set to kick off a trend, with an estimated 10,000 men now getting surgical help to improve their crowning glory every year, and new hair-loss clinics reportedly sprouting at an alarming rate. But with at least one dentist now offering to restore follicular fortunes, how can men know if they are in the best hands? Or even if they are suitable candidates?

Hair-transplant surgery involves moving hair from an area of relative excess, such as the back and sides of the head, to the bald area at the top. Ultimately, this is an issue of supply and demand: there needs to be enough hair in the donor site to supply the demand on top. Unfortunately, not all men meet this criteria, including Eavis – judging from the extent of his baldness.

Male pattern hair loss is classified according to the Norwood scale, named after Dr O’Tar Norwood, the American dermatologist who described it in the Seventies. The scale describes seven distinct stages, from a full head and a teenage hairline to a horseshoe-shaped band at the back and sides. Men at the lower end of the scale do well with hair transplants where there is more supply and less demand.

The trouble is that male pattern baldness is progressive, so it is important to think about the future before proceeding with surgery. A man who is at stage three in his early twenties may well get an excellent result from a hair transplant at the time, but he could be destined for class seven in his forties, leaving him with a ludicrous island of transplanted hair at the front and a bald area behind. Aside from technical ability, one of the most important skills of any hair-transplant surgeon lies in making the decision when to operate, and when to say no.

The surgery itself, which involves thousands of tiny tissue grafts, is meticulous and painstaking. When hair transplants were first performed in the late Fifties, surgeons removed punch biopsies of hair-bearing scalp from the back of the head (similar to the circular holes produced by a paper punch), and plugged them into the bald area on top. The unfortunate results often resembled dolls’ hair, with small circular patches of hair growth surrounded by baldness. Techniques have moved on, and today’s transplants produce a more natural look, but they are also more technically demanding and need to be carried out by a highly skilled surgeon. A single operation requires some 4,000 to 5,000 tiny grafts of single follicular units, each containing between one and four hairs and a single sebaceous gland.

The hair is first removed from the back in a single strip, which a team of assistants carefully dissect into follicular units. The surgeon then creates incisions for the 4,000 or so grafts to be inserted, and the team of assistants delicately place the grafts one by one, in each tiny incision. It is exacting work, involving 12 to 15 professionals working between eight and 12 hours at a time.

There are relatively few centres in the world that have the level of experience and set-up to do this well, which may explain why celebrities such as Ramsay have travelled to the US, where the procedure can cost up to £40,000.

After surgery, most of the transplanted hair will fall out in the first few weeks and begin growing again three or four months later, with the final results not showing for 12 to 18 months. At the donor site, the scar from the incision usually fades to a fine white line, hidden beneath the hair that remains.

A newer method, using surgical instruments to extract hair follicles from the donor site one by one, has the benefit of avoiding the straight line scar at the back. Often marketed by clinics as the latest in “scarless hair transplants”, the technique is not universally accepted, with some specialists claiming that it damages follicles and reduces “yield”. Whether this technique eventually prevails, only time will tell.

Male pattern baldness is a source of enormous distress to many men who may be tempted by the promises of a new generation of hair clinics. However, prospective patients should think very carefully about the long-term implications and choose wisely when selecting with whom to trust their follicular fortunes.

Source: The Telegraph

Hair loss, or hair fall, can cause social embarrassment for men and women alike. Although receding hair line is a natural phenomenon, it is definitely a cause of concern if it occurs at an early age. There may come a time, when you suddenly experience hair loss, and your hair start falling off in chunks. You consult your hair expert, change your hair care products, but to no avail. When you consult your doctor, he will advise you to undertake thyroid tests. You wonder how are thyroid problems and hair loss related to each other? Well, they definitely are! Here we will see what causes hair fall, if suffering from thyroid disorders, and how can it be treated.

Hair Loss and Thyroid Problems

If you are aware, the thyroid is a small gland located in the throat region. It is shaped like a butterfly, and is one of the most important glands in the body. It is mainly responsible for proper metabolism in the body. Modulation of carbohydrates, fat and proteins; and energy production in the body takes place with the help of the thyroid gland. However, sometimes, due to some reason, the thyroid gland fails to produce sufficient amount of hormone. This condition is known as hypothyroidism, or low thyroid. There are several symptoms associated with hypothyroidism; hair loss being one of them. Along with hair loss, symptoms like weight gain, depression, irritability, fatigue and dry skin are also observed.

But one may wonder why does low levels of thyroid cause hair loss? Due to improper functioning of the thyroid gland, the hormones required for proper metabolism of the hair follicles are not formed. Therefore, this leads to a stage of dormancy. As the hair remain in this stage for a longer time, they die out and fall. Secondly, the lack of metabolism also leads to deficiency of proteins and vitamins in hair. Hair do not grow properly due to lack of these vitamins and proteins. Hence, they become brittle, coarse and fall off. An important thing to note, when talking of thyroid problems and hair loss in women and men, is that it is not only the hair on the head that falls off due to hypothyroidism. Hair from eyebrows, armpits and genitals also become brittle and fall off due to these problems.

Although hypothyroidism is one of the most prominent causes of hair loss in people, hyperthyroidism can also be one of the reasons for the same. Hyperthyroidism is a condition that develops when there is over production of the hormone. Graves’ disease is one of the forms of hyperthyroidism which is commonly found in 80% of people suffering from hyperthyroidism. Weight loss or weight gain, nervousness, anxiety, fatigue, palpitations, tremor, nail changes and hair loss are the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, or overactive hormone.

Treating Thyroid Problems and Hair Loss

If you suffer from severe hair loss for no known reason, it is wise to consult a doctor immediately. Similarly, if you observe any of the above mentioned symptoms along with hair loss, then too, you need to consult a doctor to diagnose the cause for the same. Thyroid tests help in diagnosis of hyperthyroidism as well as hypothyroidism. There are traditional thyroid problem treatment methods which the doctor will prescribe. Secondly, the doctor may even advise certain supplements or natural remedies to stop hair loss and treat the thyroid problems. If the condition is caused due to autoimmune disorder, the doctor will prescribe medications to suppress the immune system. Although the treatment methods are effective in stopping hair loss, there is no treatment for regrowth of hair!

As it is clear that thyroid problems and hair loss are surely related to each other, one should identify the symptoms of thyroid problems and consult a doctor immediately on the same. Lastly, if your thyroid tests prove normal, you can consult a hair care expert to find out the cause for hair loss, and look for proper treatment. Take care.

Source: Madhura Pandit, Buzzle

Using cell samples from men undergoing hair transplants, the team compared follicles from bald scalp and non-bald scalp, and found that bald areas had the same number of stem cells as normal scalp in the same person. However, they did find that another, more mature cell type called a progenitor cell was markedly depleted in the follicles of bald scalp.

The researchers surmised that balding may arise from a problem with stem-cell activation rather than the numbers of stem cells in follicles. In male pattern balding, hair follicles actually shrink; they don’t disappear. The hairs are essentially microscopic on the bald part of the scalp compared to other spots.

“We asked: ‘Are stem cells depleted in bald scalp?’” says Cotsarelis. “We were surprised to find the number of stem cells was the same in the bald part of the scalp compared with other places, but did find a difference in the abundance of a specific type of cell, thought to be a progenitor cell,” he says. “This implies that there is a problem in the activation of stem cells converting to progenitor cells in bald scalp.”

At this point, the researchers don’t know why there is a breakdown in this conversion. “However, the fact that there are normal numbers of stem cells in bald scalp gives us hope for reactivating those stem cells,” notes Cotsarelis.

In 2007, the Cotsarelis lab found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. The team determined that wound healing in a mouse model created an “embryonic window” of opportunity to manipulate the number of new hair follicles that form. By activating dormant embryonic molecular pathways stem cells were coaxed into forming new hair follicles.

In the JCI study, the group also found a progenitor cell population in mice that is analogous to the human cells; these cells were able to make hair follicles and grow hair when injected into an immunodeficient mice.

The researchers say their next steps will be to study the stem and progenitor populations in other types of hair loss, including female pattern hair loss. The information may assist in developing cell-based treatments for male pattern balding by isolating stem cells and expanding them to add back to the scalp directly. They will also focus on identifying factors that could be used topically to convert stem cells to progenitor cells to generate normal large hairs.

Source: Karen Kreeger, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine via EurekAlert

NEW YORK – A team of investigators from Columbia, Rockefeller and Stanford Universities has identified a new gene involved in hair growth, as reported in a paper in the April 15 issue of Nature. This discovery may affect future research and treatments for male pattern baldness and other forms of hair loss.

The researchers found that the gene, called APCDD1, which causes a progressive form of hair loss beginning in childhood (known as hereditary hypotrichosis simplex). The disease is caused by a phenomenon called hair follicle miniaturization – the same key feature of male pattern baldness. When hair follicles go through this miniaturization process, they shrink or narrow, causing the thick hair on the head to be replaced by thin, fine hair, known as “peach fuzz.”

“The identification of this gene underlying hereditary hypotrichosis simplex has afforded us an opportunity to gain insight into the process of hair follicle miniaturization, which is most commonly observed in male pattern hair loss or androgenetic alopecia,” said Angela M. Christiano, Ph.D., professor of dermatology and genetics & development at Columbia University Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “It is important to note that while these two conditions share the same physiologic process, the gene we discovered for hereditary hypotrichosis does not explain the complex process of male pattern baldness.”

The team made their discovery by analyzing genetic data from a few families from Pakistan and Italy with hereditary hypotrichosis simplex. They found a common mutation in the APCDD1 gene, which is located in a specific region on chromosome 18 that has been shown in previous studies to be implicated in other forms of hair loss, including androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata, hinting at a broader role in hair follicle biology.

Importantly, the researchers found that APCDD1 inhibits a signaling pathway that has long been shown to control hair growth in mouse models, but has not been extensively linked to human hair growth. Laboratory researchers have targeted this pathway, known as the Wnt signaling pathway, to turn on or off hair growth in mice, but, until now, the pathway did not appear to be involved in human hair loss. This finding is significant because it provides evidence that hair growth patterns in humans and in mice are more similar than previously believed.

“We have at last made a connection between Wnt signaling and human hair disease that is highly significant,” said Dr. Christiano. “We have years of beautiful data in our field about hair growth in mice, but this is the first inroad into showing that the same pathway is critical in human hair growth. This is the first mutation in a Wnt inhibitor that deregulates the pathway in a human hair disease.”

“Furthermore, these findings suggest that manipulating the Wnt pathway may have an effect on hair follicle growth – for the first time, in humans,” said Dr. Christiano. “And unlike commonly available treatments for hair loss that involve blocking hormonal pathways, treatments involving the Wnt pathway would be non-hormonal, which may enable many more people suffering from hair loss to receive such therapies.”

Dr. Christiano and her team are now working to understand the complex genetic causes of other forms of hair loss including alopecia areata, with the hope of eventually developing new, effective treatments for these conditions.

Source: Elizabeth Streich, Columbia University Medical Center via Eurek Alert