Management of Baldness
There are many things to know about treating baldness but one of the most critical to understand is that baldness treatment is over a billion dollar per year industry with many companies trying to sell you their treatment to cure baldness. While there are treatments that do allow you to regrow some or all of your hair there is no complete cure for baldness. So the process becomes the management of the symptoms which in this case is hair loss. And you must evaluate any new process that claims to be the cure to hair loss.
Men with classic male patten hairloss is roughly equivalent to decade of age, so at age 20 you would expect 20% of the male population to be balding, 30% at age 30, 40% at age 40 and so on. So most men can expect to have some amount of hair loss as they age. There are genetic factors that predispose some men to baldness. These factors include androgen receptor polymorphisms, scalp 5-alpha-reductase levels and androgen receptor density.
FDA approved treatments for male pattern baldness come in the form of a topical medication Minoxidil or oral the medication Finasteride. While these are the only FDA approved medications many other topical and off label use prescription medications have been shown to regrow hair. There is not a clear understanding how Minoxidil causes hair growth, some believe that it restarts dormant telogen phase follicles due to the increased blood flow from being a vasodilator. Other topical medications vary in how they cause regrowth but most oral medications modify the male hormone dihydrotestosterone. The role of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in causing male pattern baldness is well understood and documented in many studies.
Non FDA approv3d medications that have been shown to regrow hair include the topicals Ketoconasole, Miconzole, Tretinoin, Emu Oil, Castor Oil, Progesterone, Hydrocortisone and Cetrizine. Oral drugs include Saw Palmetto, Dutasteride, Spironolactone, Estrogen A&B, Bimatoprost and even some sulfa Arthritis medications.
Other treatments include hair transplant surgery to transplant non hormonally sensitive follicles from the back and sides of the scalp to the frontal/vertex regions. These procedures have improved over the years but none could be considered a cure as the hair coverage is typically still not normal even with massive number of hairs transplanted. Laser devices have been reported to cause some regrowth but no clinical trials have been undertaken. Needling using devices such as a Dermaroller have also been reported to increase hair growth.
There are many companies that are working on a cure to baldness through various means and they are covered on the New Research page.
There are proven treatments that can resolve hair loss and through proper management you can regain lost hair.