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Laser Hair Therapy Effective For Hair Loss

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:16:46 +0000

By Ray Treadwell

Laser hair therapy is a relatively new development in the treatment of hair loss for men and women. Lasers have played a huge part in medical procedures for decades, but the cool, low light lasers that are now used in laser hair therapy have only been around for about ten years in Europe. Only in the past few years have they been approved by the FDA to be used in America. Naturally, there is skepticism about any new product, but the studies and facts about laser hair therapy should assure anyone that laser hair therapy is here to stay as a great, non-invasive option in hair restoration and treating hair loss.

First, to understand why laser hair therapy works, it’s important to understand the reasons behind hair loss in the first place. Age, genetics and hormones play significant roles in both male and female pattern hair loss. An overabundance of a hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that is triggered both by age and genetics can begin to weaken hair on a follicular level, targeting the roots. When DHT enters the picture, the root becomes malnourished, starved of essential nutrients that keep hair growing and regrowing. All of us shed hair. There is a natural cycle to hair shedding and regrowth. But when DHT becomes a problem, the hair that sheds regrows weaklier. Hair becomes thinner and less vigorous. Eventually, the follicle will quit altogether and the root will finally die. That hair, once gone, is gone for good. Gather up a receding hairline full of such follicles and suddenly, you’re going bald.

Topical solutions such as Rogaine can put the DHT back in balance by inhibiting it. Such products stop hair loss, but do little to reinvigorate the hair that’s left. And if you ever stop using Rogaine your hair will simply fall out. So what’s the answer?

FDA -approved laser hair therapy does what topical solutions cannot. Low-level laser light is applied to the scalp for thirty-minute sessions, during which the patient feels nothing. This is because the changes are going on at a molecular level. Light from the laser hair therapy penetrates the tissue down to the roots and, bathing the root hair in stimulating light. This encourages a better blood flow around the hair root, which, in turn, nourishes the follicle root. Your hair is like a plant that has been stuck in the basement without sunlight, which results in stunted growth. The plant will wither and eventually die. But when exposed to sunlight again, it begins to grow and thrive. This is what the renewed blood supply does for the follicle. Laser hair therapy brings nourishment and oxygen back to the follicle and it begins to grow in a normal, healthy way again.

Laser hair therapy works equally well with both men and women. Because it’s a non-invasive therapy and painless, treatments are done in quick, easy visits to hair replacement clinics that offer laser hair therapy. Hand-held laser brushes, recently approved by the FDA, are portable laser units that can be purchased for home use. These laser brushes are not as powerful as the low-light lasers used in the hair clinics, but have the advantage of easy use whenever and wherever a clients prefers and have shown proven results in up to 90% satisfaction rate.

One of the great advantages of laser hair therapy is the fact that it’s all-natural. There are no hair systems, no glues, no adhesives and no surgery involved. For those not willing or ready to take that next leap into surgical hair restoration or commit to wearing a hair system, laser hair therapy may be the answer to premature hair loss.

Forty-year old Lydia Tomeleson began finding an alarming amount of hair every day in her shower drain. She was devastated when she noticed her thinning hair. Her mother had lost much of her hair around the crown of her head and Lydia dreaded the same fate. When she began seeing the white of her scalp through her hair, she visited her doctor and found that she was pre-menopausal. Hormones had conspired to thin out her hair. Her doctor explained that hormones (DHT in particular) had begun to weaken her hair follicles, which was why they were excessively shedding and not regrowing with the normal cycle. He recommended stimulating the blood supply of her scalp by using laser hair therapy. She went to a hair loss treatment clinic that offered laser hair therapy and underwent treatment. It took three months to see a real difference with laser hair therapy, but in 8 months, her hair had begun to grow back, even healthier than it had been for years. Lydia stopped checking her self-esteem at her door and began to feel like herself again, regaining the confidence she had lost.

If your hair is thinning and you want a more natural approach to hair replacement, talk to a hair loss treatment specialist about laser hair therapy. It can restore both your hair and your self-esteem.

Ray Treadwell is a freelance journalist with specialized knowledge of the Hair Loss industry with an emphasis on Laser Hair Loss Therapy Contact Ray at laserhairloss@gmail.com for more information. Laser Hair Loss Treatment.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Hairpieces for Baldness – Toupees and Wigs

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:23:53 +0000

If you prefer to dodge the pain, time and cost of surgery, there’s always the old, reliable hairpiece.

Obviously, all toupees and wigs are not created equal. Just as the transplant is only as good as the surgeon, the hairpiece is only as good as the person creating it and the materials used.

There are a variety of ways of affixing the hairpiece, which consists of human or synthetic hair implanted one hair at a time into a nylon netting. No method is permanent.

The hair weave involves sewing a wig into existing hair.

Also there are more traditional methods: You can use bonding (a type of glue), metal clips, or simple tape to attach the hairpiece to the scalp. Unlike the weaves, these give you the option to take the hairpiece on or off with ease. Many companies advertise “hair systems” or “hair clubs,” which, according to Santangelo, offer check-ups to clean, color and tighten the hairpiece.

Lark Lambert, consumer complaint coordinator for FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, notes that in addition to maintaining the cleanliness of hairpieces and wigs, it is important not to neglect the scalp under the wig. Keeping it clean and healthy avoids skin irritation and disease, he says. Also, as a precautionary safety measure, first-time users of hairpiece adhesives and solvents should test a patch of skin for 48 hours to determine possible skin sensitization to these products.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

surgery to eliminate baldness – hair transplants

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:21:03 +0000

Twenty years ago, many people felt they risked looking like a Cabbage Patch doll if they chose surgery to eliminate baldness. Now, says Carlos Puig, D.O., director of Puig Medical Group, which is headquartered in Houston, better surgical techniques–used by increasingly skilled surgeons–are getting more eye-pleasing results.

“When I started in 1973 … it was like the Stone Age,” the cosmetic surgeon says, referring to the equipment and techniques in use. Now, he says, surgeons have learned to create a much more natural-looking hair line, using scalpels to cut either small slits or holes in the scalp to receive transplanted hair.

While there are numerous types of surgery, they can be sifted into two main categories: transplantation and scalp reduction.

Transplantation involves moving hair from densely covered sites on the sides or back of the head to bald areas of the scalp.

The key to success, explains Anthony Santangelo, president of the American Hair Loss Council, is to have good sites on the sides or back of the head from which to move hairs. Otherwise, patients can’t expect ample coverage. Because their hair loss is diffuse, women generally lack good donor sites, making transplantation impractical for them.

The biggest improvement in transplants is with “micro” or “mini” grafts. “You’re looking at one to two hairs shot into the head with a needle,” Santangelo says. “It achieves a very, very fine, natural-looking hair line. The significant difference there is you need a lot of hair to do that.”

Surgeons also use larger round plugs of seven to 10 hairs. Line grafts, the shifting of strips of nine to 12 hairs, are common, too.

One thing to keep in mind is that prosthetic hair fibers for transplantation are banned by FDA. Implanting them, according to Stephen Rhodes, acting chief of FDA’s plastic and reconstructive surgery devices branch, caused a high incidence of adverse reactions, including infection.

If male-pattern baldness has left you with too much balding area to cover, you may benefit from scalp reduction: the surgical removal of large sections of a bald scalp. Extenders and expanders, elastic devices placed under the skin to stretch the hair-bearing scalp regions on the side of the head, have been used as a complement to reduction surgery.

Another surgical method is the flap technique, which rotates hair-bearing scalp areas from the sides or moves those areas from the back forward. The flap technique has the highest complication rate, though, Puig says. Bleeding, scarring and infection can occur from surgery. But advances, such as knowing what size flap to use and how to enhance blood supply to the region, have cut down on the visibility of scars.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Topical minoxidil is the only approved way to regrow hair

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:19:07 +0000

Currently, if you want to regrow hair, topical minoxidil is the only approved way to go. As Washenik explains, no one is quite certain how minoxidil, an oral medication originally approved to treat high blood pressure, works to grow hair.

To be effective, minoxidil must be used twice a day. It works better on those who are younger and whose hair loss is recent, according to clinical studies by Pharmacia& Upjohn.

Those studies show that 26 percent of men between 18 and 49 reported moderate to dense hair regrowth after four months of Rogaine treatment. An additional 33 percent had minimal hair regrowth. Almost 20 percent of women between 18 and 45 had moderate regrowth, while an additional 40 percent showed minimal regrowth.

A company spokesman said the research accounted for the fully pigmented hair fibers normally seen on the scalp and not vellus hair, which is more like peach fuzz. Many doctors, however, say the number of their patients who have as much success is much lower, and some find that only vellus hair appears.

“I have not been that impressed that it helps regrow hair,” Kayne says. “I think that occurs in a very small minority.”

One plus that Denise Cook, M.D., medical officer in FDA’s division of dermatologic and dental drug products, points out is that patients report a decrease in shedding due to minoxidil use, though whether that perception is the result of fewer hairs being lost or more hairs being produced is unknown. Normally, you should lose only about 100 hairs a day.

One possible side effect of minoxidil is an itchy scalp. Another drawback is that it must be used for life or any regrown hair will fall out. Also, only those people losing hair on the crown, not in front, are candidates for regrowth.

Researchers are optimistic that more products to boost hair regrowth will be coming down the pike. For example, Proscar (finasteride), now used to treat enlarged prostate glands, has anti-androgen properties that may make it marketable as a hair-loss prescription, Washenik says. Theoretically, he says, if a drug can be targeted to halt the conversion of testosterone to DHT in the scalp region only, it could stop hair from falling out. He foresees combinations of medications as the wave of the future.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration