Sometimes after you shave your head, the new hair seems to be thicker. That’s because the new hair is healthier and undamaged by chemicals in the air and shampoos. But that doesn’t mean shaving makes your hair thicker and healthier.

It is permanent and unfortunately there are still not many treatment options available for female pattern baldness. The FDA has approved minoxidil 2% for female pattern baldness treatment. It work 20% of the time. However, it is costly and time consuming. Many women use hair weaving, hairpieces, or wigs to cover the baldness. Like the male pattern baldness, this is also caused by genes plus hormone changes. In most case, it is part of aging process.

Normally people lose roughly 100 hairs from their head every day and the average scalp contains around 100,000 hairs. That hair loss 0.1% of the hair an average person has. But the lost hair is replaced by new ones. You get a problem when the new ones stop growing. So hair loss itself is not a problem, the issues lies in your body’s failure to produce new hair.

The best way to void hair loss is not to do anything that could harm the growth of new hair. That includes unnecessary hair dyes.

Source: Department of Health and Human Services

One problem, says FDA’s Cook, could be a condition called alopecia areata. It’s an autoimmune disease of unknown cause in which inflammatory cells attack the bulbs of the follicles under the scalp, leaving hairless patches. In more serious cases, hair may fall out from the entire head–eyebrows and beard included–and the entire body. Many times, though, the hair returns spontaneously.

Childbirth, severe malnutrition, chemotherapy, thyroid problems, and a form of lupus can also cause hair loss.

Something as simple as pigtails or cornrows, if worn too long, can cause hair loss, too, because of the stress they cause to the hair shaft.

The medical opinion concerning the role of emotional stress in balding is mixed. If stress does play a role, however, it’s only at times of extreme emotional trauma, according to Kayne at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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

Male-pattern baldness refers to the upward retreat of the hairline from the forehead, as well as an expanding area of fallout from the crown of the head. In the end, all that might be left is a horseshoe-shaped fringe around the sides and back of the head. Female-pattern baldness, which recently has received more attention since Pharmacia& Upjohn began packaging and marketing Rogaine separately for women, refers to a diffuse pattern of hair loss throughout the scalp.

Research continues in search of ways to treat androgenetic alopecia and allow hair to sprout in barren scalps. But, at this time, all you can do, if you’re a man, is to look at your father’s head and your mother’s father’s head to see how they fared, because chances are you’ll wind up with a similar fate. In addition, female-pattern baldness can be passed down from mother to daughter.

“I think it’s just the luck of the draw what your genetics are,” says Allan Kayne, M.D., a dermatologist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

In male- and female-pattern baldness, the culprit is something called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, which is derived from androgen, a male hormone. Circulating through the bloodstream, androgen is converted to DHT by the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. Those with greater enzyme activity have more DHT binding to hair-follicle receptors. If flooded by DHT, the follicles sprout thinner and thinner hairs until nothing regrows, and the follicles eventually wither away.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration