Totorus

Photo credit by paloetic

There are a number of men and women who find themselves losing hair as they get older. The type of hair loss I'm talking about is inherited, and it doesn't come from a sickness, disorder, or as a side effect of another medical treatment. In addition, despite rumors to the contrary, this form of baldness doesn't occur from long hair putting too much weight on the roots to be properly supported, or doesn't happen because wearing a hat choked off blood flow to the scalp. It can be inherited from either the mother's or the father's side of the family, and can't be slowed or stopped via scalp massages. There are some genuine methods for slowing or stopping this form of hair loss though, as well as some for reversing it.

Topical applications are the main way to slow and stop hair loss. The over the counter product called Rogaine contains a drug known as minoxidil. The drug usually comes in a 2% solution and it works best to stop the loss of hair located on the crown of the head. While some people might see new hair growth while using this product, Rogaine usually just helps you hold onto the hair that you already have. Another drug called finasteride can be used to achieve similar results. The name of this product that contains finasteride is Propecia. People who might use Propecia should be warned that its side effects may include impotence in some users, but it will help maintain hair and stop its loss.

For people who want to get back hair that they've lost, there are a number of surgical options available. Hair transplants (which surgically remove hair from the back of the head and transplant it to the front) have become much more reliable and medically sound as technology has advanced. For those who don't want to have hair transplanted, there is another type of surgery available. In this procedure, bald patches of skin are cut away, and then nearby areas of the scalp where hair still grows can be drawn closer together and stitched to close the wound. This eliminates a patch of skin that won't grow hair, and aside from a small scar makes it look as if the baldness has gone away.

A last way to slow down or stop hair loss is to simply maintain good health. A lot of the time people lose hair because their body's nutrition is out of whack, and they don't get enough exercise. For people who eat well, exercise regularly, and who keep their nutrition balanced hair loss isn't usually an issue. Additionally there have been stories about men and women who began going to the gym more regularly, cutting out smoking and fast food, and taking proper vitamins whose hair began to grow back in places they'd just accepted would stay bald.

The best way to avoid baldness and to keep your hair on your head then is to exercise regularly and to eat well. However, if you do begin to lose your hair there are a number of medications and surgeries available to try and reverse the course that nature has taken. And as medicine becomes more advanced then new options for the restoration of hair will likely become available to men and women who want to keep their hair, and regrow what they've already lost.