Gray Hair Treatment

Hair loss is similar to gray hair in that it is in the most cases genetically determined and thus very difficult to deal with efficiently. The hair loss treatment options can be, in the first place, divided into surgical and non-surgical therapies. Although there are only a few surgical techniques currently used, the non-surgical spectrum is wide and confusing. Propecia and Rogaine might be the best known medicinal hair loss treatments, while dried fruits of saw palmetto and a Chinese herb, He Shou Wu, also known as Fo-Ti, are the natural ingredients most frequently used in alternative hair loss remedies. Fo-Ti is also frequently used to treat gray hair.

The non-surgical, hair loss therapies can be in principle broken down into medicinal and alternative treatments, whereas when considering methods of application, they can be divided into oral treatments, topicals and others, such as low-level laser therapy or massage. Irrespective of the aforementioned breakdowns, hair growth treatments work either by blocking the activity of dihydrotestosterone, also called antinandrogens, or by stimulating hair growth.

Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is a biologically-active metabolite of the male hormone testosterone that is held to be the main cause of both male and female hereditary pattern baldness. DHT causes hair miniaturization as the hair becomes finer and thinner with every new hair growth cycle until the hair follicles refuse to produce another hair at all. The exact mechanism by which DHT affects hair follicles is not known, though. Finasteride, better known under its trade name Propecia, is the only clinically-proven and FDA-approved anti-androgen used for treating male pattern baldness. It acts by preventing the creation of DHT in the scalp. Since the introduction of Propecia, many other drugs and natural therapies have emerged claiming anti-androgen activity. Some of them are supposed to work by a different mode of action than Propecia, such as preventing DHT from binding to the receptor sites in the follicle or blocking activity in the androgen receptor itself.

Minoxidil, also known under its trade name Rogaine, is the best-known hair loss medicine amongst hair growth stimulants. It is assumed that hair growth stimulants work by directly stimulating epithelial growth of hair follicles and some of them may also counteract the hardening of the hair follicles but the exact mechanism of their action has never been described. One thing that all hair growth stimulants claim to have in common is their ability to increase the length of the hair growth cycle, thus improving the ratio of hair in the growth phase and to increase the hair’s diameter.

The natural hair loss treatments are in principle assumed to work by the aforementioned modes of action and are often presented as safe alternatives to medicinal treatments. There are not too many hair loss treatments out there that have been clinically proven and independently verified to be effective in treating baldness. Of those few existing, all happen to be medicinal drugs. Natural hair loss treatments have still to live up to marketer claims.

When deciding about the most suitable hair loss treatment option, one should consider approaching the problem from different angles. It is best advised to use a combination of anti-androgen and hair growth stimulant, such as a Propecia/Rogaine combo. Alternative, hair loss treatments, for instance natural remedies, should mainly be considered as a method of fine-tuning this basic regimen in order to achieve additional benefits. You may need to try out several combinations of hair loss treatments to find out for works best for you.

The hair loss industry generates worldwide annual revenues of several billion US dollars, but there seem to be only a few options proven to deliver measurable results. One such option is hair transplant surgery. Hair transplant surgery alone is estimated to make revenues of three billion dollars from the nearly 300,000 hair transplants that are expected to be performed around the world this year. In addition to that, there are billions of dollars to be made annually from the sales of diverse hair loss products. But how many of them really work? One would not be exaggerating to say that 90% of all non-surgical, hair loss treatments are a scam. Having said that, billions of dollars are spent every year wastefully on useless rubbish. One thing is wasting money and the other no less important thing is losing the battle against time while the hair loss continues, most likely becoming irreversible. But how can you tell which product is a waste of time and money without trying it out?

Once you have pinpointed the product you are considering buying, check the independent consumer reviews to get a basic understanding of its effectiveness. Do not use testimonials at the manufacturer’s website. It is best-advised to use references from large independent websites such as Folica, Amazon, GreyHairLoss or RateItAll and crosscheck with reviews at various hair loss forums. Since it is almost impossible to recognise right away who is telling the truth and who is cheating you, you might need to come back and check again here once you have done your research and gained a better understanding of the product and its individual components.

As a second step, you should look at the composition of the hair loss remedy you are considering trying. If you cannot find the list of individual, active substances, ask the manufacturer or its marketer to provide it. If they fail to provide you the required breakdown, consider it a scam. You need to check the stories behind active substances and if you want to get a really good insight into their science, you must verify references to clinical trials and peer studies. This is probably the most difficult and the most time-consuming part of this job.

The third thing you might need to do is to check the manufacturer’s claims. If they sound unsubstantiated and too good to be true or the before and after pictures appear unrealistic, be careful. And lastly, if the product you are looking at is promoted on the web, check on the site and in the whois directory who is behind the website promoting it. If the name of the owner is hidden behind a whois guard, apply a deep discount to your valuation. Any person or company that truly believes in its product will be proud to have its name and address attached to it.

Though these tips may not be exhaustive, they should assist you in assessing the potential of the hair loss remedy you are considering buying and might save you frustration with wasting time and money on useless rubbish. If you have tried certain products already and want to share you experience, there are several places where you can have your word spread and heard by other hair loss suffers, such as the aforementioned Amazon, Folica, RateItAll and GreyHairLoss, to name just a few.