As there are bad hair loss treatments, there are also bad hair loss patients, too. Adhering to certain basic rules is necessary if you desire to be successful. One of the first things you should do before you start looking for a suitable hair loss product is to determine whether you are a hair loss patient at all and what type of hair loss you are suffering from. For male patients who have already lost a visible portion of their hair on the top and front of their head, it is easy to self-diagnose. But if you are suffering from diffuse hair loss or your hair loss began only recently, you need to go and see a dermatologist. It would be wasteful to treat a condition that does not exist. It is very common for hair loss sufferers to skip the doctor’s consultation while many others simply deny their condition. This often leads to hair loss progressing too far for it to be treated efficiently. In order to re-grow hair you must have fine colourless hair left in your bald areas. Once your hair follicles have died and there is no baby hair left, no magic can rejuvenate them.

Once you have determined which type of hair loss you are suffering from, the journey can begin. Whether you want to follow you doctor’s advice or to experiment, you need to have realistic expectations. False hopes inevitably lead to frustration, no matter how effective the treatment is. Do not believe that there is a hair loss product that can re-grow all of your lost hair. You will be lucky to find a treatment to arrest your balding process and if you manage to regrow a few hairs, take it as a special bonus. Keep in mind that the ‘before and after’ pictures on promotional websites of hair loss product manufacturers are forged. The best possible achievement you can expect from any treatment is to re-grow the hair you have lost in the previous two to three years.

Many patients do not follow professional advice to use proven treatments and instead opt for allegedly safer alternative remedies, as they get scared off by the potential negative side-effects of medicinal drugs. The common trick used by the marketers of hair loss scams is to spread stories exaggerating the harmful side effects of medicinal drugs. They lure you into buying their own product, which is most likely a waste of your time and money. Starting with unproven remedies deprives you of the opportunity to test some of the best hair loss remedies available today.

The key to any successful treatment is, besides picking the right cure, adherence to the recommended regimen. Many people, in their impatience, fail to follow their doctor’s instructions and begin experimenting with multiple treatments simultaneously. This typically leads to them abandoning treatments before they have started producing results. Any hair loss treatment requires a minimum of four months to kick in and you should allow it at least six months to deliver measurable results. Overdosing will not speed up or improve results.

And lastly, do not overreact to shedding. Shedding is typical to any effective therapy. If you start a new treatment, such as finasteride, you will first have to shed the old hair. Finasteride protects your hair follicles from harmful effects of DHT, resulting in an increase in the thickness of your miniaturised hair. But this will not happen overnight. First, the old thin miniaturised hair must be shed, and then the hair follicles rearrange themselves in order to start producing thicker hair. Typically, the first indication that the treatment is working is shedding.