Hair Loss Medicine

The most frequently prescribed remedies for male pattern baldness by dermatologists and hair loss clinics are Propecia, or some other form of finasteride, such as Proscar, and Rogaine, or its generic form - minoxidil. Some doctors will also recommend you to use supplementary vitamin and mineral pills, some anti-dandruff shampoos, such as Nizoral, and a laser comb. But very few dermatologists and hair loss clinics will recommend their patients buy herbal treatments. But there are so many of them out there and most of them claim that they work better than Propecia or any other medicinal hair loss treatment prescribed by your doctor, while being free of potential negative side effects so typical of prescription medicine. And some of the manufacturers seem to be so much convinced about the effectiveness of their product as to offer you a full money back guarantee. Or is it a catch?

First, one needs to differentiate between medical practice and the pharmaceutical industry on one hand and the cosmetics industry on the other. The medicinal and pharmaceuticals industries are strictly regulated in almost every country in the world, ensuring patient’s safety. Doctors can only prescribe certain medications for certain conditions and the safety and efficacy of such medications has to be approved by the national health supervisory authorities. Such products are considered safe and clinically proven to help treat the given condition. If your doctor recommends you some other, unproven herbal hair loss remedy, they will be taking the risk of supporting a treatment that has not been subjected to any rigorous clinical testing. Most doctors would not do that since they have no guarantee that such a product would be beneficial to their patients and recommending a bad treatment could hurt their reputation.

Although some of the active ingredients in herbal hair loss products may pose a health risk, despite the common belief that they are safe, this is not their main controversy. The principal question is whether the herbal hair loss remedies are effective in treating baldness. They might be effective to a certain degree since many of them also contain generic minoxidil, the only existing, clinically-proven and FDA-approved topical medicine for treating hereditary hair loss. Additional components, besides herbal extracts, usually include minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Most of these substances are either essential to ensuring healthy growth of hair and skin or they have been shown to promote hair growth, mostly in small studies conducted on rodents. They have never been clinically tested for treating hereditary baldness and thus their effectiveness and mechanism of action are unknown. They may or may not help promote hair growth but since no clinical proof of their efficacy exists, the only way to find out is to buy them and try for yourself. And should they fail to work as promised, you may find out that the generous money-back guarantee, after deducting their incurred costs, only applies to a small percentage of the original price. This is the way some herbal hair loss product manufacturers make their money.

In summary, no herbal hair loss remedy has ever been clinically proven and independently verified to treat hereditary baldness. This does not necessarily mean that all herbal hair loss remedies are ineffective as they might work for some of us. However, they are usually overpriced and should at best be expected to maintain your existing hair rather than grow new hair from a bald spot.

The key difference between various minoxidil based hair loss treatments is in the patient’s tolerance of the product as many patients have had to abandon treatment with minoxidil due to its disturbing side effects. It is advisable to try several different minoxidil based products, for instance, those that do not contain propylene glycol, in order to test their tolerability for your scalp.

Rogaine was the first medical drug in history approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating genetically determined hair loss. By now it has been approved and is available as a cure for baldness in many other countries of the world. Its sole active ingredient is minoxidil, a vasodilator that was initially used in the form of the oral drug Loniten to treat high blood pressure. Minoxidil is a hair-growth stimulant but its exact mode of action is not exactly known. Since Loniten has long come off patent, generic minoxidil is widely available in drugstores at a very reasonable price and in most countries it does not require a doctor’s prescription.

Both Rogaine and generic minoxidil come in concentrations of 2% for women and 5% for men but many experimental, generic products use concentrations of up to 20%. Minoxidil is often blamed for causing various negative side effects. Since it has become the most frequently-used medicine for treating baldness, its side effects are well documented and they seem to be often exaggerated. In less than one percent of patients they include an irregular or fast heart beat, very low blood pressure, blurred vision, swelling face and ankles, numbness in the hands, etc. These symptoms are directly related to minoxidil being a vasodilator. In addition, minoxidil can cause unwanted hair growth on the face and other parts of the body. This is due to its ability to stimulate new hair growth. But some negative side effects that minoxidil is usually blamed for are not caused by minoxidil itself. They include inflammation, itchiness and redness of the scalp, dandruff and allergic reactions. These side effects can be attributed to the vehicles used in the solution, such as isopropyl alcohol (propanol) and propylene glycol. Many hair loss sufferers have stopped their minoxidil treatment because of scalp problems, although minoxidil rarely causes such reactions.

Furthermore, many generic, minoxidil-based topical lotions contain supplementary ingredients that are supposed to enhance their overall efficacy, such as azelaic acid, retinoic acid, herbal extracts, etc. These substances, especially the herbal extracts, are known to be allergenic to many patients. It is advisable to try various minoxidil-based products, for instance, those that do not contain propylene glycol, in order to test their tolerability for your scalp. A more expensive product, such as the original formulation - Rogaine solution - is not necessarily a better choice than a less expensive generic mixture. However, Rogaine foam, though quite expensive, is generally well tolerated. Anti-dandruff shampoos, e.g. Nizoral, can, in the majority of patients, be employed successfully to treat scalp inflammations, itchiness and dandruff caused by the use of minoxidil-based topical products.

Conquering baldness and restoring lost hair is to many of us a distant dream. However, there are existing options for replacing lost hair and some of them may seem surprisingly effective even to the most sceptical hair loss sufferer. The three principal methods of hair restoration include surgical hair restoration, non-surgical hair replacement and therapies for regrowing hair using pills and topicals. The main technique of surgical hair restoration today is hair transplantation, whereas wigs, hairpieces, hair thickeners and hair loss concealers are the most popular aids used to replace the lost hair by non-surgical means. The non-surgical cover-up is obviously the quickest and the least expensive method of replacing lost hair, though not tremendously popular, as many people believe that wigs and concealers cannot withstand rain and wind and do not look natural. In spite of this common belief, some of them are extremely resistant to external influences and can appear very authentic. Wigs and concealers are usually the only option of restoring lost hair for people suffering from non-hereditary forms of hair loss such as unpredictable alopecia areata.

Surgical hair restoration is the most expensive method of restoring lost hair but also the most elegant and lasting solution. It can only be used in people suffering from hereditary baldness and burn patients. Candidates should have sufficient hair density at the back of their scalp and many women suffering from female form of hair loss with its typical diffuse balding pattern do not meet this condition. Hair restoration surgery has made great advances in the past twenty years with the introduction of the two main techniques used today - follicular unit transplantation and, more recently, follicular unit extraction. These improvements in hair transplantation techniques enable the grouping of hairs very close together, which gives modern hair transplants a completely natural look. The main weakness of hair transplant surgery, besides the high cost and the pain involved, is the limited supply of donor hair and the need for multiple surgeries to achieve the final change. Furthermore, patients have to commit themselves to the use of finasteride or any other adequate medicinal hair loss therapy for the rest of their lives to prevent further loss of hair in areas adjacent to their hair transplant.

Pills and topicals do not, despite great scientific advances and the discoveries of recent years, provide satisfactory hair restoration results yet. The two most frequently prescribed hair loss drugs, finasteride and topical minoxidil, can be effectively used to manage hair loss but their ability to regrow lost hair is relatively weak. Their effectiveness typically declines sharply in the later stages of the balding process. There is no existing medicinal or natural hair loss cure that can deliver adequate visual results comparable to either hair transplant surgery or non-surgical hair replacements such as wigs and hair loss concealers. Although there are some promising medicinal hair loss drugs currently under development, especially in the area of genetic research, the ultimate pill for baldness is not expected to emerge within the next fifteen years. Other advances in hair science, such as hair multiplication, often called hair cloning or the generation of new hair follicles in wounds, also hold out some promise but it appears that hair transplant surgery will in the next ten to fifteen years remain the most satisfactory method of hair restoration.