Tuesday February 9, 2010 13:10
Hair Loss: How To Handle It And What Your Options Are
Posted by Steve Glide as Health Products
Hair loss can be a sensitive subject for many men and women. Women especially may have a hard time dealing with a lack of hair since it can be a sign of their femininity. Many women view their hair as their crowning glory, and men may see hair loss as a sign they are growing older before they want to, or that they are less masculine or virile than a man with a full head of hair. If you are someone who is having a hard time dealing with hair loss, you can relax and know that there are different options you can choose from to deal with the situation.
Many men find that they are suddenly dealing with male pattern baldness. It starts innocently enough, with a slight thinning at the top of the head. It may begin with widow’s peaks, where the forehead extends up into the hairline on both sides of the face. Then, one day, you wake up and discover that the hair on the top of your head is completely gone and you are left with a strip of hair around the back and sides of your head. Men often feel that a loss of hair may affect their attractiveness but this is not the case. A woman is more likely to look at a man’s confidence and personality as signs of attractiveness rather than whether he has a full head of hair or not.
One way that many men try to treat their hair loss is through the use of the infamous “comb over”. A man will allow his hair to grow longer and then comb it from one side of the head over to the other. The theory is that the hair will sit over the bald spot and hide it. It is not the most effective means of hiding it and it can actually accentuate the fact that you are losing your hair. It is actually more attractive to trim the hair short rather than allow it to become long and unkempt looking.
Women can experience hair loss as well, although they usually lose their hair due to illness or a condition such as alopecia. Some women have the condition so severely that they can become completely bald. Their hair loss often does not follow any specific pattern and is often spread over the entire head. There are medicines, such as chemotherapy drugs that can cause hair loss in both men and women.
Lotions and creams are often the first line of attack when people are trying to encourage hair growth. There may be the use of supplements or special vitamins as well in some hair growth treatments. You need to know that there are significant differences between men’s hair growth products and women’s. They use different formulations and you definitely need to make sure you are not using the one intended for the opposite gender. They are very potent. Many products even say that a woman who is pregnant or who wants to become pregnant should not touch the wrappings or packaging for a man’s hair product.
There are also surgical methods to replace hair and reverse baldness in men and women. They include hair plugs and hair transplants. These can be painful and uncomfortable to get but are good at giving you the full head of hair you have been missing. Hair grafts and transplants involve moving sections of hair from areas where it is growing thickly and placing it in areas that have little to know hair growth. It is important with transplants that the blood supply to the skin and the follicles not be interrupted, since this can cause transplanted skin to die. This can be uncomfortable or downright deadly depending on how severe the tissue death is.
Hair creams and surgery will not work in some cases. If you suffer from a medical condition such as alopecia, there may not be enough hair to work with to transplant. If the hair has suddenly stopped growing, creams and lotions may not work. If hair loss is temporary due to medication use or medical treatments, you should look at a hair piece. This can be a toupee designed to cover a bald spot in a man, or a full wig for a woman. A hairpiece should look natural and be comfortable to wear since you will be wearing it for extended periods of time. You can buy human hair wigs that are comfortable and look more like real hair. You should know that they can be expensive, but if you are dealing with hair loss from cancer there are organizations which provide wigs to women undergoing radiation or chemotherapy.
If you are fighting hair loss, you should know about the different options available to you. Whether you choose a cream, hair replacement surgery or a hair piece, dealing with your hair loss has never been easier and the options keep increasing as medical research continues.
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