Hair Loss Treatment

Forty percent of married Americans would rather their spouse be overweight than bald and 45 percent try to hide thinning hair, a U.S. survey indicates.

The survey of 1,001 U.S. adults, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Rogaine, an over-the-counter brand-name version of minoxidil made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil-PPC Inc. that promotes hair regrowth, also says 57 percent say they are not physically attracted to people with thinning hair.

Seventy-five percent of Americans incorrectly cite stress as a leading cause of hair loss, while 35 percent say frequently wearing a hat thins hair and 24 percent blame over-styling of hair.

“What people don’t always know is that hereditary hair loss accounts for 95 percent of all hair loss, and can affect men as early as their late teens and early 20s,” Dr. Robert Leonard, founder and chief surgeon of Leonard Hair Transplant Associates and member of the board of governors for the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, said in a statement. “By age 40, approximately 40 percent of women will experience some degree of thinning hair.”

In laboratory tests animals fed with a zinc supplement showed signs of more hair growth, as opposed to loss of hair in animals that were deprived of zinc in their feed. It was discovered that there was a change in the hair protein structure when zinc was deficient in the diet.

Severe zinc deficiency in humans has been shown to produce baldness and scalp problems that were reversed when zinc was returned to the diet.

Zinc has also been shown to stop hair turning grey. One doctor taking zinc for a year reversed the grey hairs which returned to their original colour.

Zinc can be depleted by high stress levels. For a good source of zinc, wheat germ is the best, other sources are brewer’s yeast, pumpkin seeds, oysters and mussels, shrimps and egg yolks.

One delightful effect of zinc is that it has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac, and as such it can be very beneficial for your sex life, which is not a bad side effect to have.

Researchers and hair restoration surgeons Dr Gary Hitzig and Dr Jerry Cooley created a technique that multiplies the number of hair follicles in an area that had been dormant using an FDA-cleared wound healing powder, but they stipulate it is not fool-proof yet.

“It appears to stimulate copying or ‘cloning’ of surrounding tissue to fill in a defect. However, this does not always occur, and I am conducting research to determine the best way to use the ACell to maximise success,” Dr Cooley said.

ACell’s MatriStem MicroMatrix powder was traditionally intended for diabetic ulcers, second degree burns and surgical wounds, but researchers say it has the potential to cause site-specific tissue regeneration that could be useful in hair restoration surgery.

“We have made amazing breakthroughs using MatriStem as a hair cloning tool,” Dr Hitzig said. “We”ve been able to multiply the number of hair follicles growing in the recipient area, and as an added benefit are seeing faster hair growth. This new hair cloning technique also makes hair transplantation surgery less invasive.

While the exact mechanism is still unknown, Shen Min seems to extend the growth phase of the hair follicle, thus reducing the number of hairs in the resting phase and fall out phase.

The net effect is a greater number of hairs growing and fewer falling out.

Another purported benefit may be derived from the ability of Shen Min to block DHT (De-Hydro Testosterone) from binding to the follicle. DHT, the “bad” testosterone, is a leading cause of male pattern baldness because it helps deactivate the hair by binding to the follicle. Men produce greater levels of DHT as they age.

Hard-drinking The Pogues star Shane MacGowan has turned to alcohol to make sure he always has a full head of hair – he regularly washes it in Guinness.

The Irish singer insists men losing their hair would be wise to follow the Irish custom of running Guinness through their follicles.

He says, “They sell all those lotions to cure you of baldness… They don’t work. There is only one way to cure baldness – you pour Guinness over your head, collect it in a bucket, and drink it in the morning.

“It’s proven to work.”

And MacGowan refuses to wash his hair when he’s not at home in Ireland: “I don’t wash it – only in Tipperary water.”

Alopecia areata is considered an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system, which is designed to protect the body from foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria, mistakenly attacks the hair follicles, the tiny cup-shaped structures from which hairs grow.

This can lead to hair loss on the scalp and elsewhere.

In most cases, hair falls out in small, round patches about the size of a quarter. In many cases, the disease does not extend beyond a few bare patches. In some people, hair loss is more extensive.

Although uncommon, the disease can progress to cause total loss of hair on the head (referred to as alopecia areata totalis) or complete loss of hair on the head, face, and body (alopecia areata universalis).

HIS is a professional clinic that offers hair loss treatment techniques for men. Not seen as the typical hair loss clinic, HIS employs the usage of its pioneering techniques that anyone suffering from any kind of hair loss can benefit from. Essentially, it provides treatment for all types of hair loss and scars by the utilization of a scalp pigmentation remedy.

The most talked about method by HIS clinic is their MHT Micro Hair Tattooing procedure, which uses a particular scalp tattooing course of action to guarantee natural looking hair replications and micro hairs.

Additionally, this process sees the use of high tech micro needles to penetrate the dermal layer of the skin, thereby applying a variety of shades of specifically blended pigments to ensure steady duplication of the precise dimension, form and thickness of micro hairs and hair replications creating a natural cropped buzzed hair style, which is 100% undetectable.

Our cosmetic MHT treatment simulates the natural look of Micro Hairs / Hair Replications that effectively camouflages thinning hair, alopecia / baldness and Hair Transplant scars. We have fully developed our own MHT techniques and professional hair loss treatment process without the need for invasive or risky surgery.

Male pattern baldness affects nearly 70 percent of men by age 35, and 85 percent by age 50!

And it’s not just men who have to worry: Many women experience thinning hair, too.

But there are methods meant to stop hair loss and even induce re-growth – old ones are evolving and new ones continue to pop up.

Hair restoration specialist Dr. Alan Bauman of Palm Beach, Fla., discussed the latest techniques, and some that’ve been around awhile, on “The Early Show Saturday” edition’s special broadcast, “New Year, New You.”

Bauman, a Board-certified hair restoration surgeon, told CBS News Correspondent Jeff Glor and CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton about some solutions developed to stop thinning hair and actually re-grow some of those lost follicles:

What are the main causes of baldness with men and woman?