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- Best candidates for minoxidil or Rogain are young people with
modest hair loss within the past 5 years. Rogain or minoxidil is a lifetime commitment.
Hair that is grown from minoxidil will fall off when treatment stops. Also, the drug is
probably not as effective for older people with severe cases of hair loss and problems
with high blood pressure or heart disease. Some side effects from using minoxidil or
Rogain are itchiness and redness of the scalp.
- Finasteride is a new drug that shows some promising results for
the treatment of hair loss. The drug is marketed as Proscar by MErck and is approved by
the FDA for the treatment of benign prostate enlargement. Clinical studies have shown that
a majority of the 200 male volunteers have shown "moderate growth" after using
the drug.
- Two drugs that the author does not recommend trying are:
Progesterone and Retin-A. There are insufficient research to substantiate that the two
drugs can grow hair.
- If you are consider surgical hair restoration procedures, the
author recommends that you ask your dermatologist to refer you to several surgeons who do
the procedures. The author goes on to discuss the different types of surgical hair
restoration techniques:
- Hair Transplantation: The costs range from US $3,500 to US $
8,500. The procedures invlove removing hair grafts from the back or the sides of your
scalp to the balding area. Usually, patients may need more than one session to accomplish
satisfactory results.
- Scalp Reduction: It costs about US $2,000 to US $3,500.The
procedure involves removing bald skin from the top or the crown of your scalp and pulling
the hair bearing skin closer together. The procedure is more invloved and extensive than
hair transplantation. Similar to hair transplantation, it may take several procedures
before you see any noticeable results. Scalp reduction can be performed in conjunction
with hair transplantation to enhace results.
- Scalp Lifts: It costs about US $ 3,000 to US $ 6,000. This is a
radical procedure in which a majority of the skin is removed and the hair-bearing skin is
pulled together and up toward the front of your head. This procedure is then complimented
with hair transplants to create a frontal hair line. Due to the extensiveness of the
procedure, scalp lifts often results in greater post-surgical complications.
- Hair Flaps: It costs about US $3,500 to US $10,000 and above.
This procedure involves removing a hair-bearing strip or patch of skin from the scalp and
surgically inserting the strip to the balding area. The results may be unnatural since the
hair may be growing at an odd direction and the hair may look unusually dense. Similar to
scalp lifts, hair flaps carry greater postsurgical complications than hair
transplantation.
- According to the author, there are the following myths about hair
loss:
- "Optimize nutrition": the fact that an ideal diet with
adequate vitamins and minerals will give you a full head of hair is unsubstantiated.
- "Avoid tight hats": tight hats do not restrict blood
flow to the scalp and causes baldness.
- "Massage the scalp": massaging the scalp does not
necessarily promote hair growth. On the contrary, excessive messages may damage hair
follicles.
- "Shampoo less often": daily shampooing is ok.
- "Use shampoo that unclog follicles": there is no
evidence to substantiate that oily residues block hair growht.
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