AGE AND ITS MISFORTUNES
The older we get, the closer to death we get. Well, duh. What we meant by that is that with age comes the sorrowful truth of our vulnerabilities as humans. One sure sign to confirm you’re getting old is to take a look at that high school picture and realize how much more hair you had back then.
Your hairline seems to have found its new resting spot, leaving enough space for a runway to land an Emirates Boeing 737 on your forehead. The dome of your head has begun to develop a liking for tans, clearing away all hair that gets in the way of the sunshine. And it also seems like your hair had some sort of a population crisis, and the few surviving hairs don't seem very optimistic about surviving long either.
Damn, how time flies. Apparently, time doesn’t fly solo, after all. If some or all of the above ring true to you, don't worry, the least of it is that you're not alone; by the age of 35, approximately 40 percent of men around the world suffer from visible hair loss.
SERIOUSLY? AGE? BUT MY BOSS IS 45 AND HE’S BEEN ROCKING THE SAME OLD SLICK-BACK FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS.
Surely, with such an astounding figure, there must be a common cause for hair loss, no? Well, putting it simply, let’s just say that while aging plays the biggest part in causing hair loss, other factors such as genetics, hormonal changes, stress, and nutrition can make or break the difference in why some are able to suffer no hair loss up until their fifties and sixties.
NO MATTER HOW BAD IT IS THOUGH, YOU STILL HAVE OPTIONS
Balding by the cause of such uncontrollable externalities feels like a punch to the throat. Depending on the severity, most men are dismayed by the lack of styling options that come with hair loss. When push comes to shove, and hair loss is at its extreme, some men are forced to go bald. Granted, some kick ass in the bald look, but many others dread its very existence.
The good thing is that for the second group who's dismayed by such a last resort, alternatives are often not far-fetched, and some men suffering from hair loss have a few options to exhaust before embarking upon the bald look.
ACTING FAST IS KEY
The best action you can possibly take to reverse hair loss is to act now. Whether you’ve been noticing an uncommonly excessive amount of your hair in your shower sink, hair brush, and pillowcase, or you’ve been visually seeing your hair thinning unusually as of late, your best bet to avoid an uncontainable acceleration of hair loss rests mostly upon how fast you act. Time is of the essence when it comes to fixing hair loss.
Losing hair is like taking the elevator down a 20-floor building. Growing new hair follicles after they have fallen out, however, is like having to take the staircase down that same building. It does not matter how severe your case of hair loss is. What matters most is that you take action the minute your perception of the problem becomes clear. If you've already lost a good chunk of your hair, acting now may help you save the rest.
AT THE DERMATOLOGIST'S OFFICE
The most effective method to suppress hair loss is to stand by the help of professionals. A dermatologist specializing in hair loss has probably seen hundreds, if not thousands of cases similar to the one you are currently facing. Your dermatologist has done this countless times in the past, and has probably memorized the script of treatment and has probably been competing with how fast he or she can re-iterate it to clients such as yourself.
A dermatologist will initially figure out the reasons for your hair loss, helping him or her best determine the most effective treatment suiting your personal case. When it comes to hair loss, many factors come into play, and how it surfaces and takes form differs greatly; no two people have the same underlying complexity of hair loss. Therefore, shaping a personalized treatment plan to match your expectations of the results will be the first thing your dermatologist will suggest when trying to address your specific case of hair loss. Today's medical field has a handful of treatments that have varying levels of effectiveness and different methods of application.
PILL-BASED TREATMENT OPTIONS
On one hand, there's pill-based medication. Such form of treatment could come in a prescription form, which you can obtain from your dermatologist, with less common medication alternatives having the option to be bought over the counter. These pill medications are highly effective in stopping hair loss. But! They don't stop hair loss for good, unfortunately. The minute you stop taking Finasteride or Minoxidil, the most common pill-based medications treating hair loss, is the minute your regular level of hair loss resumes where it took off.
Obviously though, during the period you've retained using these pills, you've grown and kept a sizeable number of new hair follicles. These will not magically disappear when you stop taking these medications, but they will stay long enough, either. Newly grown hair follicles will eventually thin out and wither away when you stop your medication treatment. As such, to reap the full effects of pill-based hair loss medication, you need to opt-in for the long haul by taking this form of treatment over the course of years.
SESSION-BASED ALTERNATIVES
Maybe you're not a fan of such long-term commitments. And that’s ok, you needn't despair just yet. Treatment alternatives such as PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) and LLLT (Low-Level Laser Therapy) could be just what you're in the market for. Such treatments do pack-a-punch when it comes to how expensive they are though. Having to be completed in sessions that span over the course of weeks and sometimes months, such treatments add a sizeable chunk of $$$ to your overall spending on hair loss treatments.
Still, LLLT's effectiveness has been strongly backed by science and research, and many people swear by its results. In fact, one study has shown that LLLT had similar efficacy in hair growth when compared to Minoxidil, the pill-based treatment. Another has shown that a combination of both treatments displayed much more promising results overall.
TO REAP THE BEST RESULTS, IT IS BEST NOT TO TREAD ON THE PATH OF TREATMENT SOLO
So, given you are determined to deal with hair loss the right way, the question to be asked is what treatment are you choosing? Of course, your research and decision making is key as you'll be making a choice you know will be right for you. But, involving your dermatologist in such a decision could bear better fruit, as he or she has the necessary experience to confirm the kind of results you expect with your treatment plan. Tread safely, and consult the professionals. Whatever you accomplish solo within a year of your treatment plan would mostly fail to match the kind of results you would’ve been able to realize had you conformed to the help of your neighborly dermatologist.
A DEEPER LOOK INTO HEALTH FACTORS
Your lifestyle could be one of many factors taking part in the acceleration of the rate at which you are experiencing hair loss. Yes, you heard that right. If you've been stressed as of late, smoke often, rarely exercise, drink alcohol regularly, or consume a shit diet, you run the risk of pushing the rate of your hair loss into overdrive.
Adopting a healthier lifestyle and keeping an eye on what you consume may supplement your treatment plan. Unfortunately, however, such subtle implementations to your lifestyle will never replace the effectiveness of first-response treatment plans for severe hair loss cases. At best, such changes could help you bide your time decelerating hair loss until you settle down and initiate an effective treatment plan.
The best thing you can do right now is to start becoming vigilant of the amount of stress you put your body through on a daily basis. Stress pushes your hair follicles into resting mode, and uses your own immune system to attack your hair. This creates weaker hair follicles that are more prone to fall off and wither away when scratched, showered, or involved in any everyday activity. Combating hair loss associated with stress is completely reliant upon how you experience stress given your environment and lifestyle.
However, adopting healthier habits could be a good starting point. Having enough rest, sleeping well, exercising regularly, consuming a better diet, quitting cigarettes or alcohol, staying hydrated, and even practicing mindfulness and meditation are among the things you can start experimenting with today.
A CONCLUSIVE FIX
Known as an indisputable treatment almost guaranteed to show results, a surgical hair treatment is among the most effective hair loss treatments to date. None of the alternative treatment options guarantee better results than a surgical transplant using your existing hair. Most commonly used to address severe degrees of hair loss, there's been an increase in the adoption of surgical hair treatments around the world, with the industry’s market value forecasted to quadruple by 2025 in comparison to 2017’s figures.
Transplants are mostly used to push back hairlines and fill in patchy or balding spots on the head's dome. 9 out of 10 males who undergo surgical hair treatments have been satisfied with the results after two hair transplant surgeries. Granted, the procedure is expensive, has a long recovery time, and is much more complex in its nature than subtle alternatives such as pills. Yet given all that, it is still classified as that one treatment of which results are incomparable.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS, CONFORMING TO REALITY MAY NOT BE SO BAD
Before condemning your genes and luck, how about you try out that very same look you dread so deeply? Going bald, or semi-bald may actually look good on you. In fact, according to a study, men with clean-shaven head domes are viewed as more dominant, confident, and sexy by women. Baldness is associated with being badass, apparently.
If all else fails, why bother fixing something that obviously does not like you anymore? Something that requires you to style, condition, and wash every other day? If you dare to look the other way, adapting to circumstances shaving your head can be freeing. It's all a matter of perspective.
