Hair loss

Hair loss is a very frequent query in both men and women within the usual visit of the dermatologist.

Women often ask about hair loss while men ask for more for baldness. This becomes much more evident at times of the year where there is greater ease for hair loss, such as the summer, fall and spring. On the contrary in winter, there are many less consultations about it.

In our doctor’s office, we perform the following individualized treatments:

  • Amino acid treatments
  • Capillary infiltrations with compressed air
  • Intracapillary injections
  • Growth Factors (PRP)
  • Hair transplantation hair-to-hair

The main causes:

Here you have to differentiate between the male and female hair fall. In men between the ages of 18 and 30, the most common cause is the hereditary, the so-called androgenic alopecia. It is well known that there are families in which almost all male members in a more intense or lesser form have a characteristic hair loss. On the contrary in women, hereditary hair loss is very rare and is given by women in the family who have the same problem. That is, male baldness isn’t inherited by the daughters of affected men. The most common cause in women is a combination of circumstances that come together. These are menstrual disorders, vitamin deficiencies especially iron, thyroid problems such as hypothyroidism, emotional disorders and stress. All this causes, at some point, that all these causes alone or in combination can induce an exaggerated loss of hair that if not compensated with a proportional hair output, the woman appreciates a progressive loss of hair volume. Naturally, men can also suffer from the effects of stress and emotions, but unfortunately for them and unlike women the hair falling for this reason hardly recovers.

What are the most effective current treatments to combat this problem?

For many years, there are standards for the treatment of hair loss and alopecia. These are Minoxidil and Finasteride. The first is a vasodilator substance used in the treatment of arterial hypertension and, that casually, has been found to produce as a side effect a hair growth in people with baldness. It’s often used alone or in combination with other hair-active substances. Finasteride, of more recent introduction, is a drug used to treat prostate hypertrophy and has a very satisfactory result in stopping or slowing androgenic alopecia, ie the hereditary form of baldness. In such a way, that young men who take the medication in the first few years of hair loss avoid becoming bald like their predecessors.

In which cases would a hair implant be indicated?

 Hair implants made by the FUE technique (Follicular Unit Extraction) consist of the extraction of roots or follicles of perpetual characteristics such as the part of the nape and/or side of the scalp. These carefully extracted follicles, after being prepared, are placed by microincisions in the hairless areas, providing an increase in the volume of hair mass in places that have been completely lost and that will never definitively recover. It’s a surgical procedure performed under local anesthesia.

The results are excellent as long as, of course, the hairless area is relatively small. If the person has abundant hair on the nape of the neck, more than one operation can be performed. This implanted hair doesn’t require special care, once grafted continues its process and grows normally. Through hair transplantation, people without a solution for their hair loss can get a more youthful appearance or simply regain greater self-confidence.

What is alopecia areata?

It’s a hair fall completely different from ordinary ones. It’s characterized by the rapid loss of hair in the form of rounds that grow in a few days or weeks producing large areas of baldness. The most frequent cause is stress or emotional impacts based on a certain personal predisposition to having this type of hair loss. As is also very common, as with other hair loss, there are thyroid problems. The treatment of this type of hair loss requires a visit as soon as possible to the specialist who should treat this incidence very quickly to avoid the rapid growth of the areas without hair. If this is done a few days after the problem has started, lost hair can be recovered quickly. In chronic cases in which the person has large areas of baldness in which all the usual treatments have failed, one of the most favorable treatments and in less risk to the health of the person is PUVAtherapy which consists of receiving ultraviolet A radiation in combination With a medication that enhances the effect of radiation.

How does hair loss affect pregnant women and in postpartum?

During pregnancy women enjoy a usually splendid moment for their hair, especially during the second half of gestation and this is due to the abundance in their blood of the hormone progesterone. It’s after childbirth and especially when the woman interrupts breastfeeding that there is an intense lowering of this hormone and then hair fall occurs, which can sometimes be very intense and can even produce complete loss of hair. This causes an alarm in the majority of women but it’s necessary to know that this fall, even if it is so intense, recovers totally as long if the woman begins a medical treatment guided by her dermatologist and that in the end will do in a few months that the woman can have a hair equal or better than before gestation. If no treatment is done, the hair recovers but leaving always a capillary mass much lower than before pregnancy.

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