Prevent Hair loss, don't Regrow?

Article by HairlossTalk.com

Many of you just starting to experience the first signs of hair loss tend to become gung-ho about dumping on the treatments. Many of your regimens are the same regimens men who have already lost a significant amount of hair are using to regrow entire sections of their scalp hair. However, preventing hair loss is nowhere near as difficult as regrowing lost hair, and its likely that you do not need so many treatments just to maintain what you have...Propecia, the current wonder drug, has an incredibly high success rate (83%) of maintaining men's hair counts. Propecia use alone has saved hundreds of thousands of men from a future of baldness, without the help of any other treatments at all. These men are fortunate, because they have an entire arsenal of treatments to add if or when Propecia ever stops working for them.

Pathology of male pattern hair loss

Androgen-dependent skin conditions, such as male pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia, AGA) and acne, are among the dermatologic conditions most frequently encountered by the specialist and the general physician. AGA is the commonest form of human alopecia, affecting more than 50% of men by the age of 50 years, and a smaller but still significant proportion of women by the same age. Historically, the clinical management of AGA has been limited to the psychologic support of the client, and the use of cosmetics that thicken the remaining hair, or make the scalp less conspicuous. Hair systems (swatches, weaves, and wigs), and surgical procedures including punch grafts, follicular unit transplantation, and flap surgery are also widely used. In recent years however, drug therapy has increasingly become a realistic management option, as our understanding of the mechanisms of normal and pathologic hair growth has pointed the way to improved treatments.

The changes that occur in the distribution of scalp hair as AGA progresses follow a course that has been well documented in both sexes, as have the changes in the scalp and scalp hair that are commonly found to occur in male pattern hair loss. The most important recent development in our understanding is the recognition that androgens play a central role in the development of AGA. It has been observed that castrated men do not exhibit AGA; however, if they are given exogenous androgens, they will reversibly show signs of hair loss. Several recent lines of evidence implicated DHT, a metabolite of testosterone, as the active metabolite in AGA. The enzyme responsible for the conversion of testosterone to DHT is 5a-reductase.

Psychology of hair loss, prevention, and regrowth

Hair forms a vital element of an individual's physical appearance, and changes in the hair, including its loss, can have correspondingly profound effects on interpersonal reactions and on self image. Studies that have specifically addressed the psychosocial impact of hair loss in men have shown that men with visible hair loss are perceived as older, weaker, and less physically attractive than their nonbalding counterparts. Not surprisingly, such adverse social stereotyping of individuals with hair loss has a considerable impact on the self image, and therefore on the quality of life, of men with AGA. Studies confirm that the negative self-perception of hair loss by others is reflected in the psychologic responses of balding men to their own condition. Using standard psychologic tests, men with AGA report experiencing distress about their hair loss, feeling less physically attractive, and having greater body image dissatisfaction than their nonbalding peers.

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