dr hair loss

your hair loss reference guide

What causes hair loss?

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A number of things can cause excessive hair loss. For example, about 3 or 4 months after an illness or a major surgery, you may suddenly lose a large amount of hair. This hair loss is related to the stress of the illness and is temporary.

Hormonal problems may cause hair loss. If your thyroid gland is overactive or underactive, your hair may fall out. This hair loss usually can be helped by treatment thyroid disease. Hair loss may occur if male or female hormones, known as androgens and estrogens, are out of balance. Correcting the hormone imbalance may stop your hair loss.

Gender Hereditary, or “pattern” baldness, is much more common in men than in women.

Many women notice hair loss about 3 months after they’ve had a baby. This loss is also related to hormones. During pregnancy, high levels of certain hormones cause the body to keep hair that would normally fall out. When the hormones return to pre-pregnancy levels, that hair falls out and the normal cycle of growth and loss starts again.

Stress Induced:

The more common type is called telogen effluvium. With this less severe type of hair loss, the hair stops growing and lies dormant, only to fall out 2 or 3 months later. Then it grows back within 6 to 9 months.

The other type of stress-induced hair loss is known as alopecia areata, and involves a white blood cell attack on the hair follicles. With this type of hair loss, the hair also falls out within weeks (usually in patches), but can involve the entire scalp and even body hair. Hair may grow back on its own, but treatment may also be required.

Some medicines can cause hair loss. This type of hair loss improves when you stop taking the medicine. Medicines that can cause hair loss include blood thinners (also called anticoagulants), medicines used for gout, high blood pressure or heart problems, vitamin A (if too much is taken), birth control pills and antidepressants.

Certain infections can cause hair loss. Fungal infections of the scalp can cause hair loss in children. The infection is easily treated with antifungal medicines.

Finally, hair loss may occur as part of an underlying disease, such as lupus or diabetes. Since hair loss may be an early sign of a disease, it is important to find the cause so that it can be treated.

Contraceptive pill & Hair Loss

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There is evidence that the contraceptive pill is driving high the number of young women suffering hair loss.
Hair specialists say thinning is being caused by the progesterone hormones in the pill. It has a male hormonal effect and if a female has a genetic tendency to lose hair, then it can trigger thinning.
While newer contraceptive pills such as Yasmin and Diane 35 ED can promote hair growth, older pills such as Loette and Levlen were triggering a genetic predisposition for hair thinning in women as young as their mid-teens.
Up to half of all women have a genetic predisposition for hair thinning. The problem is under-reported due to a lack of knowledge about genetic hair thinning and because the hair loss often needs to be severe before people take notice.

Other prevalent causes of early onset hair loss in women include acute stress, iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, all of which have become more prevalent as lifestyles have changed. Many more triggers are still unknown.

Please see your doctor if you suffer from hair loss.

Do Laser Treatments for Hair Loss Work? Or are they Just Fads?

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Low Light Laser Therapy (LLLT) is being increasingly promoted on and offline by both the manufactures and those who make this hair loss treatment  available in either clinics or salons. Of course the big questions is – “Does it work or is it just another fad?”.

LLLT can be provided in either of two ways, so, either with a hand held laser comb device or with a hooded device (that looks like a large hair dryer). The hooded device delivers a more intense treatment. Such a treatment is only available at clinics. The weaker hand held device is typically used at home.

The basic concept for how LLLT works is that the low intensity laser energy is absorbed into the skin where it then stimulates cellular activity and presumably hair growth. LLLT has been used over the years in other applications such as healing wounds.

So does LLLT work in stimulating hair growth? We will find out and get back to you soon.

Dermaray Laser – What is it? and How does it work?

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Below is an extract of information from the Dermaray website:

“Dermaray Laser allows medical treatment for general or pattern hair loss, physiotherapy applications and pain management. The safest, most powerful and technically advanced hand held laser phototherapy available. Dermaray Laser is pre-programmed with treatment sessions for 25 major diseases and conditions. Dermaray Laser is the ONLY fully customisable, fully programmable and fully self contained hand held laser system available. No bulky base controller, no mains power requirement and superior build quality using custom designed housings. Dermaray Laser is also uniquely able to adjust it’s power output level (not simply by turning on or off laser modules, this is only changing the surface area – not the power level) by electronically controlling the actual power level to each individual laser module. No other laser comb comes close to the power, performance and reliability of Dermaray.”

Dermaray is actually an Australian company: http://www.tcgindustrial.com.au/

Hair Life Cycle

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As mentioned above, hair has a dynamic growth structure that includes continuous elongation, thinning and fall out phases. Each hair fiber is independent from each other and might be found in a particular phase of its life cycle.

Anagen Phase

The hair follicles in Anagen phase are thick, healthy and in continuous elongation. Approximately 84 – 90 % of all hair follicles are found in Anagen phase, which typically lasts for 3 years.

Catagen Phase

Catagen phase is a transition phase; usually lasting about 3 weeks. Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is initiated within this phase. The dermal papillae shrinks and the hair follicle is elevated within the skin. The hair begins to lose its pigment and gets thinner (club hair). Roughly 2% of our hair is found in catagen phase.

Telogen Phase

Telogen phase lasts an average of 3 months. In telogen phase, thin and depigmented club hair falls out. In the majority of the cases, a new hair follicle is produced by the hair stem cells, which are induced by a yet unknown signal. Sometimes, the hair follicles go into a latent state called the Lag phase and the follicles remain dormant for 2 – 5 weeks. Approximately 10 – 15 % of our scalp hair is in telogen phase.

10 % of the hair follicles of an individual, who has a total of 100,000 hair follicles, are theoretically found in telogen phase. Given this, the loss of an average of 100 hair fibers per day – taking into account that a telogen phase that lasts about 90 to 100 days – should be considered as normal.

The Arrector pili muscle is attached to the hair follicle at a region called the Bulge Region. In laboratory studies, it is shown that if the cells from this region (follicular stem cells) are isolated from mice follicles and engrafted to another region on the animal, they have the ability to produce new hair follicles. Such studies would enhance the creation of new strategies for hair transplantation operations within the next decades.

Structure of Hair

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Hair consists of a protein called keratin, which is extremely resistant to breakage and abrasion. Keratin is also the main structural unit of our nails and it is composed of smaller building blocks named amino-acids. Keratin provides resistance to even the thinnest hair.

Hair follicle has three vertical segments;
1 – Upper portion – Infundibulum: The part between the exit of hair fiber to the part that sebaceous gland is attached to the hair follicle.
2 – Middle portion – Isthmus: The portion between the attachment point of the sebaceous gland and the Arrector pili muscle. The point, which the Arrector pili muscle is attached to the hair follicle, is called “bulge region”. The bulge region has the utmost importance in hair follicle stem cell research.
3 – Lower portion – Inferior: The region spanning the Arrector pili attachment and the basal part of the hair follicle. A hair bulb, which consists of hair matrix and dermal papillae cells, is found at the base of the hair follicle.

What is a Follicular Unit Transplant?

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What are Follicular Units?
The hair in every person’s scalp grows in tiny bundles called follicular units. Although this had been recognized for some time by histologists (doctors who study human tissue), the existence of follicular units was largely ignored by physicians performing hair restoration surgery.

The follicular unit of the adult human scalp consists of 1-4 terminal (full thickness) hair follicles. In areas of the scalp affected by genetic balding, the healthy terminal hairs are gradually replaced by hairs of smaller diameter and length called “miniaturized” hairs.

In addition to the full terminal hairs, the follicular unit contains 1-2 fine vellus hairs, sebaceous (oil) glands, a small muscle, tiny nerves and blood vessels, and a fine band of collagen surrounding the unit (called the perifolliculum). The follicular unit is thus the hair bearing structure of the skin and should be kept intact to insure maximum growth

Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) is a hair restoration technique where a patient’s hair is transplanted in groups of follicular units. Follicular units also contain sebaceous (oil) glands, nerves, a small musand occasional fine vellus hairs. In Follicular Unit Transplantation these small units allow the surgeon to safely transplant thousands of grafts in a single session, which maximizes the cosmetic impact of the procedure.

FUT is considered an advance over older hair transplantation procedures that used larger grafts and often produced a pluggy, unnatural look. In a properly-performed follicular unit transplant, the results will mimic the way hair grows in nature and will be undetectable as a hair transplant. No Linear scarring!

Hair Transplant – Samples

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Samples of results from hair transplants – taken from US based website: www.hassonandwong.com

What is normal hair loss?

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We all lose about 100 hairs per day, out of the 100,000 contained by the average scalp. This is due to a few factors:

  • Lifespan: The average lifespan of a single hair is 4.5 years; the hair then falls out and is replaced within 6 months by a new hair.
  • Styling: Shampooing, blow drying, and brushing hair can all cause a few hairs to fall out; most of us do this regularly.
  • Aging: After the age of 30 (and often before), men and women both start losing hair, though men tend to do so at a faster rate.

Cyproterone acetate

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For Women

This tablet was also developed in the 1960s. It blocks the effect of androgen hormones. It is also a weak progestogen and is used as a component of some oral contraceptives. Cyproterone acetate can also be used to treat acne, unwanted facial and body hair, and hereditary hair loss in women. Cyproterone acetate requires a prescription from your doctor. Cyproterone acetate is not recommended as a treatment for hair loss in men.

Spironolactone

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For Women Only

This tablet has been widely used to treat high blood pressure and fluid retention in Australia since the 1960s. It blocks the effect of androgen hormones. In women, androgens can cause oily skin, acne, unwanted facial and body hair, and scalp hair loss. Spironolactone can be used to treat all of these conditions but requires a prescription from your doctor. Spironolactone is not recommended for men. Pregnant and breastfeeding women or women with severe kidney disease, hyperkalaemia or Addison’s disease should not take minoxidil.