Regain Hair Loss

Is it really possible to regain hair loss. Are there really any true hair loss cures? The simple answer is no, although I will tell you later how to fix the problem.

But why should baldness be such a big deal in the first place? After all hair is just dead cells called keratin!! And baldness is not only a human trait. Some other primates such as Chimpanzees, stump-tailed macaques and South American Nakari show progressive thinning of the hair as they age. Do you ever hear them complaining about having to regain hair loss? Fortunately for them they don’t have to deal with other humans.

Appearance

We live in an age where appearance is king, so how do other people view bald or balding men generally? Cash's 1988 study gives us a good idea. He asked three groups of people - young, middle-aged and elderly - to look at slides of bald and haired men. No one in the study was told why he or she was looking at these particular pictures, but was asked to rate the person in each slide for qualities such as intelligence, life success, personal likeability, self-assertiveness, social attractiveness, physical attractiveness and their perceived age.

The study confirmed a generally negative social stereotype of balding people as being less attractive, less happy and less successful. Both men and women expected the balding men to be less personally like-able than the non-balding. No wonder people are looking to regain hair loss.

Personal attractiveness impinges on all aspects of life. From pre-school to work and from courtroom to relationships, beauty is a commodity that influences the quality of your life. Anything that lessens attractiveness must surely work to your detriment to some degree. From the available research, going bald is certainly one of those things that does diminish attractiveness.

Sure, you can point to Yul Brynner and Sean Connery but they are loved because they made movies. Would they be held in such high esteem if one ran Yul’s butchery and the other ran Connery’s Key Cutting and Shoe Repair? I doubt it.

Sean and Yul aside, in a Zoomerang survey of 2006, 78 percent of those surveyed thought that men with a full head of hair were sexier than those who are losing their hair and those who are bald. No wonder men everywhere are searching regain hair loss.

In another study a perception of bald men looking less attractive (and less attractive sexually) was found in more than 90% of subjects surveyed. Importantly, this view was more common in women than non-balding men but still prevalent.

One study showed that a man with a full head of hair was more likely to be invited to a job interview by a personnel manager and more likely to be hired after the interview. One aspect of this research that may explain the results is that bald men were seen as being older than their real age. A survey from Hong Kong found that nearly half of all companies there discriminated against baldness.

Out of the 113 employers polled forty-three percent said they would not hire people with hair-loss for customer service jobs, and 26 percent would refuse them for managerial positions where they would be required to represent their firms at important meetings. Is there any good news? Well, yes. Bald and balding men are generally perceived as being more intelligent, which is a very small consolation when they lose out in so many other areas. And that leads us to how to regain hair loss....

Regain hair loss

So, if baldness can have such a detrimental effect on people’s perception of us and hence our successful passage through life, what can be done about it? Before you accept your plight and join the League of Bald Headed Men (http://www.bald.com.au/league_about.php) you could look into the available options. Egyptian remedies dating as far back as 1500 B.C. prescribed potions made of lion fat, human nail clippings, ibex, and crocodile with a liberal addition of singed hedgehog bristles. Hippocrates, a famous, ancient, balding guy, mixed opium with flower essences, wine, and pigeon dung.

Unfortunately, it seems that these remedies and hair loss cures didn’t work and that can pretty much be said for just about every folk remedy on the market. From hair brushing to standing on your head, from special shampoos to electrical stimulation, they are pretty much useless and I know because I have tried them all. None of them regain hair loss.

You have to understand that hair loss is basically a result of genetics. Testosterone in men’s bodies is changed chemically by an enzyme in the skin (5-alpha reductase) to form a product in the scalp called dihydro-testosterone (DHT). The hairs on the top of the head are particularly affected by this chemical and over time fall out. Hair loss occurs only when DHT comes into contact with hairs that are genetically programmed to suffer under its influence. This means that hair loss arises from a combination of two factors: the hormone DHT, plus the fact that you have inherited genes that cause your hair to be sensitive to DHT.

The alternatives

Given that it is genetic in origin is it any wonder that most hair loss cures have no affect. So, what does work to regain hair loss? There are two pharmacological treatments on the market Propecia, (also known as Finasteride) and Rogaine (also known as Monoxodil) that have been shown to work.

In a 5-year clinical study, 90% of men treated with Propecia stopped losing hair compared to only 25%of the men using a placebo. In this study they also counted the hairs and found that 65% of the Propecia group had an increase in hair count, whereas all the men in the placebo group had a decrease in hair numbers. You only need to take one pill a day but side effects can include a decline in libido, erectile dysfunction, testicular pain, less or no semen, hives and rashes. So in some people it does regain hair loss.

With Rogaine the results of clinical studies involving thousands of men and women have shown Rogaine topical lotion is able to cause statistically significant increases in hair regrowth. However, in many people though, it doesn’t do anything. Also with both of these you have to keep taking them throughout your life. If you stop, hair loss will return and you will be forking out $70-$80 per month for the rest of your life...one of the more expensive hair loss cures (over 30 years that is almost $30,000). I did actually try Rogaine for six months with no visible effect so I decided to look at other alternatives. I don't consider these hair loss cures at all.

I went to Advanced Hair Studio where they can fit your scalp with a rather remarkable silicon mesh that has hair attached to it. I hesitate to use the word wig because this thing is to wig as the Jumbo is to the Wright brother’s plane. Sean Connery even goes to them when he needs new hair for a movie. The result is impressive, looks natural and won’t come off. Shane Warne, the famous Australian cricketer, and others have gone down this path but you are looking at a cost of $3-4,000 with maintenance required every 5-6 weeks at a cost of $50-$60. I’m a low maintenance kind of guy so I was looking for a permanent solution that didn’t involve ongoing costs and it is not really a hair loss cure since it requires ongoing maintenance and you don't regain hair loss but rather replace it with a wig.

The Answer

I had been looking into the possibility of a hair transplant for many years but the cost was off-putting, around $12,000 in my case. However, after a series of events I finally decided to make the leap and got finance from MacCredit (Mediplan is another) that specialise in finance for cosmetic procedures.

I went to Adelaide to have the process done by Dr Marzola because even with the flights and accommodation he was still a couple of thousand dollars cheaper than the others and had a good reputation. I spent two days in a comfortable surgical chair while Dr Marzola cut strips of skin from the back of my head and removed the hair follicles from them. He then transplanted these into the balding area on top of my head and the results were impressive.

Unfortunately these new hairs fall out a week or two after the surgery and the follicles become dormant. You will have to wait three months before the hair grows again and the whole process will take about 10 months to a year for you to see the final result. However, the result is permanent and the only maintenance you will need is to shampoo and comb. It is a great way to regain hair loss.

It is worthwhile to get as many follicles transplanted as possible but of course the more follicles the higher the cost. The alternative is to have a number of transplants over time as the money becomes available. Since I had mine done a more recent innovation has been to take hair from other parts of your body without the need to cut the strips from the back of the head. Just think, you could remove that back hair and get new hair on your head at the same time. However, this procedure causes minor scarring.

I am very happy with the results of my hair transplant and it has certainly improved my self-esteem. Feedback from everyone has been great although most can’t seem to figure out why my hair looks thicker. I tell them I let it grow and I dyed it.

Look into a hair transplant as it may be the best decision you ever make to regain hair loss. I have never had to do anything to maintain it other than shampooing and haircuts. So if there are any hair loss cures then this is it.

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