Hair Loss: The hope to cope

A very famous proverb goes, 'You are what you eat.' Being healthy on the inside will make you look healthier on the outside. Although our skin and hair color is traceable to our ancestry and heritage, there are solutions to solving inherited traits that we may be struggling with.

Your hair is an expression of your style and your personality. Commonly interest in hair is focused on hair growth, hair types and its care. However, now a days both males and females face problems with hair loss.  Your scalp on average will have about 100,000 hairs. The life span of a single strand of hair is at best three years long. Shedding about 50-100 strands a day is normal. It's soon replaced with a new strand of hair, and the cycle begins again. Each follicle produces a single hair that grows at a rate of half an inch per month. At any given time, 85% of hair is growing, and the remainder is resting.

Hair Loss in Women:

There are many reasons for hair loss. Women between the ages of 18-40 are found to be facing or worried about this nightmare. Hair may become thinner gradually, with the greatest loss happening at the center of the scalp. Hair loss in women can be triggered by various medical conditions, as well as several lifestyle choices. In general an inadequate amount of protein in a person's diet, extreme periods of stress, and a hidden chronic illness may be primarily responsible for unnatural hair loss. Dr. Rubaiya Ali, Consultant of Dermatology & Venereology of Apollo Hospitals Dhaka explains, "Some cases for hair fall in our community is due to irregular bathing or lack scalp hygiene, genetically inherited baldness, seborrhoeic folliculitis, post pregnancy periods, psoriasis (thick dandruff), pathology cases, and other scalp diseases only common in South Asia. In rare cases we recommend testing for thyroid problems and hormone imbalances as well. Tests are important to pin-point the exact route-cause of the problem."

Experts believe extreme physical or emotional stress on a woman can cause a sudden shedding of one-half to three-quarters of the hair on your head. After childbirth, when hormone levels return to normal a women losses a surprising amount of hair at a single time. It may take up to two years for her hair to return to normal. Birth control pills are also liable to potential hair loss. According to Dr. Rubaiya Ali, "I have found many cases where women faced significant hair loss due to crash weight loss diets."  She continued, "People may notice hair loss 3-6 months after losing more than 15 pounds, but hair should regrow on its own by returning to a regular healthy diet. Be prepared to shed some locks if your diet is very low in protein or too high in vitamin A."  For her patients Dr. Rubaiya suggests to escape from these five major sins:

1. Excess sun (unless the person suffers from low levels of Vitamin D),

2. Excess sugar,

3. Excess stress

4. Smoking

5. and Alcohol.

Additionally women should avoid excessive hair messages or treatments from parlors. Parlors are also a major source for scalp infection including the spreading of lice. Lice infestation is a major cause of hair loss and should be treated immediately and not avoided due to stigma. Dr. Rubaiya Ali says, "One should avoid superstitions regarding hair fall and if the problem is severe then she must consult an expert."

Hair Loss in Men:

The treatment through PRP theory can be a good substitute for other treatments for hair regrowth. It is an effective and modern conduct for hair treatment. It is greatly popular throughout the developed world. Prof. (Dr.) Hasibur Rahman, Consultant of Dermatology & Venereology of Apollo Hospitals Dhaka, an expert in PRP therapy assures that it will be the future of our nation as well, "At present Bangladesh has also started this treatment with success." PRP stands for Platelet Rich Plasma. As the name suggests PRP Therapy uses plasma enriched platelets, which turns out to be very useful in reducing hair fall and re-growing hair already lost. European and the American medical literatures have assured that the use of PRP therapy is safe and highly successful. Such theory proves that human blood has the solution for male pattern baldness.

PRP Therapy is done by extracting platelets from other parts of the human body and then injecting it to the scalp. Many still aren't aware that the growth factors required for the hair to grow and to decrease the rate of hair fall is present in the plasma. In order to prepare for the therapy 30-60 ml. of blood is drawn out from the patient's body, then PRP is prepared through a special centrifugation process. After the configuration, platelets enriched plasma is separated from your normal blood. The part of the scalp where the platelets are injected is then anesthetized using the tropical anesthesia. Using the local anesthesia also helps to make the process less painful for the patient. Once this is done, platelets will be injected to specific parts of the scalp where an intense hair loss has been observed. The whole process takes less than an hour. Prof. (Dr.) Hasibur Rahman explains, "There is no specific age of PRP treatment. But the best result is observed between the ages of 20-40 years." In addition he adds, "But this therapy might not show any result for a patient who is completely bald or if the hair follicles are missing." Even though there might be a mild pain felt in the part of the scalp where the platelets are injected, the pain (with proper use of anesthesia) can be quite bearable. Prof. (Dr.) Hasibur Rahman does caution, "Patients might need to go through the therapy more than once to achieve a successful result". There are no adverse side effects to this therapy, so once successful, patients can immediately go back to their regular life with a full set of hair.