Regrowing Hair After AGA Or Hereditary Hair Loss
Yesterday, I got an email from a women asking how to bump up her hair regrowth following androgenic alopecia (AGA) or genetic hair loss. Specifically, she had a lot of loss on the top of her head at the part line (her part had become wider and a lot of scalp was showing through on the top) and she also had receding temples and a thinning crown. These are all places typical of genetic hair loss caused by excess DHT, sebum, and inflammation. In the following article, I'll discuss regrowth with AGA.
Regrowth Is Key In The Appearance Of Genetically Thinning Hair: I often tell my readers it's not really what you lose, it's what you regrow. What I mean by that is that even if you're shedding massively, your hair won't look that much thinner if you can regrow it back with thick, high quality hair that has good texture and a normal appearance.
In all actually, AGA usually has much less hair loss and shedding than other conditions like TE (telogen effluvium) or hormonal hair loss. However, the thinning sometimes is more noticeable because the hair that replaces the shed is lacking. Typically, the reason for the loss in the first place is excess androgens. And, these same things keep your hair from coming back in healthy.
Instead, you will sometimes get weak, peach fuzz or spider web type hairs that I've heard people describe as "cotton candy looking." This is miniaturization. Clogged hair follicles and DHT are working to compromise your ability to grow back decent hair. Thinner, miniaturized or baby hairs do not offer sufficient scalp coverage even if there are a decent number of them. So, what can you do about this?
Combat The DHT And Androgens (Externally At First:) These things are poison to your hair and scalp. They are what is standing between you and a healthy head of hair. Many people will throw anti androgen medications at this problem. And, if your levels are very high, this can work. But if you are hormonally vulnerable (which is especially true for women) you should know that these treatments change your hormones and will often kick off a new shed.
Sometimes, this shedding will stop and stabilize with time and sometimes it doesn't. I usually tell my readers that this risk isn't worth it until you tried topical solutions first, preferably natural solutions that don't further irritate your scalp. There are some things that you can get or extract in topical form that can reduce these substances on your scalp and you apply them directly to your scalp rather than in your body. Just a few examples are nettles and saw palmetto (extracted in liquid form), but there are others.
Combating Inflammation: Anytime you shed or lose a lot of hair, inflammation is both a cause and a result of this. And, this inflammation can also clog or shrink your follicles which only continues this cycle. You must cut down or stop this process. It's so important to have both a healthy scalp and unclogged, fully functional follicles that are cycling through normally – with each hair cycle remaining in it's full phase rather than staying in telogen for longer than necessary. Good, natural topicals for this are tea tree or jojoba oil, but they must be diluted properly not to clog.
Creating The Scalp That's Going To Be Conducive To Healthy Regrowth: The bottom line that is your scalp is full of DHT or is inflamed, your can't regrow your best head of hair. So, you want to both soothe and stimulate your scalp. Of course, the most popular stimulator is Rogaine and there is even a special formula for women. However, take a look at the alcohol content in this and check out the hair forums where you'll see countless people saying that Rogaine causes massive sheds and only regrows peach fuzz. Now, Rogaine works OK for some. But again, I think it's best to save this as a last resort, until you've tried more gentle, but equally as effective, solutions. Examples are rosemary, lavender, henna, horsetail, and burdock, to name only a few. These should be also be rotated and used as a combination for best results.
How do I know all of this? Because I lived it. In my quest to end my hair loss, I looked at my triggers, my iron, my thyroid, my adrenals, my hormones, and my scalp's health in my quest to end the nightmare. It was a long, hard, frustrating journey which all but wrecked my self esteem but I finally found something that helped quite a bit. You can read my very personal story at http://stop-hair-loss-in-women.com/
Regrowth Is Key In The Appearance Of Genetically Thinning Hair: I often tell my readers it's not really what you lose, it's what you regrow. What I mean by that is that even if you're shedding massively, your hair won't look that much thinner if you can regrow it back with thick, high quality hair that has good texture and a normal appearance.
In all actually, AGA usually has much less hair loss and shedding than other conditions like TE (telogen effluvium) or hormonal hair loss. However, the thinning sometimes is more noticeable because the hair that replaces the shed is lacking. Typically, the reason for the loss in the first place is excess androgens. And, these same things keep your hair from coming back in healthy.
Instead, you will sometimes get weak, peach fuzz or spider web type hairs that I've heard people describe as "cotton candy looking." This is miniaturization. Clogged hair follicles and DHT are working to compromise your ability to grow back decent hair. Thinner, miniaturized or baby hairs do not offer sufficient scalp coverage even if there are a decent number of them. So, what can you do about this?
Combat The DHT And Androgens (Externally At First:) These things are poison to your hair and scalp. They are what is standing between you and a healthy head of hair. Many people will throw anti androgen medications at this problem. And, if your levels are very high, this can work. But if you are hormonally vulnerable (which is especially true for women) you should know that these treatments change your hormones and will often kick off a new shed.
Sometimes, this shedding will stop and stabilize with time and sometimes it doesn't. I usually tell my readers that this risk isn't worth it until you tried topical solutions first, preferably natural solutions that don't further irritate your scalp. There are some things that you can get or extract in topical form that can reduce these substances on your scalp and you apply them directly to your scalp rather than in your body. Just a few examples are nettles and saw palmetto (extracted in liquid form), but there are others.
Combating Inflammation: Anytime you shed or lose a lot of hair, inflammation is both a cause and a result of this. And, this inflammation can also clog or shrink your follicles which only continues this cycle. You must cut down or stop this process. It's so important to have both a healthy scalp and unclogged, fully functional follicles that are cycling through normally – with each hair cycle remaining in it's full phase rather than staying in telogen for longer than necessary. Good, natural topicals for this are tea tree or jojoba oil, but they must be diluted properly not to clog.
Creating The Scalp That's Going To Be Conducive To Healthy Regrowth: The bottom line that is your scalp is full of DHT or is inflamed, your can't regrow your best head of hair. So, you want to both soothe and stimulate your scalp. Of course, the most popular stimulator is Rogaine and there is even a special formula for women. However, take a look at the alcohol content in this and check out the hair forums where you'll see countless people saying that Rogaine causes massive sheds and only regrows peach fuzz. Now, Rogaine works OK for some. But again, I think it's best to save this as a last resort, until you've tried more gentle, but equally as effective, solutions. Examples are rosemary, lavender, henna, horsetail, and burdock, to name only a few. These should be also be rotated and used as a combination for best results.
How do I know all of this? Because I lived it. In my quest to end my hair loss, I looked at my triggers, my iron, my thyroid, my adrenals, my hormones, and my scalp's health in my quest to end the nightmare. It was a long, hard, frustrating journey which all but wrecked my self esteem but I finally found something that helped quite a bit. You can read my very personal story at http://stop-hair-loss-in-women.com/
Source...