For most of human history, hair loss was something people just had to live with. But over the years, researchers have sought solutions for regrowing hair. They have particularly focused on those suffering from androgenic alopecia, also known as “male pattern baldness.” Now that focus is paying off.
There may not yet be a magic pill that automatically restores a thick, healthy head of hair. But there are some advancements that are proving effective in encouraging hair growth. That’s great news for those watching their hairlines moving in the wrong direction.
If you haven’t kept up with what’s available in hair restoration, read on. Here are five up-to-the-minute treatments that can help you fight the battle with baldness.
1. Topical and Oral Medications
Over-the-counter topical medications are the most affordable and easily accessed hair loss treatment available today. Even if you need a prescription for some topical and oral drugs, they’re easy to obtain and use. These provide a great place to begin tackling your hair loss.
Start with minoxidil, which comes in a topical solution you apply daily. This product is a vasodilator that increases blood flow to the areas of the scalp where it’s applied. Ramping up blood flow is what allows more oxygen and nutrients to reach shrinking hair follicles. This stimulation pushes out dying hair and spurs regrowth of new, healthy hair.
Although minoxidil is available over the counter, it’s often used in combination with prescription topical or oral finasteride. Finasteride works by blocking the hormone that causes male pattern baldness. When you’re promoting hair regrowth from two sides at once, you become a formidable foe to hair loss.
2. Low-Light Lasers
Low-light laser therapy for hair regrowth goes by different names. You might hear it referred to as “cold laser” or “red light” therapy. Under any name, the treatment exposes the scalp to electromagnetic radiation, which promotes blood circulation.
There are caps and combs available in clinics and for home use that deliver the light. Use the comb three times a week for up to 15 minutes or the cap for 30 minutes every other day. Laser therapy is safe and non-invasive.
Lasers may sound a little sci-fi. However, studies have shown laser therapy to be as effective as minoxidil in stimulating hair regrowth. Even better, when minoxidil and laser therapy are used in combination, the results can be stellar.
3. Platelet-Rich Plasma
Plasma is being used to promote healing all over the body these days. Why should your scalp be any different?
Plasma is the liquid part of your blood and the platelets within it. Technicians put a sample into a centrifuge, and it spins out everything else, leaving behind platelet-rich plasma. Your spun plasma is then injected into three or four places in the scalp where you’ve suffered hair loss. Scientists don’t completely understand how this method works, but studies have shown that it’s effective. The thought is that the concentration of platelets stimulates healing, in this case in the hair follicles.
Common treatment regimens comprise four sessions in year one and one treatment every six months thereafter. Of course, since blood is drawn from your arm and injected into your scalp, you’ll need to overcome any fear of needles. But with any luck, your hair follicles will get the point.
4. Hair Cloning
“Cloning” carries its own set of connotations. But researchers developing this procedure are hoping it’s not just a treatment for male pattern baldness. They’re banking on it being the cure.
The underlying premise is that dermal sheath cells can be harvested from someone with productive hair follicles. Those cells are then injected into the scalp of someone suffering from male pattern baldness. Researchers are still working on the cloning part. That involves multiplying the dermal sheath cells in a petri dish and injecting them in greater numbers for a fuller head of hair.
Practical application of hair cloning may still be a ways away. But current research is incredibly promising. You can’t get more cutting-edge than what’s on the horizon.
5. New Hair Transplant Techniques
Hair transplantation is currently the most sure-fire way to regrow hair. Although the concept has been around for decades, techniques are constantly improving. Today follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE) are gaining in popularity.
FUT involves removing a strip of scalp where hair is growing, cutting it into small grafts, and transplanting them where needed. FUE eliminates the large scar and stitches at the FUT incision site. Individual grafts are plucked from areas with hair and transplanted in bald areas. In both procedures, new hair will begin to grow from the healthy, newly inserted follicles.
Donor sites for FUE can be areas of the body other than the scalp, which offers greater selection. And new technology is making grafting quicker, more precise, and more successful. You can expect hair transplantation to just keep getting more successful in the future.
The Future Is Here
Most of these cutting-edge treatments for male pattern baldness are here today. But there are even more on the way. How about lab-grown hair follicles or genetic manipulation of stem cells to produce more of an RNA particle that generates hair growth?
With 21st-century science and technology, researchers are sure to find more ways to treat androgenic alopecia effectively. There are more cutting-edge treatments to come. And when they do, you may find yourself with more hair to cut.