Interesting bit of trivia: the word alopecia is formed from the Greek word meaning fox; the origin comes from the fact that the fox sheds its coat twice a year. The average human head has about 100,000 hair follicles; each follicle can grow about 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime. About 90 percent of the hair on the scalp is growing at any one time while about 10 percent of the hair is in a resting phase; after two to three months, the resting hair falls out and new hair starts to grow in its place.
Some mycotic infections can cause massive hair loss. If a medicine is causing your hair loss, your doctor may be able to prescribe a different medicine or you may find you really don’t need the medicine at all. In the past it was believed that baldness was inherited from a person’s maternal grandfather; while there’s some basis for this belief, both parents contribute to their offspring’s likelihood of hair loss.
About three or four months after an illness or a major surgery, you can suddenly temporarily lose a large amount of hair; this hair loss is related to the stress of the illness. Since hair loss may be an early sign of a disease, it’s important to find the cause so that it can be treated properly and fast. Poor digestion, parasites and nutrient deficiencies such as iron or biotin deficiency shouldn’t be overlooked as possible causes.
Temporary loss of hair can occur in areas where sebaceous cysts are present for one week to several weeks in length. Hypothyroidism can cause hair loss, especially thinning of the outer third of the eyebrows. Some drugs or medications can cause hair loss, which improves when you stop taking the medicine; medications that can cause hair loss include blood thinners, medicines used for gout, chemotherapy drugs used for cancer, too much vitamin A supplementation, birth control pills and antidepressants.
There are natural home remedies and many recipes for making mixtures to apply topically to the scalp. Products for hair loss include: shampoos, shampoos and conditioners, conditioners, lotions, creams, concealers, thinning hair shampoos, laser combs, laser brushes, the Lasertron Hair Growth Brush, herbal based products, chemical based pills or tablets, Nizoral shampoo, Neutrogena T-Gel, and many others. Immunosuppressants applied to the scalp have been shown to temporarily reverse alopecia areata, though the side effects of some of these drugs make this therapy questionable.
Surgery is another method of reversing hair loss and baldness, although it may be considered an extreme measure. Studies done on subjects of various ages suggests that weight training alone may increase testosterone in studies where aerobic exercise only was compared to either weight training or a moderately sedentary life. Very little testing has been done on the long-term effects of Minoxidil on women.
Minoxidil is a drug that’s used daily to prevent hair loss but may create heart problems; the hair it grows is very fine, only on the top of the head and may fall out again soon after the drug is stopped. Hair loss treatments and remedies range in price from free to expensive. Minoxidil is a very expensive drug, costing about one hundred dollars per month for daily treatment.
Rub vitamin E oil into the scalp nightly. Massage the scalp nightly with an oil made of one part rosemary oil and two parts almond oil. Resveratrol, from grape skins, is a lipase inhibitor and by decreasing the body’s ability to absorb fat through the intestine walls, it reduces the total fat and calorie content of a person’s diet.
Make sure to test remedies on a small area first and check with your hair loss doctor or skin doctor before trying any natural home remedy if it includes any irritating ingredients. Garlic oil remedy for hair loss – at bedtime, puncture a couple of garlic pearles, squirt the oil on the scalp, massage, cover with a cap, shampoo and rinse in the morning. Try using double-strength herbal sage tea as a hair rinse or apply to scalp every day as a tonic.
Onion juice and honey remedy for hair loss: prepare a hair-growing elixir by combining 1/4 cup of onion juice with one tablespoon of honey; massage the scalp with the mixture every day. Massage the scalp with the fingers daily. Polygonum Multiflorum is a traditional Chinese cure for hair loss; whether the plant itself is useful, the general safety and quality control of herbs imported from China can be questionable.
Raw onion remedy for hair loss – take half a raw onion and massage the scalp with it; cover the head overnight, shampoo and rinse in the morning. Fingernail buffer for hair loss: strange as it may sound – three times a day or so, for about five minutes, buff your right fingernails with the fingernails of your left hand; this is supposed to stop hair loss, encourage hair growth and prevent hair from graying. Russian cure with honey and vodka remedy for hair loss – combine one tablespoon honey with one jigger of vodka and the juice of a medium-size onion; rub mixture into the scalp every night, cover with a cap and shampoo in the morning.
To prevent further hair loss, consider a healthier lifestyle – eat a more plant-based diet, and get plenty of exercise; be good to your immune system. Treatment for alopecia can be slow and sometimes not successful; the more hair that’s lost, the more you may have to work at it to get it back and in some cases may not be able to; but try as many natural non-invasive treatments and remedies as possible. Consider all your natural options first; change your diet to one that’s more natural with lots of fruits and veggies.
