HairLossTreatments.net Editor's Blog

I always thought that hair loss was complicated.  But I realized today that so many things pass between us and our pets, and frankly when our pets have fleas, obviously get rid of them for your pet’s sake.  But also get rid of them for your sake.  It will be itchy for obvious reasons.  But it could also cause dermatitis and related hair loss in some individuals.  It’s not that we so much need hair for our protection, though eyebrow hair actually protects the hair. 

 It’s more about the fact that nobody really likes to go without hair if they don’t have to.  But basically when you have fleas, if it’s really bad especially, you are likely to itch, scratch, rub, and otherwise touch your scalp on a general basis.  A lot of hair falls out due to pulling anyway, well some of these can work the same way.  In addition, just like you can suffer an allergy to bug bites like mosquito bites and otherwise, you can also suffer allergies to fleas.  So you need to remember to get the fleas treated, partly so you don’t have to get a flea treatment for yourself and partly so that you don’t have to suffer hair loss along with your pet.

When I think about steroids, I think about men with shrunken areas, unnaturally bulging muscles, high voices due to the lack of natural testosterone, and acne.  Those are all pretty bad things, but I guess it’s what I’ve been taught to picture when I think of steroids.  Every once in a while I picture some kind of medication that uses a different type of steroid, mostly those to deal with asthma.  But steroids have their common usages or stereotypical usages.

But apparently, they also cause hair loss.  I assume it’s like menopause or pregnancy for women.  Their hormones go out of wack, and in the response the body gets rid of its hair.  With most women who go through pregnancy and have this happen, it grows back once their hormones regulate themselves.  With women who go through menopause, their hormones are never exactly the same, so who knows.  But with steroids, once your body stops producing natural testosterone, no amount of time is going to fix that.  So I have to wonder, can they really reverse the hair loss suffered with steroids?  I don’t think so in some ways.  I have my reasons.  After all, if you could, couldn’t you reverse all the problems.  But I could always be wrong.

Most people would think of MSM as a joint supplement.  It has been tested and proven in the treatment of osteoarthritis pain, and it has been commonly used in many joint supplements accordingly.  But many are finding that MSM can also promote greater hair growth and maintenance as a natural sulfur compounds that is found in the body anyway, and some are theorizing that MSM deficiencies could cause hair loss. 

Though the causes of hair loss vary and this is just one of the possible, it is definitely a good possibility.  MSM has been said to extend the length of the hair growth cycle allowing you to make more frequent trips to your stylist to get your hair trimmed and even thinned out in some cases.  MSM supplements can be found in forms of powder, tablets, or capsules, and it can be easily fit into your daily regimen.  Some also use biotin, and some can also be found in shampoos and conditioners.

MSM is a breakthrough ingredient in recent hair loss trends, and it is much more affordable and safe if for nothing else than the common procedure or otherwise.  Like multivitamins, MSM products can be more commonly found than even over the counter hair loss treatments, and it is also more affordable than those, making a product that many have come to prefer for various and obvious reasons.  After all, why not achieve extra shine and beauty or extra growth or maintenance without paying a fortune if you can find something that will do it?

I remember as a child watching movies where people would spray their head with this kind of paint or something that would supposedly make them look like they had hair.  Really, they could’ve just sprayed it with a can of spray paint that matched their hair color and gotten better results.  But that’s why those products were only found in the movies.  Now with that in mind, there have been some women who are hair pullers or overpluck their eyebrows or don’t have eyebrows who have learned to take their make up pencil and actually make it look like they have something from a bit of a distance.  One woman I saw was really good, and they had to do a big camera close up for me to even catch it.

But now Joan Rivers, and we all know who Joan Rivers is, is claiming to have a powder that you can apply to cover thinning hair and give the “illusion of a full head of hair.”  And of course, she says she has personally experienced thinning hair and just knows this stuff works!  So on the good side, they do have 5 different shades: light blonde, blonde, red, brunette, and salt & pepper.  On the bad side, how many shades are there that are not actually covered?  And what if you have black hair or practically black hair?  You apply it directly to the scalp and it’s going to be highly noticeable.  On the other hand, some users have said tit it made their “white scalp less shiny.”  Unfortunately, in my own tests on my dad, because I think it’s fun to experiment on him, Miss Joan Rivers’ product did not work.  He doesn’t have a complex about his thinning hair, or else he would probably use Rogaine.  But it was an interesting adventure, in part only because he didn’t actually go into work and embarrass himself in front of anybody that day.

One of the best ways to keep hair from falling out is to take care of the hair in the first place.  Make sure you have healthy hair.  This won’t necessarily battle those cases that are due to serious illness or hereditary measures.  But it will prevent many completely unnecessary and avoidable periods of hair loss among users.  So use a healthy diet to start.

Your diet should have plenty of protein.  This is also good for your body, but the amino acids form healthy chains and help you to maintain that healthy but not oily hair among other things, and it has high levels of the healthy omega 3 fatty acids, B-12, and iron.  Second, use iron.  Proteins are also high in iron.  But iron specifically prevents hair loss and grey hair to some degree.  You can find it in red meats, legumes, eggs, dark leafy vegetables, and whole grain cereals, so you have quite a variety.  However, for men this is less necessary as men do not regularly lose iron as do women.  It can therefore buildup and be more harmful than helpful for men.  Third, try B vitamins.  B vitamins are healthy for everybody, provide more energy, and it is also in various foods, and it prevents hair loss to some degree.  Vitamin C helps you to absorb iron properly, and it also has powerful antioxidants to improve capillary health.  It is needed for sebum, which is healthy in the right amounts, and it can be found in various fruits, vegetables, and other sources.  Likewise, vitamin A can promote a healthy scalp, vitamin C promotes protein processing, better circulation in general including in the area around the scalp, etc. 

There are various other elements that you should remember in your diet.  But all of them can be covered by using a generally healthy diet, and while they are good for your hair growth and maintenance, they are also good for your body in general.

If we are facing reality, hair loss is genetic.  It tends to be passed through men, but women can get it too.  It’s in a way like the colorblind gene, you see it for the most part in men and therefore expect it to only occur in men except on rare occasions when the two parents both have the gene, whether it is expressed in either adult or not, and it somehow ends up in the same kid. 

They found this gene specifically in mice.  So I’m not sure I believe in the whole efficacy of this particular gene.  They have yet to find it in humans.  But realistically, you see whole families with early hair loss, so it has to have something to do with that, it’s just a matter of figuring out the fine details.  Either way, they call this gene Sox21, and they have been able to breed mice with no Sox21.  They actually took out Sox21, which caused the mice to lose their fur and even their whiskers.  I feel bad for these mice, because that’s pathetic.  I had a ferret who actually lost her hair because of a thyroid disorder.  But she couldn’t go out on walks without sunscreen, she just looked pitiful, and I feel worse for animals with hair loss than people.  Why would you purposefully inflict this?  Either way, even with this finding, could you really transfer the results?  I mean are you going to try to tell me that this tiny little gene in mice or lack thereof could be transferred to humans so that we don’t have to worry about all the ethics of people worrying about it like they do stem cell technology?  I find myself doubting it’s going to happen.  I also find myself doubting that it even applies to humans in the first place.

Some of the relatives constantly talk about and laugh about the fact that one of my cousins came out as a hairy little monster, even a red monkey as they describe her, and then somewhere around the age of 2 or 3, she suddenly lost all her hair and in a way looked like a small cancer patient. Of course, her mother being a doctor, she discovered the kid was perfectly healthy.  But being that she actually wanted people to realize that her little girl was a girl, she made sure she always had little pink headbands or something.  Her brother on the other hand had a full head of hair that they didn’t actually cut until he reached about age 5.  So everybody had a tendency to confuse the 2 in which one was the older girl and which one was the boy.  The strangest part was that they were of course from the same family.

As it turns out, alopecia in children is extremely uncommon.  Obviously cancer and the related chemotherapy could cause this hair loss.  But there are a number of children that just randomly lose their hair.  Luckily 60% outgrow it.  My cousin did.  She still has rather thin hair which she is always trying to bolster in appearance, but it’s still thin. 

But in most children, 60% of those who suffer from hair loss, hair regrowth can take up to about a year or more.  And for most it is just spontaneously resolved.  But 40% don’t have the same luck, suffering through embarrassing moments into older ages.  So it should definitely be recommended that users of course visit a pediatrician to determine and treat any possible causes or determine if it is just something they will grow out of.

Like adults, children can suffer from poor scalp circulation which can be treated in some ways with headbands, hats, or warmer weather.  Others suffer from vitamin deficiencies, which can be more common because foods taste different to kids and they tend to avoid healthier foods in many cases.  It could be caused by excessive hair pulling.  Most of the causes are essentially the same.  The only major difference is that it’s children suffering it.

While apparently they are saying that men have issues with being bald, I never imagined it.  When they’re young, yes I could see it, because it’s often considered to be a sign of age.  But having all the major male figures in my life be bald or balding as they got older, I always grew up thinking it was normal, it was a part of life, and it made them look distinct at that time.  And apparently, other people thought the same thing, because in business, I’ve heard people say that they wanted a tall, bald man.  They seem to always specify bald, because while Michael Jordan made it cool to bick your head, assuming in some cases that you were going bald, it seems to be a sign of stature among other things.

But apparently, many men don’t feel quite the same way.  They have paid attention to all the media attention, just as we have, and they are now envious of the men who don’t have hair loss.  In many cases, they don’t want to be bald, because though some look at it as distinguishing, most women don’t actually describe a desirable man as “bald.” 

Because of this and other factors, men are definitely considering hair loss treatments, in some cases severe.  As old as they get, many don’t want to lose hair.  Some would think it more obvious why women would hate hair loss.  But men are starting to feel the same basic way, because of all the societal emphasis on hair and its apparen virtues.