Beware of ‘miracle products’ for female hair loss

These days, there are hundreds of websites offering herbal cures and untested products for everything from erectile dysfunction to female hair loss treatment.

The reason these fraudulent sites continue to exist is because there will always be people stupid enough to buy from theses websites, also the MHRA do not have the man power to be able to shut all theses sites down whilst new ones appear online everyday.

The truth is, for hair loss in women in particular is that spending your hard-earned money on these unsafe & unregulated products and treatments will ultimately lead to crushing disappointment. This is because the overwhelming majority of these products do not work, and the people who make and sell them are making money out of your willingness to believe they do.

Go to specialist website or doctor instead

The best way to avoid being ripped off on these internet products is to avoid disreputable or dubious- looking websites altogether. If the product and its low price seem too good to be true, it most likely is.

All this isn’t to say that there aren’t treatments and solutions out there for women suffering from hair loss, because there are such as Regaine, Dianette & Spironolactone but the way to find them is through a registered specialist hair loss website.

How to boost your confidence after hair loss

Losing your hair can really knock your confidence and change how you view yourself. Some people will take the view ‘it’s only hair’, (who are generally men), but it isn’t only hair; it plays a major part of your self-esteem.

From being a young child to an adult woman, we are conditioned by the media, entertainment and fashion industries to believe that shiny, healthy hair is a symbol of beauty, youth, femininity and sexuality. This is why losing it can be so devastating, as we feel that all of these ‘attractive’ qualities are robbed from us, often without warning.

Confidence-boosting tips

The key to regaining your self-esteem and confidence when interacting with the world is acceptance. Once the initial panic of losing your hair has passed, you can accept what has happened and start to look for solutions.

Here are some confidence-boosting solutions for:

Temporary hair loss (caused by hormonal changes such as pregnancy)

Whilst you are waiting for your hair to fully grow back; human hair wigs are a great idea. Some of the latest wigs are extremely realistic, so you never need to feel self-conscious about your appearance.

Permanent hair loss (caused by alopecia, female pattern baldness)

Hair loss treatment has improved rapidly in the last few years, with medications such as the Dianette & Spironolactone offering you a way cure it.

Coping with female hair loss

Hair loss can be damaging to anyone's self esteem, but even more so when a women loses their hair. One of the commonest forms of hair loss in women (and men) is a condition called telogen effluvium, in which there is a diffuse (or widely spread out) shedding of hairs around the scalp and elsewhere on the body.

This is usually a reaction to intense stress on the body's physical or hormonal systems, or as a reaction to medication.

The condition, which can occur at any age, generally begins fairly suddenly and gets better on its own within about six months, although for a few people it can become a chronic problem.

Many adults have had an episode of telogen effluvium at some point in their lives, reflecting episodes of illness or stress.

Another common type of hair loss in women is androgenetic alopecia, which is related to hormone levels in the body. There's a large genetic predisposition, which may be inherited from the father or mother.

Androgenetic alopecia affects roughly 50 per cent of men (this is the main cause of the usual pattern of balding seen as men age) and perhaps as many women over the age of 40.

Research shows that up to 13 per cent of women have some degree of this sort of hair loss before the menopause, and afterwards it becomes far more common - one piece of research suggests that over the age of 65 as many as 75 per cent of women are affected.

There can be a wide range of treatment for women with hair loss and seeing your Doctor is always the first point of call, but some of the treatments out there for women include regaine, Dianette & Spironolactone.

All of these treatments can stop hair loss in its tracks and even in some cases re-grow lost hair.

Scientists discover gene that causes baldness

Hereditary baldness gene has been identified, which could lead on to future hair loss treatment being made available.

Researchers have found a gene mutation which leads to thinning hair and which can even start taking effect in childhood. The gene, APCDD1, causes hair follicles to shrink, leading to thinner hair known as 'peach fuzz'.

The discovery had taken place at the Columbia Universality, and the team now hope of further things to discover in ways of treating hair loss in men and women. The condition leading to thinning hair is known as hereditary hypotrichosis simplex and the researchers believe they have pinpointed the gene behind it.

Dr Angela Christiano, lead author and professor of dermatology and genetics and development at Columbia University Medical Center, said: 'The identification of this gene underlying hereditary hypotrichosis simplex has afforded us an opportunity to gain insight into the process of hair follicle miniaturization, which is most commonly observed in male pattern hair loss or androgenetic alopecia.

'It is important to note that while these two conditions share the same physiologic process, the gene we discovered for hereditary hypotrichosis does not explain the complex process of male pattern baldness.'

Her team studied data from families in Pakistan and Italy with hereditary hypotrichosis simplex. They identified a common mutation in the APCDD1 gene, which is located in a specific region on a chromosome 18 that has been linked in previous studies to hair loss.

It inhibits a signal pathway known as Wnt which has been shown to control hair growth in mice, but has only now been linked to the human condition.

Dr Christiano said: 'We have at last made a connection between Wnt signaling and human hair disease that is highly significant.

'We have years of beautiful data in our field about hair growth in mice, but this is the first inroad into showing that the same pathway is critical in human hair growth.

'This is the first mutation in a Wnt inhibitor that deregulates the pathway in a human hair disease.

'Furthermore, these findings suggest that manipulating the Wnt pathway may have an effect on hair follicle growth - for the first time, in humans. 'And unlike commonly available treatments for hair loss that involve blocking hormonal pathways, treatments involving the Wnt pathway would be non-hormonal, which may enable many more people suffering from hair loss to receive such therapies.'

Therefore if the science in hereditary hair loss comes on leaps and bound traditional treatment such as Propecia could be a thing of the past.

Miracle cures - miracle or myth?

Most herbal hair loss remedies contain Saw Palmetto berries. They are said to be an effective treatment for baldness, as well as relieving the symptoms of an enlarged prostate.

No authentic clinical studies support the claim that Saw Palmetto berries effectively treat hair loss and its dosage/application is based on conjecture, rather than scientific evidence.

Therefore Saw palmetto berries cannot legally be sold or claim to promote hair growth as its all just hear say. How ever there are to products on the market that can claim to grow hair back Propecia & Regaine

These are the two only drugs which are licensed for hair loss or male pattern baldness.

Good news for bald men at last: Hair loss 'almost halves the risk of prostate cancer'

One thing that men any age don't really want to see in the mirror is bald bald patches and receding hair lines. But research suggests those who, like Wayne Rooney, are facing a future with less hair should stop fretting at that retreating hairline and slapping on the propecia.

Men who start going bald at a young age are up to 45 per cent less likely to fall victim to prostate cancer later in life, scientists have found.

Although half of all men suffer significant hair loss by the age of 50, an American team has linked the high levels of testosterone in those who go bald earlier to a lower risk of tumours.

The scientists studied 2,000 men aged between 40 and 47, half of whom had suffered prostate cancer. They compared the rate of tumours in those who remembered their hair thinning by the age of 30 with those who did not suffer hair loss.

Men who had started to develop bald spots on the top of their heads as well as receding hairlines had the least risk of cancer.

'At first, the findings were surprising,' said Professor Jonathan Wright, an expert in prostate cancer at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. 'But we found that early onset baldness was associated with a 29 per cent to 45 per cent reduction in their relative risk of prostate cancer.'

Dr Helen Rippon, head of research management at The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: 'If these results are correct, they could be useful in providing us with a greater understanding of how testosterone behaves in the body and how it can affect different tissues.'