Hair Fall

Hi,

I am Dr. Monica Bambroo, Dermatologist. Today I will talk about hair fall. Hair fall has emotional overturns. We all are worried about it. And who is not involved with hair fall. We have kids, elder, middle age, the young female, after pregnancy, so hair fall is like a universal thing. But many times people ask is this the hair fall is normal. Or is it a serious problem, should I seek help from an expert. So, I am going to answer these queries. So, one thing we have to is all hair fall abnormal. Some hair fall are natural. If we lose 40-100 hair on a non-shampoo day, consider it normal. And on head wash day, you can lose 100-400 hair. So, this is a normal phenomenon. There is a lot of conditioners which can lead to hair fall. So, primarily divide hair fall into 2 basic categories. One is non-scarring alopecia which means you are losing hair but you have every chance of getting back your hair. Which means if you lose your hair, you can get them back. Hair growth will be there. Alopecia is fortunately very rare. Most patients we see non-scarring alopecia.

Now, non-scarring alopecia can further be divided into those categories who have patterned alopecia. Patients lose hair in a particular pattern. In this, we have 2 pattern hair loss. Male pattern and female pattern. Male pattern is very common like common baldness, androgenetic alopecia that we see. Here we have patients who have a frontal recession, hairline going back and texture thinning. We see that entire hair from the front scalp is gone. That is common baldness that we see in men. In females, also we have this kind of baldness but here we have a widening of the parting. Pattern alopecia runs in family or sometimes we get hair fall without any family history or without any apparent cause. This time we realize that we are losing hair. There can be hair thinning. We actually see a lot of hair fall on the floor, pillow, while having a bath. There are certain conditions which can lead to hair fall. You can have it after a high-grade fever or viral, dengue, post-pregnancy also it can happen. It can also be related to some medicines. Hair fall can also happen because of various deficiency.

Our food habits have been changed and lifestyle also. Deficiency of vitamin-B12, D. A lot of people are there who have normal hemoglobin but they have a non-anemic iron deficiency. Hair is made of very important protein which is called keratin. If protein intake is not proper, we can lose hair. Now the question is whom should we consult when we have hair fall. The dermatologist is best for this kind of consultation. They are well worse with hair condition. So, the best trichologist is a dermatologist. First, we need to see the cause of hair fall. We should know the cause only then we can do the treatment. If pattern alopecia is there, medicines can be given. We have to look at the cause if it is because of certain deficiency. A lot of people ask, are there any procedure which can be done. PRP can be done in which a patient's own blood is taken.

And then the platelets are injected to the scalp. This also strengthen the hair growth. Mesotherapy can also be done for hair fall. If hair loss has reached beyond the stage, hair transplant can be done. Transplants from the good clinic are very successful. Patients are very happy after transplant. So, don't worry if you have hair fall. Consult a Dr early. If you go beyond the stage where not much can be done, then the hair cannot be regained back. So, the key is to diagnose it early and then go ahead with the treatment. I am sure you will get a very good result.

Thank You.