Hairfall

Here are causes and prevention of hair loss

"Hi! I am Dr. Raj Kirit. A very good day to all of you. I practice in CELESTEE skin and laser clinic which is located in Jubilee Hills. Today I am gonna talk about Hair fall. Hair fall ranges from all groups, from age of 12 years to probably extending the age of 60 or 70 years as well. But what is important for us? Hair fall happening in youngsters or the hair fall which is happening in the middle age group is one of the most concerning and descending and as well distressing for the youngsters too. So what are the causes of hair fall? In general age hair fall it happens in males as well as in females, but in males it is commonly called as Telogen effluvium or Androgenetic Alopecia, which is a male pattern baldness. Whereas in females it is called as Female pattern hair loss, because most of the times the female pattern baldness as well as the Telogen effluvium, the both chronic and acute can coexist together which is commonly seen. So that is why, a very undefined entity which is called as female pattern hair loss is the commonest problem for hair loss.

So coming to Telogen effluvium, what is Telogen effluvium? The hair, whenever a person is suffering with malaria, tuberculosis or in conditions such as very emotional distress or physical stress or any other conditions like dieting, nutritional deficiencies or even when people are on dieting or crash diets, so these kind of things can trigger the condition called as Telogen effluvium. The body is deprived of all the nutritional factors and hence it stops the hair’s and nail’s growth suddenly. And these hair which become weak, shed off. This is Telogen effluvium. But whereas the Androgenetic Alopecia is a genetic and androgen dependent, that is the reason it is termed as Androgenetic Alopecia. Whenever the baldness is effecting the youngsters, we have seen the earliest cases of Grade-7 Alopecia that is the complete male pattern baldness in the age of 72. That is our experience, but we are seeing the male pattern baldness pre-founding as early as 12 years of age. One case which has been reported at 8 years of age from Canada. So you see baldness can be earlier onset. When it happens post like 30 years, for 40 years, it’s all fine, but when it happens before the age of 30, that is more concerning for the young males as well as the females.

Coming to the types of Alopecia, what is this Grade-4, Grade-3, and Grade-1? In case if any person is losing on the forehead, that is Grade-1. And Grade-2, that is the early onset of male pattern baldness in which the person is losing in the front of the scalp as well as on the back of the scalp that is called Grade-3 or Grade-4. And when the person is losing the entire strip of the baldness at the end, it is called as Grade-7 Alopecia. So males progress that way.

So does baldness happens in females?

Yes it does happens in females too. The only thing is it goes unnoticed. There are two types of baldness that is the male pattern baldness and the female. When the baldness progresses from here, the front line hair, the hairline recedes back, that is called the male pattern baldness in females. Whereas there is another type of female pattern baldness, which is called the Ludwig’s type as well the Olsen’s type where the parting of hair becomes more prominent. That is also a type of female pattern baldness, so the parting becomes prominent, the thin hair becomes prominent and you can also see the scalp whenever you take a head bath and you come out and look into the mirror, you can see the scalp is very much visible and also you see the thinning of the hair and especially in females, you can notice that the plates become thinner and thinner.

Does thyroid cause hair loss?

Yes it causes hair loss. Can thyroid problems persist when the thyroid problems persist? Yes, thyroid problems can persist with the hair loss problems. Why? Because the hair is always regulated with the hormones, especially with the thyroid as well as the testosterone. Now in females there is a common condition called as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or the Polycystic Ovarian disease. Even the PCOD patients who are more susceptible to PCOD, they can also present with more amount of hair fall. So the iron deficiency is one of the reasons and also the PCOS. So apart from the other causes such as the stress as well as the iron deficiencies and the other nutritional deficiencies, the hormonal conditions are also have to be looked upon. Once the females cross around females, they are more prone to PCOS especially when they cross the age of 24. So every year checkup or an annual checkup of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome has to be done in case you are suffering with acne, oiliness of the glands, oiliness of the face as well for the weight gain and menstrual cycle irregularities. So these are the five conditions when you have to suspect that you might be suffering with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

What is the balanced diet for hair?

How much are we concerned balancing diet for your hair? The answer is very simple. You are supposed to take a lot of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, green salad especially mutton liver and fish and also prawns and seafoods can contain more amount of proteins and minerals as well as you can take lots of pomegranates, apples and of course you are supposed to take soya bean chunks and a glass of milk every day. So this kind of balanced diet can improvise the hair fall, can improvise the condition especially when you are tackling with hair loss. Coming to the treatment of hair loss, the gold standard is Minoxidil either 2% in females or 5% in males or even when we go up to 10% in certain males. When the amount of hair loss is extensive and, we need to require the hair growth faster and better responses. So Minoxidil is a gold standard which we cannot replace. It is a time tested molecule, it helps a lot of patients.

But the only thing you have to understand is, hair loss treatment is not temporary it has to be long-lasting, so the question comes how long we have to use Minoxidil? You can use it as long as you want hair. That is the only answer what I give to my patients. And the other treatments are mesotherapy, which will use platelet-rich plasma and detox diet as well as Minoxidil and certain other medications where we use and inject into the skin and then the hair start to grow up. But when do we see these results? In 3 to 6 months we see them and we see persistent results and we have very less failures.

Coming to the hair transplantation, in hair transplantation, we do both methods-
1. FUE [Follicular Unit Extraction] methods
2. Follicular Unit Transplantation

FUE is very advanced, we use advanced machines in it. We get excellent results with hair transplantation. With FUE methods you can hardly make out that there has been any scar or any hair transplant you have done. The older technique which is one of the good methods, that is called the Follicular Unit Transplantation. I choose FUE in youngsters because it gives a lot of benefit for them because they have less scars. So these are the various forms of therapies for hair loss. Fist we have to stop the hair loss then we have to go for the restoration of hair loss and then you can do hair transplantations as well depending on the conditions and requirement.

This is me DR. Raj Kirit. I practice at Celeste’s King laser and hair clinic. I am a consultant, trichologist, dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon. I am located in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. You can contact me in person for better information and better treatment in my clinic or you can contact through lybrate.com. Thank you.