Help for Women Suffering from Hair Loss

• Why Women Lose Hair
• Traditional Non-Surgical Options
• Hair Transplant Surgery
• Powders & Sprays
• CTHR™

Nothing’s more horrifying than watching your beautiful hair fall out by the handful. Whether you wear your hair short, shoulder length, or to the floor, there comes a time when almost all women go through changes, which can include thinning hair.

Hair loss is especially injurious to those who have professions or careers where physical appearance plays a significant role. A young woman is especially vulnerable to the stigma of balding. Not until we are confronted with the loss of our hair do we fully realize how essential hair is to our overall person.

A woman’s hair is at its thickest by age 20. Once we pass 20, however, our hair gradually begins to thin, shedding more than the normal 100-150 hairs a day. With aging, hair strands hold less pigment and become smaller, so that what was once the luxuriant and thick hair of our youth becomes thin, fine and lighter in color. For even the elderly woman, significant hair loss can threaten self image. A woman’s sense of sexuality and femininity as well as her established place in family and society are often undermined by hair loss.

Hair loss can be temporary or long lasting.

Hair loss in women can be a symptom of a short-term event such as stress, pregnancy, or the taking of certain medications. In these situations, hair will often (though not always) grow back when the event has passed.

Hormones and medications, as well as disease can cause a change in hair growth, shedding phases and their durations. When this happens, synchronous growth and shedding occur. Once the cause is dealt with, many times hairs will go back to their random pattern of growth and shedding, and the hair loss problem stops. Unfortunately, for some women, hair loss becomes a life-long struggle.

Why women lose hair

Women can lose hair for a variety of reasons. In pregnancy, changes in hormone levels can produce hair loss. Stress and anxiety can also cause hair follicles to cease production. In some cases, vitamin deficiency can lead to hair loss. Certain medications can also cause hair to fall out. And in a condition called traction alopecia, women (and men) can lose hair due to pulling and tension from braids, weaves and extensions. Traction alopecia, like other forms of hair loss, is permanent even after the braids are removed.

There are two conditions in which hair loss is irreversible:
The first is a condition known as alopecia universalis. Very few people are afflicted with alopecia universalis, but those who are face the devastating effects of all hair production ceasing on their body. They actually produce no hair at all, from their scalps to their toes. The condition is believed to be caused by a virus and there is no “cure” for it.

The overwhelming majority of women suffer from what is known as androgenic hair loss.
This is caused by hormones. Pregnant women can experience hair loss due to changes in hormonal levels. In androgenic hair loss, the principle is the same but the cause is quite different.

Both men and women have hormones of the opposite sex. Men have levels of estrogen in their bodies just as women have levels of testosterone. In women, the cause of what is known as female pattern baldness is the testosterone hormone. Women with hair loss do not have abnormal levels of testosterone in their body. These women are just unable to “break down” testosterone properly.

There are high levels of testosterone found in a person’s scalp. If the hormone does not break down properly as it ages and is ready to be disposed of as waste, a by-product known as dihidrotestosterone (DHT) exists. When too much DHT accumulates in the scalp, hair follicles are affected. They begin to atrophy.

The hair being produced becomes smaller, weaker in structure, and lighter in color. Finally, the hair follicle enters a permanent dormant state and no hair is produced at all. In most cases there is no way to induce the hair follicle to produce normal, healthy hair again. The hair follicle is essentially dead.

What options does a woman have to combat hair loss?

There are products on the market, which claim to help restore hair growth, cover balding spots, and even give you a healthier scalp. Maybe you’ve tried some or all of these products without success?

 

Wigs: Wigs are always an option for balding women, but good ones are expensive, and some women just can’t stand to wear them.

Hair clip-ons/extensions: These give women the option to hide certain thinning areas of the head. With clip-ons, however, you won’t have much success if there’s no hair there to clip them on to!

Drugs: Some women claim that drugs such as Minoxidil (Rogaine) and Finasteride (Propecia) do help whereas others try them with no luck. Side effects can be troubling for some people who use these popular hair loss treatments and as such, many users have opted for an alternative.

Things to consider about drug treatments:
1. Once you start using Rogaine, you have to keep using it for the rest of your life. Once you stop you will lose all the hair that you grew, and any hair Rogaine kept you from losing.

2. Rogaine could take up to four to six months to see any visible results, and you are advised to stop using it if you don’t see hair growth by this time.

3. Please note: Propecia is not FDA approved for women to use. Propecia has the potential to cause birth defects, so pregnant and breast-feeding women should not take the medication, or even handle crushed or broken tablets. If you are trying to get pregnant, you should not take the medication, and you should wait a few months after stopping Propecia before trying to conceive.

If a doctor does prescribe Propecia to a woman, the doctor will probably insist that the woman take a solid form of birth control to prevent pregnancy while on the medication. What happens if a woman does happen to get pregnant while taking Propecia? That’s a whole other issue but most doctors won’t prescribe Propecia unless the woman agrees she would terminate the pregnancy in that unfortunate event. This scenario is similar to the issues surrounding the acne drug Accutane, but that drug is actually FDA approved for women to use.
 

Hair Transplant Surgery:

According to experts, only a very small percentage of women are candidates for hair transplant surgery. About 2% to 5% of women with hair loss will benefit from this type of procedure.

Since hair restoration surgery is a good option for many of the balding men in the country, women think they will also make good candidates, but this is usually not the case.

Very few women have the type of hair loss that makes them good candidates. Most women have diffuse hair loss: an overall thinning in all areas of the head, including the sides and back. It’s these areas that act as donor sites in men. It is from these sites that the hair is removed for hair transplantation to other areas of the head.

In men, the donor sites are called stable sites, which means that the hair and follicles in those areas are not affected by the dihydrotestosterone (DHT) that shrinks follicles elsewhere on the head. This is the situation in those with androgenetic alopecia, or what’s commonly called male pattern baldness.

In female pattern baldness, however, these donor areas are usually unstable. They are thinning, just like the other areas of the head. The donor areas in women are affected by follicle-killing DHT. That means that if you remove hair and accompanying follicles from these donor areas in women and transplant them to other areas, it’s just going to fall out. Any doctor who would attempt to transplant hair from an unstable donor site is potentially unethical and may just be trying to take economic advantage of the patient.

Another difference between male and female pattern baldness is the frontal hairline. Unlike men, women with hair loss tend to keep their frontal hairline. They don’t have to worry about needing a hair transplant to frame their faces, and are instead more concerned about the loss of volume from the top and back. Hair transplants, though, don’t do much to increase volume. They just move hair from one place to another.

Powders and sprays:

How do they work?

Temporary concealers normally come in one of three forms: solids, powders, or sprays. The goal of each is to minimize the contrast between scalp and hair.

1. Solid concealers work in a similar way to facial concealers. They are sold as densely packed colored powder, or sometimes as creams which are applied directly to the bald spot. The concealer temporarily dyes the hairless areas and clings to the existing hair so that it looks thicker. Modern concealers are much better than those of the past, especially in terms of color matching and staying on in the rain! You can use them every day without causing any further deterioration in your existing hair.

2. Powders are sold in containers holding thousands of fiber particles that are shaken directly onto the head. Different products work in different ways. In some products, the particles stay in place by using an additional spray that serves to bond them into place.

3. Sprays are sold in aerosol cans and can be applied directly to the balding areas. They temporarily dye the scalp and stick to the existing hair to promote the image of thicker hair.

What are the advantages? Let’s imagine you’ve got an important social event coming up. Maybe it’s the wedding of a close friend. You will mainly be amongst friends, but you are nervous about the photographs. In particular, you’re nervous about photographs that catch your bald spot in an unflattering light. On occasions when you need a little extra confidence and a spring in your step, cosmetic concealers can be a good solution. It is all about how comfortable you feel. Temporary concealers can also help to eliminate the appearance of a hair transplant scar. However, because the donor site and scarring is typically on the back of the head, the user must develop some skill in the daily application of the concealer. Of course, the other advantage is that it is a low-cost alternative to other treatments and has an immediate effect.

What are the disadvantages? While it’s the goal of any hair loss solution to enable users to feel less self-conscious about their hair loss, regular users of temporary concealers often describe feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, or fear of being “found out.” Instead of feeling freer and less anxious about their hair loss, they feel bound to limited physical activities and social situations. Examples of these include concerns of being caught in the rain and the makeup running, or hard-to-explain stains on shirt collars and white pillowcases. Most modern products are far more durable than previous versions. However, there is still the risk that they can start coming off when you least expect it to! Temporary concealers cannot do anything to reshape or restore a receded hairline, because they can’t be applied where there is no hair. Since concealers obviously don’t look like hair follicles, they are only undetectable from a distance and cannot work with very short hair or crop cuts.

CTHR combines the permanence of a surgical procedure with the immediate results produced by camouflaging products, without any maintenance, and with a superior cosmetic result.

What is CTHR™?

CTHR for women is a process that is exclusive to Good Look Ink.
CTHR™ was designed to decrease the contrast between your scalp color and hair color, giving an illusion of density and fullness. You can think of CTHR™ as a “permanent” cosmetic concealer such as Toppik or DermMatch. However, unlike with these powders or sprays, with CTHR™ you will not have to worry about detection, or if your scalp is showing from the uneven application of these products. Unlike some cosmetic concealers, CTHR™ does not stain your clothing, pillow, or your significant other’s fingertips.

Good Look Ink has a proprietary application that is unique to anywhere else in the world. It implements indelible GLI pigment and utilizes a combination of shading techniques as well as Cosmetic Transdermal Hair Replication. All GLI technicians have been certified and trained by a GLI certified trainer as well as being licensed by the state of Minnesota to perform non-surgical CTHR™

Finally, it will allow you, without any embarrassing concerns, the freedom to let people get close to you with their eyes and with their touch.

• No more maintenance!
• No more non-hygienic hairpieces!
• No more expense!
• No more limited activities!
• No more hatred of wind, water, and touch!
• You will feel better about how you look, and regain a confidence that can last a lifetime!