Hair Loss: Cosmetic Solutions For Good Cover Up

If you are beginning to lose your hair, while looking for a solution, you may feel too embarrassed to go out and socialize. Even a short trip to the neighbourhood store may make you feel uncomfortable as you fear what others may say about your appearnance. Using cosmetic solutions for good cover up of your thinning scalp can help you still get up and go.

The first way in which you can still look presentable is through hair loss concealers. There are a variety of these that are easily available. One common hair loss concealer helps in building fibers. These are tiny fibers that are placed in the area where the scalp area is losing hair. You get the appearance of thicker looking hair in those particular areas. You can also use a masking lotion, hair thickener or hair fattener in order to give your hair more volume and look thicker throughout the day.

Another consideration that you can cover up is to simply change your hairstyle. Your hairs are built to naturally turn and grow in a particular way. If you are losing hair in one area, choose a style that can help you cover the scalp area. Having an excellent beautician or hair stylist will help in determining which style can help you achieve this.

Different types of shampoo are also available that will help you get the effect that you want. For instance, one type of shampoo can enhance volume of your hair and will provide your scalp with extra nutrients in order to stimulate growth. This essentially boosts the appearance of your remaining hair while speeding up the growth of new hair.

For cosmetics that will help you to improve your appearance to cover up your hair loss, please ensure that the ingredients in them are proven to help and that they do not have any negative side effects. Having an idea of ingredients that help in hair growth or prevent hair loss definitely helps. Another way of doing research is to read product reviews for effectiveness.

Cosmetics for hair loss is highly recommended if you are conscious about your hair loss and having feelings of negativity about the way you look. Do explore the options of cosmetic solutions as this can well mean getting rid of your depression and getting a life, while waiting for your new hair to grow!

Hair Loss Caused By Lichen Planus

There are several factors that can result in hair loss. One common disease is a disorder known as lichen planus. This particular disease is not in itself a direct cause but it is an important trigger and often causes complications with the scalp and can lead to this problem.

Lichen planus is more of a skin disorder that also affects other areas of the body. Thus, it can not only affect the skin and body, but also the scalp. When the scalp is affected, hair loss is experienced. Licen phanus is usually considered to be an allergic reaction and is often associated with a poor immune system. Some believe that lichen planus is triggered from excessive stress. Stress weakens the bodys immune system and render it susceptible to infection and other health symptoms such as hair loss. The chances of getting another lichen planus attack rise with the first affliction, even with treatment and prevention measures.

Lichen planus is most identifiable by the changes in the skin that occur. There will be itching in certain areas of the skin, as well as skin lesions that will appear in a variety of places. The skin lesions will have a variety of attributes related to their shape, size and color, all which will help you in identifying the disorder. There may also be nail abnormalities, such as ridges in the nails that begin to appear. The skin lesions will then begin to move into the mouth area and cause your mouth to feel dry. From here, lichen planus will begin to show on the scalp area and hair will be lost from the irritation from the scalp area.

Once you notice these symptoms, do not wait too long to treat the lichen planus. In most cases, the symptoms are not severe enough and will simply go away over time. However, there is also the possibility of the symptoms become full blown and it will be more difficult to treat at that point in time.

For treatment, you can take prescribed medications. Antihistamines are useful in helping to treat lichen planus. Vitamin A in the form of ointments and creams are also considered to be effective. It can be expected that this disorder will disappear after a few months or after a longer amount of time. Also, ensure a healthy diet and lifestyle to boost your immune system.

If you notice both the above mentioned symptoms and also experience hair loss at the same time, then it is possible that you can be having lichen planus. To be absolutely sure, it is best to seek a professional diagnosis. Lichen planus can cause much discomfort to you as it affects your physical appearance. Understanding what the symptoms of lichen planus are and knowing what to do will help you repair your skin and treat yourself from hair loss.

Female Pattern Baldness

Female pattern baldness a.k.a. alopecia in women is the most common form of hair problem that women come across. It involves a typical hair loss pattern, resulting from hormones, aging and genetic predisposition.

Hair loss pattern resulting from alopecia in women

Unlike in men, female pattern baldness does not cause hair loss in a well-defined pattern. The hair starts thinning all over the head though there is no hair line receding. It is rare for alopecia in women to result in total baldness.

In the case of females, the scalp hair loss may begin at any age though usually after 40.
The patterns of female pattern baldness can vary considerably in appearance and may include:

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp often with more noticeable thinning toward the back of the scalp.

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp with more noticeable thinning toward the front of the scalp but not involving the frontal hair line.

Diffuse thinning all over the scalp with more noticeable thinning toward the front of the scalp, involving and sometimes breaching the frontal hairline.

Symptoms of alopecia in women

In normal condition a woman tends to lose around 100-125 hairs per day. Losing more hair than that indicates that the condition is not normal.

The following two conditions indicate alopecia in women

Hair thinning over the entire head

Hair loss at the crown or hair line, from mild to moderate

Causes of female pattern baldness

The disease is triggered by the presence of a male hormone called testosterone in female body. Testosterone is produced by androgen hormone.

Certain women are decidedly more sensitive to testosterone than others. This sensitivity results in hair thinning on their scalp. Testosterone interacts with the enzyme 5 alpha reductase produced by the body. The interaction causes the production of DHT within the hair follicle.

DHT causes production of shorter and finer hairs. When DHT is not received well by hair follicles, it causes reduced blood supply and it causes hair thinning on the scalp.

Diagnosis of female pattern baldness

Women tend to have less obvious hair loss patterns than men and they face non-pattern hair loss more frequently than men. Diagnosis of female hair loss should be conducted by a trained and experienced physician.

The physician diagnoses this hair disease on the basis of hair loss appearance and pattern. He also checks whether other possible hair loss causes can be ruled out. He may also go for a skin biopsy or other procedures to diagnose the medical disorders.

Treatment

The diagnosis of female pattern baldness should be followed by a proper treatment. The patient is usually administered Rogaine. Another medicine is Aldactone, which is useful especially for the women experiencing hair fall after menopause. A modern and popular method used in the case of female pattern baldness is hair transplantation.

Female Pattern Baldness: Diagnosis and Treatments

Clinical features of pattern baldness in women usually occur during early teens and late middle age. This is shown by the gradual thinning of hair over the frontal area. Usually, pattern baldness in women is not accompanied by increased shedding of hair, but unlike telogen effluvium, hair loss may be seen from the start. The scalp becomes more and more visible as the disease progresses.

Most of the time, the central part of the head widens due to diffused reduction of the hairs density, which involves the frontal scalp and crown. Some women may experience hair loss on some small areas of the frontal scalp while others may experience the effect on the entire scalp including the areas of parietal and occipital. During hair loss, women usually retain a rim of hair along the frontal hairline.

In some cases, hair volume may still appear normal but the hair would stop growing to its previous length and normally results to thin distal ends. Female pattern hair loss is seen on women by visual decrease in hair density while in men, it is by baldness on the affected areas.

Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia

Hair loss is a result of abnormal hair cycle. Because of this, it is theoretically reversible. However, the current treatment options have limits in their performance and in some cases, only small improvements in hair density can be seen. Advanced pattern baldness may already be difficult to treat because irreparable damages may have already taken place on the follicular stem cell when inflammation surrounded the bulge area of the follicle. Some systematic treatment plans for this case include:

The current treatment for pattern baldness is Minoxidil. The exact mechanism by which Minoxidil works is not known but the treatment appears to affect the hair follicle in three ways: it increases the span of time follicles spend in anagen, it rouses follicles that are in catagen and it enlarges the actual follicles. In effect, vellus hairs enlarge and are converted to terminal hairs, and shedding is reduced.

Finasteride has been effective on men with pattern baldness but definitely it was risky on women. This regimen is not advisable for women who are still in their childbearing age because of the presence of 5a-reductase inhibitors that may cause external genitalia abnormalities in male fetuses.

Hairstyling, teasing, coloring, permanents, and the use of hair spray are means of coping with the cosmetic effects of pattern baldness. However, when the hair loss is grave, the affected person may opt to use wigs.

Hair transplantation is another option since it has already been accepted in treating pattern baldness on men. Now, it is also being used to treat female hair loss although only a very few women go for this type of treatment because of the cost and the possible trauma that may go with it.

For those women who have encountered ineffective and unsuccessful treatments for hair loss, surgery may be another option and thus, the most suited method for them.