Hair implants work if you have healthy hair growth in some areas.
There are many different causes of hair loss, and treatments for hair loss depend on the specific cause. Hair implant alternatives may be a good choice if you have enough hair in donor areas. Medication can help relieve some hair loss conditions, and a few alternative remedies may help reduce hair loss.
Modest Hair Implants
Thinning hair can be especially devastating for women.
If you have healthy hair growth on the back and sides of your head, you may be a good candidate for small hair implants. Punch grafts, mini-grafts, micro-grafts, slit grafts and strip grafts are used to give hair more fullness in thinning areas reports the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Grafts are taken from donor sites and transplanted into the thinning areas. Micro-grafts contain one to two hairs while mini-grafts contain two to four hairs. Punch grafts are areas with 10 to 15 hairs. Slit grafts contain four to 10 hairs and strip grafts hold 30 to 40 hairs.
Several sessions are needed to perform these types of hair implants with several months of recovery between each session. An average of 50 large grafts are implanted during a single session while as many as 700 mini or micro-grafts may be done in one session. It may take up to two years, reports ASPS, before the final result is achieved.
Dramatic Hair Implants
Tissue expanders show up as bulges under the scalp.
Flap surgery, scalp reduction and tissue expansion are used to make dramatic changes in hair restoration. Tissue expansion involves placing a balloon-like appendage underneath the scalp. The expander is inflated with salt water over a period of weeks, forcing the skin to expand and triggering growth under hair-bearing areas of the scalp. After about two months, this expanded scalp area in pulled over the balding area. During flap surgery, a balding area of the scalp is cut out and a flap of hair-bearing skin is pulled over the balding area and sewn into place. Scalp reduction is a hair implant alternative that involves removing balding scalp areas and pulling hair-bearing scalp together over the excised area.
Cosmetics and Wigs
Wigs are always an option.
Hair cosmetics can be used to disguise thinning hair. Pressed powder that matches your hair color can be applied to the scalp as a hair implant alternative. Keratin fiber hair cosmetics are another option, in which the fibers are statically charged and sprinkled over the hair to give a thicker appearance. Surgery isn't a viable alternative for some types of hair loss, but there are state-of-the-art wigs available today reports the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF). Double-sided tape or suction caps can be used to secure wigs.
Medications
There are oral and topical medications available for hair loss.
Some hair loss conditions can be remedied with medication. Minoxidil can be used to treat hereditary hair loss in women. A 2 percent minoxidil solution is available over-the-counter, and a 5 percent topical cream is available by prescription. Minoxidil can stimulate regrowth in 60 percent of women with hereditary hair loss, according to AgingSkinNet. Flutamide or spironolactone may be prescribed to treat hereditary hair loss, but they can cause birth defects in pregnant women. Anthralin cream may help hair to regrow reports the NAAF, but it can be irritating to the skin and can stain skin. Finasteride, commonly known as Propecia, is a prescription medication that can help men with hair loss.
Cortisone injections may also help hair regrowth according to NAAF. These injections are given once a month, and new hair may grow within four weeks. Cortisone pills are much stronger than injections and come with a higher risk of side effects. Regrown hair falls out once cortisone therapy is stopped.
Topical immunotherapy is another hair implant alternative. Chemicals are used to create an allergic rash on the scalp. This reaction causes hair regrowth 40 percent of the time, according to NAAF.
Alternative Remedies
Lavender oil may help reduce hair loss.
Lavender and saw palmetto may help reverse hair loss, but these hair implant alternatives aren't approved for this use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) reports that preliminary research has found that lavender oil may help reduce hair loss associated with alopecia areata.
Saw palmetto may inhibit an enzyme that produces dihydrotestosterone (DHT), according to Dr. Ray Sahelian, author of "Saw Palmetto: Nature's Prostate Healer." DHT is linked to hair loss in both men and women. One small study found that hair regrowth occurred when saw palmetto was combined with beta sitosterol, Sahelian reports, but there hasn't been enough research to confirm the effectiveness of saw palmetto for hair loss.
Psychotherapy
Some people literally pull their hair out when stressed.
Stress can play a big role in hair loss, according to AgingSkinNet, but stress-induced hair loss isn't usually permanent. Psychotherapy can help people to manage stress and recover from traumatic events. Trichotillomania, for example, is an obsessive hair-pulling condition that may be mild or a sign of a serious psychological problem.
On the Horizon
Research may lead to new hair loss treatments.
Dr. Gregory Pistone of the International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons reports that new hair implant alternatives are currently being researched. Cloning, gene therapy, new drugs and stem cell research are just some of the areas under study, but research is still in its infancy.
Tags: hair loss, hair implant, balding area, hair implant alternative, hair regrowth
