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Which remedies for hair loss are there?

Which remedies for hair loss are there?

Hair loss is something that almost all men will experience throughout their lifetime. By the age of 50, around half of all men will have been affected by the most common type of hair loss: male pattern baldness, or androgenic alopecia. This can start as early as your teens or early twenties. 

Most hair loss, like male pattern hair loss, is hereditary. However, there are a range of different hair loss treatments that you can buy to help promote healthy hair growth and regrowth.

These include: 

Medications: like Procepia and Finasteride and Minoxidil
Natural methods: the right vitamins, minerals and nutrients for your hair to grow
Shampoos: like Nioxin or Alpecin. 

Last reviewed: 16-04-2020 by Dr Simran Deo

Contents

Vitamins for Hair Loss - Do They Work?

There has been some research that links certain vitamin deficiencies to hair loss in men. It’s always important to maintain a balanced diet to maintain your overall health. If you’re not getting enough of the essential vitamins, nutrients or minerals your body needs, you may become unwell and also notice signs of hair loss as well as changes in your skin.

Some companies market special hair growth vitamins and supplements that you can buy to make it easier for you to stay healthy and help prevent hair loss. These can help however, a diet rich in protein with foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, fish, meat, eggs and beans as well as the right levels of iron, zinc and vitamin A. B, C and folic acid can be just as beneficial. 

Improving your diet and taking supplements may help however will only do so if a vitamin deficiency is the underlying cause of your hair loss. While you should be keeping a balanced diet anyway, if your hair loss is genetically inherited, it is unlikely that taking these vitamins will significantly improve your symptoms. 

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How do Hair Loss Shampoos Work?

Hair loss shampoo will work by keeping your hair and scalp healthy in order to create an ideal environment for new hair to grow. However, it is worth noting that there are no ‘miracle cure’ shampoos that you can buy. No shampoos will be able to completely stop hair loss or reverse it. 

Still, shampoos like Nioxin, Regaine or Alpecin will keep your hair follicles better nourished and your hair looking and feeling better. Alpecin works by stimulating the hair follicles on your scalp with caffeine, and is designed to stimulate healthy hair regrowth. 

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Prescription Medications for Hair Loss

There are several different types of medication you can buy to help treat hair loss. Procepia and Finasteride are currently the only approved drugs you can take that will effectively treat hair loss. The active ingredient in both treatments (finasteride) works by blocking DHT (the male hormone dihydrotestosterone) that is thought to cause hair loss by shrinking the size of the hair follicles in the scalp. It has been proven to lead to hair regrowth or to stop hair loss in around 9 out of 10 men in clinical trials.

Procepia and Finasteride will only prevent hair loss and aid hair regrowth for the duration of your treatment. As soon as you stop taking them, any hair loss will recur. You should always check with a doctor before trialling any of these medications as they may not be appropriate for you. You can order your treatment online from Superdrug and get your prescription from one of our online doctors, who will review your order, ensuring it is safe for you to take.

Minoxidil is another medication that comes either as a cream or a foam. It is massaged into the scalp, increasing blood flow to the hair follicles and leading to stimulation of hair growth It has been proven to increase hair growth but the new hair may be comparatively weaker than the pre-existing, healthy hair on their head.

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Mythbusting Hair Loss Remedies

Back in the 17th century, men were told that coating their balding heads with chicken faeces would help them regain a full head of long glossy locks. While we might have moved on somewhat since then, we still don’t fully understand the science behind hair loss and hair regrowth and, unfortunately, there are still some very common myths about hair remedies that we are far too quick to believe. 

Here are some of the most common (and false!) beliefs about hair loss remedies: 

1.Standing on your head will make your hair grow: apart from making you feel incredibly dizzy (and maybe a little silly), standing on your head won’t do anything to help your hair grow back or stop it from falling out especially if the hair loss is related to underlying medical causes or genetics. 

2. Cutting or shaving your hair short will help reduce hair loss: this is something men who start to lose their hair can be quick to do but, unfortunately, it has no effect. It is the health of your hair follicles that will determine whether or not you lose it, and cutting it shorter won’t influence these follicles at all. 

3. Natural supplements can help battle hair loss: people have tried any number of natural ways to help remedy hair loss, ranging from stinging nettles to palmetto, but so far there have been no clinical trials to prove that these have ever helped prevent or stop hair loss. 

4. Regularly brushing or massaging your scalp with help reduce hair loss: just like standing on your head, aiding blood circulation by massaging your scalp is unlikely to boost hair loss and being too rough with weak or brittle hair can actually lead to hair breakage.

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