How to keep your hair healthy

In the process of caring for our hair, we do many damaging things to it, from combing it the wrong way to colouring it with harsh chemicals or subjecting it to strong sunlight. If you’re starting to lose your hair, it’s important to take the best possible care of the hair you still have. Here are few of the worst things you can do to your hair.

• Never back comb your hair: It damages the hair shaft.
• Don’t rub your hair dry with a towel.
• Don’t over dry your hair with a blow dryer; stop before your hair is completely dry.
• Select the right shampoo and conditioner for your hair type.

Whether you are a male or a female, losing your precious hair doesn't mean you have to present a bald head to the world; in most cases, your options range from the simple, like plopping a department store wig on your head, to the more complicated (and expensive), like pricey hair systems or hair transplant surgery.

Minimizing Hair Loss

In a society used to chemical fixes and instant gratification, your first response to falling hair may be to search the drug-store shelves for a tonic that will replace lost hair - or at least preserve what you still have. You want to consider that these tonics will do the job and restore your head to its former glory. There are medications that can help save your hair, but you may not want to resort to medication.

Pharmaceutical, laser, and topical treatments

If hair loss looks like it’s going to be a permanent part of your life, you may be ready to turn to prescription medications or treatments to minimize your losses. The good news is that treatments are available to help slow hair loss caused by inherited male pattern baldness.

For many women, hair loss may also respond to medication, or, if a specific disease process is causing the loss, by addressing the health issue.

They can be used in addition to surgical procedures, such as hair transplant, to help slow continuing hair loss (yes, you still lose hair after a transplant — not the transplanted hair, but hair in balding areas) or to help you keep your hair as long as possible.

Considering hair restoration surgery

Hair transplants were an option out of reach for many men until fairly recently. With new advances in technology and better access to well-trained surgeons who work with modern techniques, the option of transplant is more accessible-and more men are taking advantage of it.

The difficulties of transplants in the past — the pluggy look — have been largely overcome with better technologies and well trained dermatologists. The main objection to a hair transplant is the cost, which is why it’s vitally important that you pick a hair transplant surgeon who will give you the most for your money in terms of positive, long-lasting results.

Looking ahead at Hair Loss Prevention

The future of hair loss prevention is bright. Surgical procedures are improving all the time and new medications are being developed to slow or at times reverse hair loss. Gene manipulation and hair cloning may not be too far down the road to give you an unlimited amount of hair to work with.

In the meantime, hair replacement systems are better looking than ever, and more research has been done on hair care products and treatments and ways to enhance the hair you have. Dermatologists are already on their way to discovering newer techniques!