Vivas Health

Hair Loss Treatments Available

Topical solutions are prescribed to stimulate the scalp and blood supply. These lotions often contain plant extracts and can be effective at reducing and minimising hair-loss and stimulating new hair growth.

• AM Hair Preparations - Trichology hair loss treatment. This solution is applied to the scalp once daily.
• Minoxidil - It is recommended that this solution be applied to the scalp twice daily to slow down the process of hair loss. If you stop taking this particular solution, your hair will continue to shed but will grow back once you start using it again.
• Finasteride - This is taken orally in tablet form. It reduces the level of hormone in the bloodstream.

 

Surgery

Hair transplants can restore hair permanently in bald or thinning areas. Various techniques involve the removal of hair from the sides or back of the scalp and replanting them on the top. The resulting growth is permanent but can take eight to twelve months to be noticeable.

 

Hair transplant procedures are constantly changing. They are usually performed under a local anaesthetic. The average age of male and female hair restoration surgery patients is 40. Final results can be excellent as long as there is some existing hair to build around. However, in the future this may not matter as a British hair restoration company is currently working with a world leading tissue and regeneration company in the ground breaking research of follicular cell regeneration. Clinical trials are in operation.

 

It should be noted that hair loss is a life-long process and further procedures may be necessary to fill in on-going hair loss.

 

Hairy Facts and Fairy Tales

• Washing hair too much will make it fall out. Not true! Washing hair is singularly the best thing you can do for it. The scalp and hair, just like the rest of the body, benefit from the removal of dirt, oil and dead skin.
• Pulling out one grey hair will make two grow in its place. Not at all! But if hair is starting to turn grey (it's actually white, there is no such thing as grey hair, the greyness is the effect of white hair interspersed with normal coloured hair), and you pull one grey hair out, it may well be that the neighbouring hair is just about to start growing. Therefore, two hairs in close proximity will appear at about the same time. Hair, when in good condition, is incredibly strong. A full head of hair is capable of carrying 12 metric tones, which is more than five average cars.
• Cutting hair will make it grow stronger. Not true. This works well on the shrubs in the garden but not on the scalp. Unlike the stem and branches on a shrub, the hair shaft is not alive, so 'cutting back' will have no effect except to sometimes give the appearance of thicker hair when it is shorter. To influence hair growth you have to have an effect on the root of the hair at the base of the follicle. Once hair is visible on the surface of the scalp all you can influence is its condition and appearance.

 

What is Trichology?

Trichology is the science and study of hair and clinical trichology is the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the hair and scalp.

 

Man's pre-occupation with hair dates back as far as 3500 BC. Julius Caesar was preoccupied with his hair loss and grew his hair long in the back and combed it all forward. He also wore laurel wreaths to camouflage his baldness.

 

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, made a potion for hair loss consisting of opium, horseradish, pigeon droppings, beetroot, spices and many other exotic ingredients (it didn't work!). Deborah Whelan, who is a registered trichologist, recently opened a trichology clinic, The Galway Skin and Trichology Clinic, tel: 091 565 148 Deborah is one of only two qualified trichologists in Ireland.