COMBAT HAIR LOSS: How To Grow Your Hair Back (Part 7)

HAIR GROWTH – THE POSITIVE FACTORS

We come now to the second group of factors, those with a positive effect, the “boosters”, which we need to consider now that we have eliminated as many as possible of the negative group, but do not underestimate the boost that can be achieved in hair growth and condition by getting all the correct elements in place and simply eliminating the negative factors.

In the positive group we must genuinely take a holistic approach to our own well being, and a simple regime of a good, varied diet (especially the fresh fruit and vegetables), moderate exercise and controlled stress levels will optimise our hair growth and condition.  Within that genetic blueprint you really can produce substantial improvements in this way.

What then of the hair growth products, the would-be chemical “Exorcets”, do they work?  Can they assist?  There are a surprisingly large number of agents known that are clinically proven to produce hair growth, not always it might be said in the required place, and not usually at the rate that would be wished by the recipient.  The central problem lies in the invariable genetic nature of the hair loss which provides a slightly tilted horizon, a downward sloping background, which, short of genetic engineering, we will have to live with, and even if the baldness gene or genes can eventually be identified, which one can be sure will eventually happen, it is not clear whether the loss for everyone of this marker of maturity and hopefully wisdom would really be such a good idea.

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COMBAT HAIR LOSS: How To Grow Your Hair Back (Part 6)

THE EXTERNAL FACTORS

The next group are the external factors.  Among the most obvious external influences are a wide range of, not necessarily uncommon, genetic shaft defects, i.e. faults in the structural make up of the hair shaft, that lead to subsequent problems of hair breakage, poor hair condition and the inability to grow a full head of hair.  These genetic shaft defects are invariably impossible to resolve and the effect is usually, but not always, detrimental.  The ‘spangled’ hair in cases of ‘pili torti’, for example, gives a wonderful sparkle and shine particularly for longer female hair. 

Ailments of the hair and scalp listed here under ‘External Factors’ occupy an enormous area of breadth and diversity and require specialist treatment by a Dermatologist  or Trichologist.  Psoriasis, seborrhoeic eczema, pityriasis, ringworm are all distressing ailments, although with expert supervision they can be treated and reversed or controlled.  It is very unlikely that one can obtain healthy hair growth, whilst these conditions pre-exist.

External damage can, of course, be self-induced and damage and scarring following cosmetic treatment is relatively common.  Heavily bleached and weathered hair will be dry, brittle, and probably have some structural damage.  The central cortex and outer cuticle layer may be damaged, and the hair structure will be unwinding, rather like the end of a piece of rope, which the dead, keratinised shaft structure quite closely resembles.  This structural collapse will not stop the hair growing at the active growing root end, but it will cause extensive hair breakage and the resultant appearance of hair loss.  The hair shaft may also be damaged or destroyed by professional treatment, particularly perming, straightening or hair colouring which has not been correctly performed.  Again, the hair should re-grow normally unless permanent damage or scarring has occurred to the scalp.  The legal pursuit of the perpetrators is usually lengthy and unsatisfactory resulting in further hair loss.

Hair breakage and loss may also be quite literally self induced, sucking, pulling, twiddling and plucking your own hair will inevitably lead to hair damage and loss, giving the characteristic cropped patches of almost bald scalp.  Like any habit, this can be extremely difficult to stop and there may well be a problem, even with “acceptance”, for this condition.  Watching the television or driving the car are two of the most common times for this to occur.  Cessation of the activity will invariably result in the return to full hair growth, but breaking the habit can prove very difficult.  Help should be sought from a friend, or family member, or, in more serious cases where psychosis may be present, expert guidance should be obtained.

More gentle external factors include seasonal variations where there is a greater fall in Spring and increased hair growth in Autumn, rather like the other mammals where the effect is pronounced.  This change in growth rate in human hair is significant, and all clinical trials of hair growth products need to extend to a minimum of one year to allow for these seasonal variations.

Increasing age reduces the growth rate, with reduced hair texture and condition, as well as the loss of pigment in the hair shaft, and the onset of greyness.  The failure of melanin production in the dermal papilla is considered by some researchers to be a highly significant mechanism and to be involved in the progress of Androgenic Alopecia.  This is still the subject of further research but may explain why young men in their 20s and 30s who become prematurely grey do not appear to suffer from Androgenic Alopecia.

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help

COMBAT HAIR LOSS: How To Grow Your Hair Back (Part 5)

HAIR GROWTH – THE NEGATIVE FACTORS

In the first group, the “Negative Effect” group, we have already mentioned the obvious systemic problems that will have an important influence.  You must, of course, be fit and well but conditions such as anaemia, over or under active thyroid, or polycystic ovaries, for example, will have a serious adverse effect on hair growth and must be diagnosed and treated without delay.  Anaemia may be caused partially by dietary deficiencies, giving rise to low iron and ferritin levels, particularly common in people who do not eat red meat and do not take the necessary “B Group” vitamin supplementation, particularly B12.  You do not need to be clinically anaemic before low iron levels in the body will reduce your hair growth rate.

The trace elements present in minute quantities in the body but essential catalysts for the operation of the chemical network, must all be present, even arsenic is now thought to be an essential trace element.  The macro elements (calcium, magnesium and phosphorus), the elements present in larger quantities used in the production of bone and other tissue must of course be present in the optimum quantities.  All the vitamins (from A to U) must also be present in the body at the recommended level (especially vitamins A, B group vitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin H for hair and skin growth).  They are all vital for normal body processes.  The body cannot synthesise any of these elements or minerals; they must all come from the food we eat.  Likewise with the vitamins, they must almost all come from the food we eat; only a few can be synthesised by the body.  Restricted diets, slimming courses and poor nutrition can very quickly lead to specific deficiencies and consequent hair and skin problems.  Nutritional problems are by no means confined to Third World countries and many modern sophisticated clinics see cases of nutritional deficiencies.  To eat well may seem blindingly obvious, but without a healthy, varied diet, which includes quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables, your hair and skin will not be at their best.  If you have any doubt, arrange a blood test or a mineral hair analysis for these levels to be checked.

Just as deficiencies in certain agents will have an adverse reaction, so does the introduction of unwanted agents, especially toxins, into the blood stream.  Smoking, excess alcohol, and most induced chemicals (drugs of abuse) will have a serious, adverse affect on hair and skin growth.

Chemotherapy is an extreme example of a severe toxin introduced deliberately into the blood stream to fatally affect the mutant cancerous cells present.  The collateral damage to the rest of the body is considerable including (least importantly of all) the hair follicles, which, in response to the severe toxic trauma, immediately and synchronously, stop growing, even though they are in the growth (anagen) phase.

The resultant “anagen effluvium” (total hair fall) results in immediate cessation of hair growth; the now non-growing hairs are held in the follicles for a further short period before being shed to produce temporary total baldness.  New hair growth is already activated in the hair follicle and the new hair synchronously re-grows back to its normal position, although the texture and colour of the hair may have been affected by the severe trauma.

Many drugs are of course introduced into the blood stream for their therapeutic effect and these pharmaceutical agents, whilst performing their primary task for which they were prescribed, will also disturb the existing delicate hormone balance to some extent, i.e. they will have side effects.  This secondary action, the side effects, is usually negative, but not always and the treatment of high blood pressure with Minoxydil in the 1970s produced not only hirsute women (women with excess hair growth in the male pattern) but re-growth of vellus hair on the bald scalps of men suffering from Androgenic Alopecia, a feat which up until then was thought to be impossible and precipitated an enormous jump in research and development of drugs for the treatment of common baldness.

There are other systemic conditions of a more insidious nature, such as Alopecia Areata, a partial failure of the auto-immune system of unknown cause or origin, although stress, which has the effect of raising hormone levels, is implicated.  The white blood cells of the body attack the healthy hair follicles causing breakage and loss of hair in the characteristic coin-shaped patches.  The mechanism, although much studied, is not well understood, and there is now thought to be a genetic influence in this condition.  A high percentage of Down’s syndrome children suffer from Alopecia Areata.

Systemic problems are the second biggest group of factors involved in hair loss, after the leading genetic group of influences and many serious conditions, secondary syphilis, lupus, HIV, etc., first appear as dermatological problems of the hair and scalp.

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COMBAT HAIR LOSS: How To Grow Your Hair Back (Part 4)

COMMON BALDNESS

It is the hormones of course that trigger Androgenic Alopecia at the onset of puberty, resulting in hair loss and patterning in 90% of men and approximately 50% of women.  This is a major degenerative shift in the hair growth pattern universally referred to as Common Baldness or Male Pattern Alopecia and Female Pattern Alopecia.  Given that this change is genetically pre-determined, it is therefore extremely difficult to slow or reverse this very gradual but definite deterioration in these pre-determined areas of the scalp.  Androgenic Alopecia is triggered, as its name suggests, by the androgens (masculinising hormones present of course in both sexes).

At puberty the male sex hormone, testosterone, appears in both sexes and is partially converted by the enzyme 5-? reductase into the much more active form di-hydroxytestosterone (DHT).  It is this more active form DHT that causes miniaturisation and eventual loss of the hair follicle in pre-determined areas of the scalp in cases of Androgenic Alopecia.

The new hair that is produced by the dermal papilla has a slightly shorter growing (anagen) cycle and is smaller in both length and in its diameter.  The cycle is repeated, with each successive hair getting smaller and smaller, reverting eventually to the very fine baby (vellus) hair.  Eventually the dermal papilla ceases to function, hair growth production stops and the hair follicle finally atrophies and is lost.  These dormant dermal papillae can be reactivated by suitable chemical stimuli for up to about five years after hair production ceases before they are permanently lost.

The scalp shows the characteristic bi-temporal recession and movement of the front hair line in men with thinning of the frontal and crown areas, proceeding in the pre-determined stages, leading ultimately to complete baldness in some cases.

Women usually have a different pattern of hair loss.  The hairline is retained and thinning occurs behind the hairline on the frontal and crown areas and often the areas above both ears are affected.  Complete baldness in women is not normal, although it is possible for some women to experience hair loss in the male pattern.

There are a large number of treatments available for use for MPA and FPA and many clinically proven agents that will promote hair growth in cases of Androgenic Alopecia (and many more that will promote the growth of hair in unacceptable areas) and these treatments will certainly assist in stabilising the position and promoting modest re-growth but any changes are not dramatic, they are marginal at best and should be seen as “buying time”, delaying the onset of hair loss.  Probably the most effective treatments will buy you five years, possibly a little more, before you are back in the same position.  This result can certainly be worth achieving but you can liken it to trying to run back up the genetic down escalator.  The condition will revert eventually to its genetically pre-determined position.

Now the hormones may be masters of the biological universe but they are by no means the only agents or conditions that can affect hair growth and many of these can have a substantial, sometimes devastating effect.  We need to consider conditions that have both a negative effect, i.e. they must be present and correct to achieve normal hair growth and without them hair growth will be adversely affected. In the second group, the agents or situations that can positively affect hair growth, they can increase the growth response above what would normally be expected.  This is the second group, the “positive effect” group.

We will consider the first group, the “qualifying” group; they are necessary, but only to return to the genetic “norm”, but it is vital that they are in place and we will, of course, look then at the second group, the genetic “boosters”, the fireworks, the ones that can lift you, within reason, above the genetic norm.  It is important to understand their significance and the way in which they fit into the overall pattern of hair growth.

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help

COMBAT HAIR LOSS: How To Grow Your Hair Back (Part 3)

GENETICS AND HORMONES

We are born with a pre-determined genetic blueprint; we arrive at birth pre-coded with our own personal barcode taken from the gene pool supplied by our individual ancestors.  This dip into the gene pool will provide the gene coding which will determine virtually everything for each individual from the colour of our eyes and our height, to our temperament, our mathematical ability and the eventual appearance of grey hair in later life.  This set of instructions is initiated and controlled by the hormones, a group of complex chemical compounds, released by the various glands in the body in minute quantities, acting as chemical messengers, the veritable “conductors of the orchestra”.

Any change or interference to this hormone messenger network or to the hormone receptors in the body will have dramatic consequences for our physiological make up and possibly our overall well being.  Disturbance or non-functioning of the hormone system should be referred to an endocrinologist, a hormone specialist.  Distortion of the hormone levels may result in hair loss, or increased hair growth, or hair growth in the wrong places.

The hormone system may be disturbed by a number of factors, possibly hormone anomalies present at birth, and also any subsequent systemic illness or condition will potentially alter the hormone levels.  To obtain optimum hair growth and condition you must be quite simply “fit and well”.

Stress is heavily contra-indicated, or not advised and high stress levels must be managed or controlled.  Stress raises the hormone levels, especially Adrenalin.  The body’s defence mechanism is triggered and non-essential body activities are shut down, this unfortunately includes hair and skin growth which, as far as the body is concerned, are non-essential, secondary activities, as indeed they are compared with the primary organ activity of the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys, etc.  It is, of course, possible to have quite major hormone changes, which are naturally occurring, puberty for both men and women and childbirth and the menopause for women.  The sex hormones are released at puberty, oestrogen levels increase dramatically during pregnancy, (oestrogen can increase two hundred fold in pregnancy and the consequent drop in levels after birth can lead directly to postnatal depression), and oestrogen production ceases almost completely when the ovaries are no longer functioning after the menopause and it will be no surprise that each of these naturally occurring major hormone shifts have an immediate effect on hair growth and hair condition.  The stage is thus set and we will all follow, barring major events, the pre-arranged genetic pathway and no other factors or influences come close in comparison in their effect and complete control over our hair growth.  The miniature vellus hairs on the babies, the appearance of pubic hair at adolescence, the sudden growth of hair from the ears in men after the age of 50, they are all controlled by the hormones.  They are truly the chemical wizards; they have magical powers and control.

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help