Our hair is the most important part of our aesthetic value from shaping of our features to our overall appearance and style, hair plays a vital role when it comes to the perception of one’s beauty. Dubbed our ‘Crowning Glory’, speaks greatly for its importance in one’s life, creating confidence as you encounter others around you and an aura of self-pride with the amount of time and effort placed on maintaining a particular style.
Today, with the profiling of beauty played by social media, both women and men go through great lengths to ensure their hair matches their style. Between damaging chemical treatments and hereditary pass downs to name a few, more people are beginning to lose their hair. Over the millennia, men have been seen to visibly have greater hair loss in comparison to women who have experienced hair thinning and hairline boldness. Equally rampant is the amount of hair products and traditional methods being promoted to regain hair.
So how do we keep our hair follicles from weakening further? And how to we maintain it throughout our lives?
Here are 4 most common methods used by people suffering from hair loss and the study that may change hair regeneration treatments as we know today.
1. Hair treatment products
The Hair care industry put a great deal of effort into R&D to promote and market their hair regrowth products. From hair serums, sprays, shampoos, and mask specially catered for both man and women with 1 mission to grow hair!
We are proposed with a variety of options with various chemicals developed for hair regeneration. With chemical names like minoxidil, and Finasteride to name a few.
Minoxidil
This medication is a foam or a liquid that you put on your scalp. You can buy it over the counter without a prescription. This medication is said to require multiple uses to see results and after using this medication, one needs to maintain using it to prevent hair loss once more.
Finasteride
Like Minoxidil, this is a prescribed medication in the form of a pill which needs to be taken every day. Results come after months of usage and continuous consumption is required to maintain hair growth.
2. Back to nature treatments
For nature lovers, and many who have allergic reactions towards harsh chemical-based treatments, they opt for a more natural option. There are many herbal supplements in the market that promote hair growth from certain fruit to plant extracts, guaranteed to have true results.
There are special sculp massages that can stimulate hair follicle growth and oils that can promote a more nourishing environment for growth. Combined with essential oils such as clary sage it is said to bring back lushes’ hair. Natural remedies go as far as ‘Do it yourselves’ onion wash for hair, inspired and tested continuously by socialites, YouTubers and fans of homemade remedies on a budget.
3. Red Light Therapy
Non-invasive treatments using red light rays come in Laser caps and Laser systems. With a few minutes of usage, it is meant to stimulate the regrowth of hair and visible results within 3-6 months!
4. Botox for hair & sculp
There are treatments using Botox fillers to fill the gaps of dead follicle to make it appear more lushes and full. This doesn’t promote regrowth, but it gives the appearance desired.
Stem Cell Hair regeneration using Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Which brings us to our final treatment researched over the decade: Stem Cell Hair regeneration using Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Many clinics practicing Stem Cell therapy offer services of Platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Dermatologists take a bit of your blood and puts it in a machine that separates the plasma from it. Then they inject the plasma into the parts of your scalp where you’re losing hair. The whole procedure takes around 10 minutes, with results as soon as 3 months.
There are a few therapies which offer Mesenchymal Stem Cells as an option. Similarly, a procedure to PRP, the only difference is sculp samples are taken and reproduced and implanted back into the areas with hair loss. The reproduced cells given will act as a regenerator reviving weak sculp and follicle cells and naturally growth will follow. With this procedure, there is no down time and patients can proceed with life as usual. Research has shown great result rates within the month of the procedure with follow through treatments depending on the growth rate of the patient’s natural body.
The greatest advantage of stem Cell treatments is the fact that Stem Cells help restore damaged and deteriorating cells, replacing them with new fresh cells with the potential to heal from within the sculp and regenerate the follicles potential to regrow. There is still a long way to go for research on benefits and side effects of stem cell treatments on Hair Regeneration. With the ever-increasing need for such a treatment, there is great potential in the ever-increasing regenerative abilities of stem cells.
For now, there is great hope still for people suffering from hair loss to regain their prime lushes’ locks once more.
