Hair loss and hair fall treatment

A hair transplant is not the only option for hair loss or hair fall, and sometimes medical treatment alone helps. The first step is always to find the cause of your hair loss.

Hair fall or hair loss?

Hair fall usually means more hair than normal coming out when you comb or wash it. It often follows illness with fever, childbirth, stress, a crash diet or low iron, and in many people it settles once the cause is treated. Hair loss usually means hair becoming steadily thinner over months or years, as in pattern baldness. The two can happen together, and the doctor's examination tells them apart.

Finding the cause of hair loss

Hair loss is not always genetic (androgenetic alopecia, or pattern hair loss). Some people lose hair for other reasons, which can be identified from their medical history and tests, and treated accordingly.

If there is an underlying cause, such as a thyroid problem or anaemia, it is treated before hair loss itself. The doctor's first job is to find and treat the cause, not to treat every patient with hair loss the same way.

Medicines

Many products claim to help hair growth, but only a few medicines, such as finasteride and minoxidil, are approved by scientific authorities around the world.

These medicines are taken under a doctor's supervision, and whether to use them is your choice. Every medicine has possible side effects; your doctor will discuss them at consultation.

PRP and GFC

Injections made from your own blood may be advised for early thinning, often together with medicines. See PRP and GFC.

Other hair and scalp conditions

Patchy hair loss (alopecia areata), scarring alopecia and scalp infections need a dermatologist's diagnosis and different treatment. See dermatology.

When a hair transplant may help

If medicines are not enough and you have a good donor area, a transplant may be an option.

See a dermatologist