Hair Loss Treatment Reviews

Shedding for females is a pretty normal occurrence and happens daily. But when your scalp begins to lose more hair than its able to grow, the balance has shifted into what’s typically diagnosed as hair loss. More than 40% of women over 50 report some form of hair loss in their life time, although the causes and circumstances very a lot.  The most common types of hair loss in women include:

• Anagen effluvium occurs when external conditions damage the follicles that are meant for hair growth. This is caused some types of medication and treatment options like chemotherapy or radiation and this type of hair loss might be permanent based on the extent of the damage to your scalp’s follicles, or follicles anywhere on your body. 

• Telogen effluvium occurs when certain stressors cause a high number of hair follicles to reach the telogen phase, which is the “resting” phase of the follicles’ lifecycle. This means a large number of follicles “shed” all at once, which is scary but often reversible. This type of hair loss can be caused by a variety of factors such as extreme physical stress, rapid weight loss, surgery, illness, giving birth, extreme emotional stress, an abnormal thyroid, some medications (like BP and gout medicines), high does of Vitamin A, and hormonal changes caused via pregnancy, menopause, or birth control pills.

• Androgenetic alopecia, also known as female pattern hair loss (FPHL),  is the most common type of balding in women. Typically, with Androgenetic alopecia, there is thinning on the top and the sides of the head caused by genetics, aging (and thus a change in hormones), and menopause which causes this type of hairless to get worse because of the loss of estrogen.

• Alopecia areata: this is an autoimmune skin disease that causes patchy hair loss on your head and possibly other places on ones body, however this isn’t usually permanent.

• Other causes of hair loss in women:
  • Hair style: the style of one’s hair can cause hair loss because it can pull on one’s roots and cause permeant damage to the hair follicles. This type of lass is caused traction alopecia
  • Vitamin deficiencies that result from restrictive diets  
  • Dieting which results in rapid weight loss
  • Over processed/colored/treated scalp hair which result in breakage 

The treatment options for hair loss depends on the type of hair loss.

• If hair loss is caused to stress or hormone changes as a result of things like pregnancy, treatment isn’t necessary because hair loss will stop naturally after your stress subsides.

• If the cause of hair loss is hair styling damaging, treatment options aren’t medicine, but instead stopping the causes that resulted in the hair hair damage.

• Supplements: If the hair damage/loss is caused by nutritional deficiencies, taking supplements in the form of multivitamins or 3-5 mg of biotin could help with reducing the hair loss. Check out our review of the best hair loss supplements for women comparing vitamins from companies like Nutrafol and Vegamour to learn more.

FDA Approved Treatments for Female Pattern Hair Loss:

Minoxidil: Minoxidil can be used to help treat FPHL, but the medicine must used indefinitely. However, it should not be used if the user is pregnant or breastfeeding. Leading brands that sell minoxidil for women over the counter include hers and Rogaine.

Low Light Laser Therapy: These include devices like the HairMax Lasercomb, iRestore’s laser cap, and the Theradome LH80 Pro that apply laser therapy to the scalp to help treat female pattern baldness.

According to a Harvard Health study, about 60% of the women given minoxidil reported hair regrowth in comparison to the 40% that reported hair growth when given a placebo.

Low Light Laser Therapy on the other hand helped to slow down or stop hair loss in 85% of patients undergoing treatment. Patients also saw new hair growth in 55% of the cases. However, this method can’t help fix long term baldness or revitalize dead hair follicles.

These medicines are NOT a cure for hair loss so as soon as the medication stops the user may re-experience hair loss. However, changes to one’s lifestyle (i.e. diet, sleep schedule, hair styling and changes to habits) can help slow the speed of hair loss. Many women also opt for personalized shampoo and or conditioner blends that promise to thicken their hair before diving into prescription medication.

Although fairly rare, Minoxidil can cause irritation in the scalp, as well as hair growth in places other than your scalp like your cheeks and forehead. Minoxidil even works on your eyebrows! Additionally, it my cause dryness, scaling, itching, and/or redness. Definitely see a dermatologist if you experience any discomfort.

Low Light Laser Therapy on the other hand is not known to have any long term side effects because the light isn’t strong enough to burn your skin. To learn more about the potential side effects of low light laser treatment for hair loss, click here.

In addition to the aforementioned minoxidil and laser therapy, there are a few other options:

1. Hair transplant surgery where small pieces of skin with hair is taken and put into the bald spots. However, this is a surgery so it comes with the usual risks and it can be difficult if there is a large bald spot.
2. Injections pf protein-rich plasma are is made from blood drawn from the patient and they have been used to encourage hair growth.
3. Microneedling of the scalp with and without minoxidil

While it depends on the root cause of your hair thinning, there are a number of personalized hair care brands that promise to stem hair loss and increase thickness for women. Here are the top personalized shampoos and conditioners for women:

• Prose
• Aura
• Formulate – Read our full review
• Function of Beauty

Here’s a list of the top hair loss brands for women, offering both Rx and OTC treatments:

• Hers — read Hers hair loss review
• Musely — read our review of Musely Hair Solution
• Nutrafol – read our comparison of Nutrafol vs Hers