Avoid   Baldness

Hair care products are probably the easiest way to deal with thinning hair. There are large varieties of hair care products that are designed to give volume to your hair. From shampoos to conditioners, conditioning rinses, mousses, styling spritzes and leave-in volumizing lotions - they will all aid any issues you have with thinning hair.

1. Encouraging hair growth

Medication that can stimulate hair growth is available, with most of them targeted at men. However, some of them can be used by women as well.

One of them is Rogaine, also known as Minoxidil, which was initially used to treat high blood pressure. When doctors noticed that it also stimulated hair growth, it quickly became popular as a hair loss treatment. Its drawbacks are that it requires continuous use in order for hair re-growth to take place and continue. The hair Rogaine grows is also fuzzy and is a lot finer than the hair you used to have.
Cortisone shots work only for a small percentage of people when it comes to hair re-growth. Side effects are in abundance unfortunately, and some of them include weight gain, moodiness and water retention.

Another drug commonly used to combat hair loss is Propecia. Like Rogaine, it requires a continuous intake and takes up to a year to show results.

2. Hairpieces

Partial hairpieces, wigs and ‘hair integration units’ can all be used to cover up a visible scalp. The good part about these options is that they are not medical and thus have no harmful side effects. The cons of resorting to this option is that the hair pieces in most cases look anything but natural, are very expensive and could possibly fall off at the most inconvenient times.

3. Surgical options

Hair transplants are generally recommended only for men - as they are the gender who most commonly suffer from bald spots. Women rarely have bald spots with a large percentage suffering from an over-thinning of hair. This situation however does not make a hair transplant procedure possible.

Hair loss is caused by varied factors. One of them is hyperthyroidism. Others factors include poor dietary choices, hormonal changes, vitamin deficiencies, surgery, certain medication and medical conditions - one of them being thyroid disease. If your hair loss is caused by thyroid disease - then here are ten steps you should take in order to deal with the situation as best as you can.

Step One: Get an evaluation - Visit a dermatologist and have him evaluate your hair loss - this is important in order to exclude any other possible causes.

Step Two: Be patient - If you have just embarked on hyperthyroid treatments, then you will just have to be patient and wait for hormone levels to stabilize and get back to normal. This could take anything from a few weeks to a few months. Hang in there.

Step Three: Understand the types of hair loss - Hair loss occurs in three ways. Normal shedding of hair is one of them, like when you take a shower or brush your hair - which is the most common type of hair loss with hyperthyroidism. The next is linked with fungal infection (autoimmune alopecia) - which results in circular bald patches and has nothing to do with thyroid disease. The final one is male pattern hair loss.

Step Four: Make sure it is not your thyroid drug - If your thyroid medication includes Levothyroxine as a replacement for your thyroid hormone, and hair loss continues - then you might need to go back to your doctor.

Step Five: Make sure you are not undertreated - Hair loss could also result from being undertreated. You might want your doctor to test you for optimal levels and then reconsider your medication.

Step Six: Find out if you need a second drug - Some people react better to a combination of T4 and T3 instead of only T4. Ask your doctor.

Step Seven: Consider an alternative treatment - Primrose oil can counter the conversion of testosterone to DHT on your scalp. You should try it.

Step Eight: Look at other alternatives - Studies reveal that 90% of women suffering from thinning hair had iron and amino acid lysine deficiencies. Consider including more meat, eggs and fish in your diet and perhaps even lysine supplements, as it is one of the most difficult nutrients to get in the food you eat.

Step Nine: Consult a doctor for prescription treatment - Check with your dermatologist for recommended drug treatments like Rogaine, Propecia or even scalp injections.

Step Ten: Talk about it with others - Hair loss is not only frightening but also affects self-esteem. It is best to discuss this with close friends and family, especially those dealing with the same problem.

Hair transplants for women are quite possible, but it does have its limits. Hair transplants are popularly advertised for men, as men are the gender most affected by hair loss.

For a woman to be able to have hair transplants, the hair loss needs to be androgenetic alopecia, scarring alopecia, traction alopecia, alopecia due to cosmetic surgery faults, accident trauma caused alopecia or cosmetic correction needs such as deficient eyebrow hair growth. These types of hair loss are permanent and thus qualify for hair transplant procedures.

Doctors will first remove and/or transplant all the affected sections. The only issue with women being treated with hair transplantation is the availability of a good donor area from which healthy hair follicles can be taken. Another issue is that women expect to regain a full head of hair following a hair transplant procedure however, this is impossible to achieve. With hair transplantation, hair follicles are merely redistributed and this does not mean that new hair follicles will grow. The procedure will of course improve the density of hair, but achieving the original density will depend on the level of alopecia and the available donor hair area on the scalp. This means that the larger the affected scalp area, the more limited will be the donor area - making the task that much harder and in regaining the original density of hair impossible.

Therefore, it is important that you take the careful advice of your surgeon before you decide on opting for a hair transplant, as you will need to assess the success rate and understand fully the limitations of such a procedure.