Avoid   Baldness

Bald is finally beautiful again. Listen to the fashionistas if you do not believe it.

Kayla Martell, the beauty queen from Delaware is one of the most recent figures to have sacrificed her head of hair. Her example is one of the many we have seen this past year. Her choice to go bald comes due to the fact that she suffers from Alopecia Areata. Gail Porter, a TV presenter in Britain also suffers from the same condition, and instead of opting for a wig, she chose to appear bald in public as well.

Over the years, many celebrities have gone bald, and proudly so. Sinead O’Connor in the 1990s showed off her baldness in style. It was only during this era, that baldness in women started to become acceptable. Taking this one step further, at Fashion Week 2009, Patrick Mohr, a fashion designer from Germany had his entourage of models all appear bald. The ‘skinhead’ wigs he got them to wear caught the attention of many. An LA-based hair designer, Toni Love speaking to a reporter did affirm the fact that baldness was one of the very latest fashion trends.

Interestingly, not everyone in the fashion industry seems to think baldness has made a comeback. Mary Alice Stephenson, a celebrity stylist is of the opinion that individuality was all the rage, and not baldness. She went on to say that having your own individualistic style was what was hot in the fashion scene right now, and if that meant being bald, then that was fashionable.

Receding hair lines, fallen hair in the drain and on hairbrushes, and easily broken hair are some of the most common issues women experience with their crowning glory. The first panicky thought is about the loss of self-esteem due to less flattering appearance of one’s hair, but apparently, there are more reasons to worry. Thick, shiny and vibrant hair is indicative of good health, so thinning hair may mean exactly the opposite. Losing too much hair every time you shower or comb or lay your head on a pillow may mean hormonal imbalance, poor nutrition and vitamin deficiency, or overwhelming psychological stress. These are all signs of declining health and poor well-being.

The same is true for dry, sallow skin as well as weak and discolored nails. It is crucial that you pay attention to your hair loss and take it as a sign that there are something that’s not right about your health status. Prevention is ultimately better than any form of cure, so underlying conditions like the ones mentioned above must be treated before they get to a point of complications or irreversibility. There’s really no harm in seeking consultation with your doctor before you talk to a hair specialist. Or, your hair specialist can help you determine the cause of your thinning hair and can refer you to a doctor who will assess you for underlying conditions. Your hair is not called crowning glory for nothing.

A healthy mop of thick, lustrous and vibrant hair strands will imply that you also have a healthy and vibrant well-being.

Hair loss has been very common for women of all ages. This disorder is caused by a lot of factors, and one of them is anemia. A lot of people are wondering about the connection between hair loss and anemia. Iron deficiency or anemia is caused by a lot of factors including recent surgery, recent childbirth, women entering the menopausal stage and loss of hair. But one of the most popular causes of hair loss and anemia is medical stress. It is very important for people to know the causes of baldness for them to be able to prevent it from happening.

The common link to hair loss and anemia is having a low count of RBC (red blood cells). If you have this condition, then you have anemia. But it has to be noted that baldness and anemia is caused by a graver medical illness. Once you experience having a low RBC count, the body has less nutrition for the hair follicles which cause baldness. Once you have assessed that you are very susceptible to anemia, you should go and visit your doctor for some medication. Prescribing you with iron supplements would bring back your RBC count to normal and will also help you prevent losing hair.

Aside from this, you should also consider getting a complete medical examination in order for you to determine if there are more severe conditions that are causing you to lose hair.Hair loss and anemia are connected in some way, and for women, the best way to prevent these things from happening is to be aware of their system and make sure that they get proper check-up once in a while.

A new study shows links between a gene and a very rare condition which develops ‘peachy fuzzy’ hair, which could possibly provide a lot more information into baldness, especially in males.

The co-author of the study, Angela M. Christiano, Director, Center for Human Genetics, Columbia University says the new finding might not mean an immediate new cure or treatment for baldness, but it is just a tiny bit of information that might help solve the problem. She said that the new information gives researchers more insight into shrinkage, which is one part of male pattern baldness.

Baldness in most cases does not mean that hair stops growing altogether. Instead, hair growth is much lesser, and the hair that grows is very fine and short – which is almost like the fuzz on a peach. This means that the hair follicle is not dead, and functions to some extent – having the potential to grow some kind of hair.

This exact problem is also part of a rare disease – hereditary hypotrichosis, which begins right from birth.

The study conducted by Christiano and other researchers involved them scrutinizing the genetic makeup of three families who had inherited hereditary hypotrichosis. During the research carried out, the team of researchers found a gene which showed a mutation responsible for the rare condition.
Named APCDD1, the gene is situated close to chromosome 18 which in other studies shows a connection to hair loss. It also seems to block a pathway that has been proven to control the growth of hair in mice, but has not been linked too closely to humans.

Lots of sportsmen seem to have a thing towards hair re-growth treatments. Ryan Giggs is one such sportsmen recently photographed walking out of a hair clinic, clutching on to a report.

Other sportsmen to get hair replacement treatments include cricketers such as Shane Warne, Michael Vaughan and Graham Gooch, while rugby players Wayne Rooney and Austin Healey have also resorted to similar treatments, all costing around £6,000-£10,000 each.

Giggs’ treatment involves a laser therapy session lasting 40 minutes which will encourage the re-growth of hair follicles, while a special re-growth formula and shampoo is rubbed into his scalp at least twice per day.

Vaughan’s hair re-growth option is far more expensive than Giggs’ and costs around £10,000 for a remedying thinning hair. Vaughan’s thinning scalp is woven in with Russian hair which is carried out over a number of treatments.

These hair loss treatments might sound fancy, but they all do not provide the expected results. One such salon was censured twice last year for misleading advertisements which featured Gooch and Warne implying that this salon was able to curb hair loss and re-grow lost hair.

A consultant dermatologist, Dr. Andrew Messenger from the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield said he advised those suffering from baldness to think twice before resorting to a private clinic that made claims that sounded too extravagant to be true. According to him, there is nothing that exists that could possibly grow hair back on bald spots. The only two medicines – Minoxidil and Finasteride used to treat baldness are only capable of increasing hair density by 5-15%.