Are you looking for something to help you prevent hair loss or maybe even help to regrow hair? If you are, you are not alone! After all, according to the American Hair Loss Association (AHLA), about 25% of men who suffer from male pattern baldness or premature baldness begin the painful process before they reach 21; two-thirds of men will begin to see some form of hair loss by the age of 35 years old; and once half a century rolls around (that’s 50 years old for you folks who don’t like math!), about 85 percent of men will have experienced a significant amount of hair thinning.
Women aren’t immune either – plenty of women experience their fair share of hair loss. Despite hair loss or premature baldness being very much a ‘male’ thing, an estimated 40 percent of hair loss sufferers are female. And although not to the degree of men suffering from hair loss, by the time most women reach the age of 50 years old, about 1 in 2 women will be dealing with some degree of female pattern hair loss.
So, in other words, you’re definitely not alone in your search for a solution to your thinning hair or hair loss treatment in Singapore, especially if you are only in your 20s or 30s! This article will go through what premature baldness is, the signs and symptoms of premature baldness, what causes it, and what the available premature baldness treatments are currently.
If you are still in your teenage years, or in your 20s or 30s, you may start to worry when you find yourself pulling out plenty of hair from your scalp whenever you run your hands through your hair, or if you start to see your shower drain getting clogged up faster than usual. If you are in this age group and are losing a huge amount of hair everyday, it could be premature baldness.
Premature baldness is hair thinning that occurs much earlier in life than the typical 50s or 60s age group. The majority of people suffering from extreme hair loss are in their mid-twenties. This can be worrisome as generally 8-10% of your hair is in the stage where it may fall out at any time, working out to be about 50-100 strands a day.
In premature baldness, that amount is more than the usual, and causes visible hair thinning as your hair follicles take 5-6 months to rejuvenate and generate new hair strands. Hence, new hair growth can’t keep up with the hair loss, and thinning and premature balding happens, giving your scalp a patchy appearance.
Although there is no clear indication that premature balding will be exactly the same as your family members, those with stronger genetic predisposition to hair loss may start balding earlier.
Hormones play a main role in premature baldness. For some males, there is a higher likelihood of testosterone being carried to the blood vessels around the hair follicles, and also a higher chance of testosterone being broken down into di-hydrotestosterone (DHT). This causes the anagen/growth phase of the hair cycle to shorten, and causes hair follicles to become smaller, called ‘miniaturisation’. Over time, this causes the hair to become shorter and finer until no new hairs grow – hence, premature balding.
In females, when female sex hormone levels decline such as during post-partum periods or during menopause, hair loss is a common side effect. At the same time, the androgenic effects of testosterone can also be intensified – female bodies also contain testosterone which can turn into DHT, producing progressively weaker hair and eventual hair loss.
Treatments include topical minoxidil and finasteride tablets hair medication can help. Minoxidil reverses the miniaturisation of hair follicles and stimulates follicles into growth phases. Finasteride is a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor and stops testosterone from turning into DHT.
Topical minoxidil lotion can help (not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women), along with tablets such as spironolactone, which have antiandrogen properties (meaning that they lower the levels of male hormones).
Regenera Activa hair restoration helps to harvest regenerative cells from micro-grafts of your own healthy hair and inject it into other scalp areas where there is thinning. This is good for smaller areas of hair loss. Hair transplantation is a bigger procedure where hair follicles are removed from the healthy scalp areas and transferred to balding areas. A person may need several treatment sessions to get satisfactory coverage, and downtime is longer, but this is good for larger balding areas.
Premature baldness from hormonal imbalances is something that may feel untreatable, but a large portion of it can be helped. Whether you are male or female, hair loss does not discriminate. Don’t let the confusion of which condition you may be having or which shampoo to buy get in the way of your hair loss journey.
Scalp itchiness or dandruff can often be remedied by looking at what’s going on around the surface of your skin, and whether any other underlying conditions of the scalp can also be assessed – so get in contact with one of our professional doctors today to learn more about how we can help you with premature baldness treatments and discuss treatment plans that can be customised to your specific condition and budget!
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