Hair Loss Goals: Great Expectations?
One of the most bitter ironies of hair loss is you may see someone try a treatment and before your very eyes, have incredible results – yet when you try it, you get nothing.
It’s hardly surprising when you think about it. When a person is ill, they need to try different medications at different strengths until they find a treatment which is effective for their illness. And – this can take months and months to ‘get it right’, before you are even off to the races. It’s just the way it is and it’ll never change. Not everything will work for everyone, and, when things do work for people, the results will vary greatly.
But – don’t be too disheartened, because this is a double edged sword: What many have had little or no results on, may be just what you need to make your condition far better.
For now, hair cloning and the abrasion & WnT protein treatment to signal stem cells to turn into hair-producing follicles are still firmly in the labs, being tested by the guys in white coats. This will undoubtedly be the case for maybe 5 years at least. (Progress, testing and clearance before releasing to the public is always slow in things like this – if at all.)
Where does that leave us, then? The guys who’re losing it quickly?
Well, we have two choices: If you believe what you have left makes you look better than being shaved bald, you can fight tooth and nail to preserve it. Or, you can re-evaluate, shave it off, and stop punishing yourself. It may even be worth you giving the bald look a go for a while. It’s your choice.
For treatments, we have 2 options:
- Playing it safe with the only 2 proven treatments we have: Propecia and Minoxidil. It’s worth noting that a third treatment which may – I said may – be in the pipeline as a viable hair loss treatment called Dutasteride. (Korea has almost finished completing trials which will determine the safety and effectiveness of Dutasteride for hair loss – although many desperate for an effective treatment now have turned to it off-label or on the pharmaceutical underground with good results. But again, this is not officially available as safe hair loss treatment, and may never be.)
- Our own research and testing.
Although it’s not common – because people don’t like waiting and seldom have the guts to ride through the bad to see if it comes good – people do take matters into their own hands and, credit to them, find effective ways to deal with their hair loss problems.
While I definitely advocate using Propecia if you can – as it is the most effective proven treatment by far – I would also encourage anyone to research and experiment.
It may just be that to tip the hair loss / re-growth balance back in your favour, all you need is just that tiny little bit extra, so don’t discount this.
Every year you can keep what you have brings you a year closer to some discovery or release of new, more effective treatments. There are billions of dollars at stake here. The race for the next generation of most effective treatments is heating up, so the guys in white coats will be doing all they can to make sure they don’t drop the ball – so don’t be surprised if within 10 years there’s a treatment out which makes Propecia and Minoxidil look like cavemen remedies.
For now, I wouldn’t ever bank on growing back all that has been lost – even a hair transplant can’t do that – but I’d call a major result at least preventing matters from getting much worse… and if some slow re-growth accompanies that, then never look a gift horse in the mouth.