Regardless of if you are male or female hair loss is not something that people want to have happen because it can affect their self-esteem. In fact, young children tend to associate hair loss with older people, even though hair loss can begin before the age of 20 years old. Not to mention that a good head of hair is often associated with youth and attractiveness, this is something that is important to all people. No matter if you are male or female, if you are suffering from hair loss the one thing that you want to do is cure your hair loss. The problem is that there is no cure for pattern baldness. All that you can do is find some hair loss treatments that will allow you to slow down the process and sometimes they will even help regrow some of that lost hair.

Here is a look at the different hair loss treatments that you can use to prevent further hair loss and regrow some of the hair that you have lost.

Treatment one: Medications
There are only two medications that you can take that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat hair loss. These two drugs, Finasteride and Minoxidil, have been shown to have a positive effect on baldness, meaning that they work to prevent hair loss.

Finasteride is a 5-Alpha Reductase Inhibitor. What this medication does is block 5-Alpha reductase, which is vital to treating hair loss because it prevents the enzyme from converting testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, also called DHT. It is the increased level of the hormone DHT, which causes male pattern baldness. One of the obvious treatments is to use a medication that decreases the levels of DHT in your body. Only two drugs are available by prescription that contains Finasteride, which are Propecia and Proscar. Both of these drugs have been shown to stop hair loss and in some rare cases, they have even reversed the balding process. Finasteride takes about three months to begin showing results and once you have stopped taking the medication, you will notice hair loss again in about one year. This drug can have serious side effects, including impotence and breast tenderness and enlargement. Women who are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant should not even touch this drug and condoms should be used because the drug is excreted in semen because there is a risk of birth defects.

The other drug minoxidil, which is found in Rogaine, has been found to be effective in 25% of men who have baldness on the crown. The cream has to be applied twice a day and the hair growth is only going to occur as long as you use the cream. This means that once you stop applying the cream you will notice hair loss within a short period. The good news about this cream is that side effects are unusual, but you should avoid using it if you have a history of heart problems, sudden weight gain, chest pains, fainting or rapid heartbeat.

Treatment two: Surgical Intervention
Another popular option that men choose is hair transplants. Over the years, this surgical process has been improved so that the hair that is being transplanted looks more realistic. With hair transplants what happens is that small plugs of hair, usually 3 to 4 hairs, are taken from the side or back of the scalp and then transplanted onto the bald patches. The reason that such small plugs are taken is to improve the look of the hair transplants. Despite the improvements over the years, you will still need to give this treatment a number of months to show a good effect.

Treatment three: Tissue expansion
If you are not too keen on the idea of transplanting hair you can consider doing a surgery that involves tissue expansion. How this works is that tiny balloons are inserted under the scalp between the areas of dense hair. Once the balloons have been inserted, they are slowly inflated over a number of months. What this does is make the area up to one third larger so that it can be surgically removed and the sides are pulled up to the top of the head. This method works best for men because they lose their hair in an M shaped pattern, while women do not really show any bald spots.

Treatment four: Scalp reduction
Another surgical treatment that you can try is scalp reduction, and like tissue expansion, this treatment works best for men. Scalp reduction works by surgically removing the loose skin on the scalp and then pulling the hair on the sides of the head up. Another benefit to scalp reduction is that it lessens the amount of wrinkles that you have in your forehead, which can help you look younger. The reason for this is that the skin on the forehead is slightly lifted during the surgery so the wrinkles are pulled away.

Treatment five: Natural remedies
If you do not like the idea of taking medications or going in for surgery to treat your hair loss you can try using a natural remedy instead. There are plenty of natural remedies available to choose from, such as rubbing olive oil on your head or increasing the amount of B vitamins that you are taking. You can also make sure that you are eating the right kind of diet so that you are getting the proper amount of nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy. The best thing about the natural remedies is that they can help make your whole body healthier, not just your hair with no side effects.

Here are some other tips that you can keep in mind when it comes to treating hair loss.

• Update your dressing style. The reason for this is that good clothes and paying attention to your appearance can help make you look younger and appear more attractive to people. Therefore, what you want to do is make the most of what you have rather than focusing on what you are losing.


• Consider getting some kind of stylish haircut to make what hair you do have look more attractive. You can get your hair shaved off, similar to Michael Jordan, but this look is not for everybody. For men one of the best styles to get is something that is short, cropped, and styled to accent your facial features. For women, one of the best things that you can do is get a light perm so that you are adding volume to your thinning hair, adding volume makes your hair seem fuller.


• Emphasize your facial features; this will draw attention away from your balding hair to your face. More men are being to use products that are designed to improve their looks so that they look good and feel good about them, this is something that most women do, but if you haven't you should begin. Many department stores and drug stores carry products that can help make your skin look better or you can go to a beauty salon to get recommendations on what you can do to accent your best facial features. You can also talk to friends or a health expert about what you can do to improve your looks.


• Both men and women can start wearing hats to help hide the hair loss that has already started. You can find hast in a variety of styles and colors, so you can choose one, two, or a dozen that will work best for you in different situations.


• Buy a hairpiece. One of the best solutions to hair loss is to cover up the bald area. The best part about hairpieces or wigs now a day is that they look very realistic; you can even find some that are made with real hair. When buying a hair piece you are going to want to buy a good one, which can be expensive, but a good hairpiece is going to last you a long time if you care for it properly.

Just remember that not all remedies will work for both men and women. Some of the remedies will only work for men for a variety of different reasons. What you need to do is research the various treatments that are available and choose the one that will work the best for you.