Hair Loss Treatments for Men and Hair Gain

male pttern baldness - or alopecia - affects many millions of men worldwide and though for many men the natural thinning, recession and eventual loss of their hair is considered a normal and natural process (and thus no reason for alarm) many other men find the prospect of losing their hair quite distressing or even depressing. Indeed many men who do not address the issue find themselves succumbing to stress and even depression about the impending loss of their hair.

Because of this tendency toward anxiety that many men experience when they begin to lose their hair there exists a wealth of products and treatments - even surgical techniques - designed to slow, arrest or even reverse male pattern baldness, some of which have a greater success rate than others.

Surgical techniques tend to have the greatest success rates but are expensive and can be quite painful. The most popular technique is to use hair transplants - tiny plugs of skin tissue with healthy follicles that are taken from elsewhere on the body and transplanted to the scalp. Other, less-common surgical methods include pushing the scalp forward slightly to reduce the appearance of a receding hair line.

Male pattern hair loss most commonly occurs because of too-high concentrations of the male hormone DHT and/or a genetic susceptibility to its effects upon hair follicles. The molecule binds to hair follicles, reducing their ability to absorb the oxygen and nutrients they need to sustain healthy hair fibres. In time, the hair becomes thin and will eventually fall out as the follicle is slowly deprived of the nutrients it needs. If DHT is not eliminated from the system and enough nutrients and oxygen cannot be supplied to the follicle, the follicle will die and cannot be replaced without surgery.

Non-surgical treatments to combat hair loss (called 'hair gain' products) work either by reducing levels of DHT, stimulating the capillaries of the scalp to increase blood flow to the follicles, or a combination of both, and come in both oral and topical form.

There are several clinically proven hair gain treatments available at a range of prices, as well as several herbal and other alternative medicinal hair gain remedies that have demonstrated a good deal of success. Pharmaceutical, synthetic hair gain formulas often have unpleasant side effects (especially migraine and nausea) whereas natural hair gain formulas tend usually to have a much reduced risk of inducing unpleasant side effects.