Are you suffering from hair loss? Are you afraid of undergoing surgery to correct alopecia so that it does not get worse as you age?
Good hair is an integral part of everyone’s personality. Whether you are a man or a woman, hair loss or alopecia can become a real source of worry in your daily life. Baldness can hurt your psychology as well as your social and professional life.
Although cosmetic hair transplant surgery is very effective in correcting alopecia in a lasting manner and gives satisfactory results in both men and women, they are not the only option available.
Thanks to the many advances made in the field of aesthetic medicine, there are now a variety of non-surgical solutions for hair restoration.
Alopecia can occur due to a variety of reasons, the most common being genetics in men. Other potential causes include excessive stress, illness, surgery, poor dietary habits leading to deficiencies, smoking, and pollution. In women, extreme hair loss can result from illness or infection, hormonal changes, aging, and heredity.
There are several types of alopecia:
Hereditary androgenetic alopecia: caused by an excess of male hormones, it begins on the golf courses and the crown.
Acute alopecia: due to intensive stress, surgery, drug treatment, illness, and nutritional deficiency, this type of alopecia causes significant and rapid hair loss.
Congenital alopecia: causes an abnormality in the composition of the hair or the absence of roots.
Localized alopecia: sometimes reversible, it occurs following a skin tumor, a burn, radiotherapy or even alopecia areata.
Our specialist plastic surgeons at Leman Aesthetic Clinic in Geneva and Nyon are ready to recommend the appropriate treatment to reduce and prevent hair loss without resorting to surgery and taking into consideration the extent and reason of the loss as well as the desired results.
Here are some of the most popular non-surgical alternatives and how they work.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP) treatment
PRP is a relatively new non-surgical hair restoration treatment. Often used for skin rejuvenation, PRP cell therapy works on the principle of regeneration and promotes healing in the body. It involves collecting and isolating the cells with the highest concentration of growth factors from a single sample of your blood. The isolated cells, rich in platelets, are used for superficial injection.
As an effective hair restoration treatment, the technique uses the platelets obtained from your blood sample and injects them into your scalp. PRP is a natural biostimulant that uses different proteins and growth factors to stimulate the body’s healing and hair growth.
Typically, the treatment is done every month for three months, then every 4 to 6 months. It will give you the best results if it is done in the early stages of your hair loss and helps to compensate for future hair loss. PRP can therefore help to reduce hair loss and promote better hair quality and shine.
Scalp Mesotherapy
Among other non-surgical techniques, we highlight scalp mesotherapy. The procedure allows men and women to slow down hair loss and stimulate hair regrowth, especially after seasonal hair loss, stress, pregnancy or illness. In this method, active ingredients and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are administered through microinjections into the scalp.
Mesotherapy can be done outside of a hair micrograft or be associated with surgical treatment for hair loss.
Drug treatments
Some of the most effective and popular non-surgical hair loss treatments include Minoxidil and Finasteride (Propecia). For many patients, both medications can stop or slow hair loss. Minoxidil is a liquid applied to the scalp that slows hair loss or even speeds up the growth of some hair and is sometimes effective for alopecia areata.
Hormonal treatments (birth control pills) help prevent female pattern baldness or alopecia areata. Since this hair loss is linked to testosterone, oral contraceptives block testosterone and is therefore effective. Propecia is one of the most well-known oral medications of this type. However oral medications of this nature can also have side effects compared to topical treatments. You should therefore consult your doctor before starting such treatment.
A good diet
A balanced diet can help hair grow faster, reduce hair loss, and give it a healthy, shiny shine. It’s important to consume essential fatty acids, such as omega-3 and omega-6, protein, vitamins, and trace minerals, such as vitamins B, D, and C, folic acid, biotin, iron, and magnesium.
Reducing and preventing hair loss through non-invasive treatments is therefore an ongoing process. Just like topical solutions and oral medications, if you do not continue treatment regularly, your hair loss will return to its natural course. While there are many solutions to help slow hair loss or modify its growth, there is currently no solution to completely reverse the natural course of hair.
No matter what treatment you choose, consult with a board-certified and qualified plastic surgeon to ensure you are following the best treatment plan.
