Stop Hair Loss

What can I do to Stop Hair Loss?

When men start to lose their hair, most simply resign themselves to going bald as they do not believe that there is anything that can help them, short of a complete hair transplant which can often be very expensive and can have rather poor results. There are products around which are proven and have high rates of success. We recommend that people should avoid herbal hair loss remedies available on the Internet and in some shops as they have not been subjected to pharmaceutical clinical trials so their efficacy has not been demonstrated.

There are two hair loss products that have been approved for use in the UK and have demonstrated safety and efficacy levels.

Propecia

Propecia is a 1 mg a day dose of Finasteride. Propecia is a prescription only medication and we have provided a full description of this product on our website at the Propecia Information page.

Propecia is a medication known as a Type II 5 alpha reductase inhibitor. This enzyme is responsible for the degradation of testosterone into the derivative, dihyrdratestosterone. Dihydratestosterone is responsible for attacking hair follicles in the scalp, making them smaller and incapable of supporting hair growth. By reducing the levels of dihydratestosterone in the body, hair loss can be stopped or even reversed in some cases.

Propecia will only work for male pattern baldness; it will not work for other types of hair loss such as alopecia areata. Propecia has an overall success rate of around 90% in terms of either stopping the progression of hair loss or re-growing lost hair.

Propecia is not suitable for women and women should not even handle the medication.

Regaine

Regaine is a minoxodil solution which comes as Regaine Regular Strength or Regaine Extra Strength. The regular strength contains 2% minoxodil and the extra strength contains a 5% solution. Regaine Regular Strength is suitable for both men and women but the extra strength is only suitable for men.

Regaine can stabilise hair loss in around 8 weeks in 4 out of 5 men and can reverse hair loss in 2 out of 5 men over almost a year. A slightly higher rate of reversal of 3 out of 5 men is achieved with Regaine Extra Strength. Both solutions require to be applied twice a day, in the morning and the evening.

We no longer stock Regaine as it can be bought over the counter from most pharmacies.

As Propecia is not messy, is easier to administer, has few side effects and has a higher degree of success, we recommend Propecia over Regaine. There is no clinical data on the use of the two medication in tandem in terms of improved efficacy but it is entirely safe to take them together.

Surgery

There are a number of surgical solutions on the marketing including transplants and scalp reduction, where bald parts of the scalp are removed and the remaining skin is stretched over the areas where scalp has been removed. We believe that surgical intervention should be the last resort where either or both Propecia and Regaine have failed to produce results.