Hair Loss causes, treatments, and Dr Somji’s protocol for Traction Alopecia.
Whether it’s due to stress, alopecia, protein deficiency, ageing, or other contributing factors, hair loss is something that everyone deals with at one point in his or her life. Both men and women lose up to 100 hairs per day due to shedding, however it can be concerning when you start to notice your hair thinning rapidly. Hair loss can occur not only on the head, but also in other areas such as the eyebrows, eyelashes and on parts of the body.
One factor, effecting mainly women that contributes to premature hair loss, which most are unaware of, are hair accessories, extensions or wigs. This is a condition called Traction Alopecia, which can be caused by hair being tied back too tightly over long periods of time, or wearing headbands or hair wraps in the same place each day, which effects many African and Asian women, but is also seen frequently in Sikh men, due to the nature of their cultural head accessories.
It is estimated that one third of African-American women experience Traction Alopecia, due to the head accessories worn to represent their culture or religion. This can consist of wigs, hair extensions, weaves, head bands, head wraps, or braids, which all tightly pull at the hair over a long period of time causing noticeable gradual shredding and thinning.
Being told that you have Traction Alopecia due to the way you have dressed your hair over a certain amount of time can be concerning and upsetting, however losing your hair is not an irreversible symptom, and there are treatments available to restore your natural hair or hairline, and re-produce what has been lost.
Dr Somji’s Non-Surgical Treatments
PRP Therapy
PRP treatment encourages re-growth of the hair, and is performed by injecting your own platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) into your scalp. This encourages growth factors in your blood to stimulate the hair growth. This treatment is most likely to be used if you have noticed thinning in your hair as opposed to entire loss, to encourage regrowth in the patchy areas, resulting in thicker, fuller hair.
Case Studies: Before and After PRP Treatment
Meso-Therapy
This treatment, meso-therapy, also consists of injecting into the scalp, however this is a vitamin-boost injection. The injection aims to improve blood circulation, as well as acting to nourish the hair follicles resulting in encouraging their hair growth. The injection is made using specially designed ‘meso-gun’, decreasing the chance of pain or discomfort.
LLL Therapy (Low Level Light Therapy)
Low Level Light therapy is another procedure that may be recommended if you’re looking for a non-surgical or non-invasive treatment to restore your hair growth. LLL therapy consists of wearing a cap, which stimulates the hair growth through red light emitted from laser diodes inside the cap. The red light is absorbed by the skin and hair cells. LLL Therapy succeeds in increasing the blood flow and stops hair loss in 85% of cases, and stimulates new hair growth in 55% of cases.
The above treatments are all successful, result-providing procedures to not only restore your hair growth and what has been lost, but also your confidence. Although these treatments can re-stimulate hair growth where it has thinned and been lost, in some cases, severe hair loss for other causes and factors apart from Traction Alopecia, may result in needing a surgical hair transplant treatment.
