Hereditary hair loss is one of the most common genetic conditions affecting about 40% of the male population and almost 25% of women. Men have being searching for a cure for baldness since the dawn of time but it was only relatively recently that our chances of managing hair loss successfully have become real. Hair science has made big advances in the past 25 years, leading to the discovery of several drugs, giving us more control over the balding process. Gone are the days of the pluggy grafts of the 1980s. With the latest advances in follicular unit transplantation and, more recently, with the arrival of follicular unit extraction techniques, hair transplants can give you a completely natural look. A combination of the existing medicinal and surgical therapies enables treatment options unheard of only a decade ago.

There is no doubt abut the fact that hair transplant surgery is the best method of hair restoration today. It is also the most expensive method of replacing lost hair. Hair transplantation consists in transplanting hair follicles from the back of the scalp to the balding area. Hence, its main weakness is the limited supply of donor hair. You can only use your own remaining hair. Hair transplant surgery does not provide satisfactory results to patients in advanced stages of baldness. It is an ideal option for people who have been balding for many years and their condition has already stabilised, whose hair is curly, thick in diameter and its colour is close to the colour of their skin.

The second and less expensive option of restoring lost hair is to use non-surgical aides such as wigs, hairpieces, hair loss concealers or hair thickeners. These methods are often looked down upon and thought to be unable to resist rain and wind while looking unnatural. However, some of these products such as the latest types of hair loss concealers and hair thickeners are extremely resistant and can withstand the strongest wind or rain and will stay in your hair until the next shampoo wash. They even enable you to continue with your hair loss treatment such as minoxidil.

Hair loss drugs are viewed as the most promising area of future hair loss research. Although there is no ultimate medicinal hair loss remedy available yet, some drugs such as minoxidil and finasteride can enable you to halt the further progression of baldness and, if used together, they can regrow a certain portion of hair in some patients. Researchers are also constantly looking for natural substitutes for medicinal drugs but to this date no herbal medicine has been clinically proven to treat hair loss. The new lines of scientific research and development today include hair loss stimulant NEOSH101, telomerase research, hair multiplication also called hair cloning and method of generating new hair follicles in wounds of hair fee skin. Some of these future treatments could become an ultimate cure for hair loss but none of them is expected to become commercially available before 2012.

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