About hair loss

Hair falling out - Causes and Treatments | Total Cover Plus

In order to help you make an informed decision, we have gathered information about all the hair loss treatments currently available on the market. These details about effectiveness, pros and cons will clear up popular myths and misinformation and enable you to choose the solution that works best for you.

Many companies in the hair loss sector offer a huge range of treatments and claim to have a miracle cure for every type male pattern baldness. However, it is important to understand that there is NO cure for male pattern baldness.

A lot of companies in the sector make false or unrealistic claims and are thus bound to fall short of expectations and leave their customers unhappy. At Total Cover Plus we have some of the most faithful customers in the hair loss business, which shows that our hair system is a unique and honest solution that proves itself day after day.

We’ve explained the causes of hair loss in the various drop down sections on this page. However here’s a quick rough guide. You’llprobably recognise your own condition here. Technically, while the primary baldness gene is on the X chromosome, which men get only from their mothers, other additional factors are also in play in general hair loss. The hereditary hair loss factor is slightly more dominant on the woman’s side, but unsurprisingly research suggests that men who have a bald father are more likely to develop male pattern baldness than those who don’t. But don’t blame poor old Dad just yet!

Male pattern baldness

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Without labouring the obvious, male pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss in men. Male  pattern baldness is highly related to your genes and male sex hormones. It usually follows a general pattern of receding hairline and hair thinning on the crown, and is caused by a person’s hormones and genetic predisposition. The time scale for this is wide ranging but sadly can be quite sudden in many men. The psychologically damaging effects of this sudden hair loss are in fact immeasurable in purely emotional and psychological terms. Even gradual hair loss is difficult as it slowly depresses people over a longer term. This leads to denial and often dubious attempts to disguise the fact that hair is disappearing. Again, this isn’t great in emotional or psychological terms and leads to a gradual erosion of confidence. In addition, it heightens and exacerbates sufferers’ sensitivity to jokes and banter from friends or workmates.

Classic male pattern baldness is usually diagnosed based on the appearance and pattern of the hair loss. But sadly, themany causes and reasons behind baldness can often be very deceiving and confusing. For example, two-thirds of men face general hair loss by age 35, and a bad genetic background is often cited as the generally accepted cause. Without being unnecessarily technical, it is commonly known that male pattern baldness is an inherited sensitivity to dihydrotestosterone (DHT, a byproduct of testosterone), which leads to men having finer hair, a receding hairline, and finally a scalp free of hair. Each strand of hair we have sits in a tiny hole (cavity) in the skin and is called a follicle. Baldness in general occurs when the hair follicle shrinks over time, resulting in shorter and finer hair. Eventually, the follicle simply does not grow new hair. The follicles usually still remain alive, which suggests that it is still possible to grow new hair. Hence the plethora of dubious chemicals and scalp stimulants flooding the hair replacement market every year. The success of these products in awakening/re-invigorating the follicles is generally highly overrated, based more on hope than on verifiable medical science.

Physical and mental health

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You must also remember that hair loss may be due to other conditions. This may be true if hair loss occurs in patches,you begin to shed a lot of hair at once, your hair simply breaks, or your hair loss is accompanied with scalp redness, skin scaling, or pain. A skin biopsy, blood tests, or other medical procedures may be required to diagnose other potential medical disorders that cause hair loss. Many people favour hair analysis but it is not accurate for diagnosing hair loss due to nutritional or similar disorders. However, in its defence it needs to be said that it may reveal various substances such as arsenic or lead in the bloodstream (both very harmful to hair follicular growth and general health).

Stress and life style (including diet) all play their part too. Both work and life stress, especially hugely traumaticphysical and emotional past and ongoing events, have been found to cause hair loss or accelerate existing hair loss. Many people find themselves having to cope with stressful and challenging economic situations that are a constant concern and a worry. Of course it’s sometimes easy to diagnose and recognise this but not so easy to manage and overcome it. And we are all too well aware that age characteristics play a factor in people’s emotional stress. For example, being barely twenty and losing your hair is both heartbreaking and emotionally damaging for many people.

Other causes of hair loss
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As well as these damaging combinations of emotional and physical conditions, there is even evidence to support theharmful effects of over-exposure to the sun (either natural or sun bed induced) resulting in the structure of the hair becoming badly damaged. This physical damage has a devastating effect on the scalp as well as its oil and sweat production. Controversially, even drug taking for recreational use has been known to increase the potential of suffering from hair loss. This is normally linked to stronger drugs including cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and steroids.

Many sports enthusiasts that use certain supplements and tablets can see a shocking rise in their propensity to shed hair.

The medical conditions of diabetes and hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) have both been shown to create hair-related problems in some cases. Technically, if the follicles and the scalp are exposed to a higher acidic level within the person’s sweat, this can very quickly destroy the quality and structure of the hair. And finally, treatments involving chemotherapy are of course also devastating to a person’s hair, as are medical conditions such as alopecia, eczema and other scalp conditions.

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