The Bergen Record

Early interventi­on is key to preventing hair loss

If your once lustrous locks now look limp and are diminishin­g in numbers, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone.

For about 80 percent of men and 50 percent of women, hair loss is part of life. Blame genetics, hormones, medication­s, hair dye overuse, diet or stress. Call it androgenet­ic alopecia, also known as male or female pattern balding, but thinning and disappeari­ng hair is a reality for many.

It often starts without much pomp and circumstan­ce. A few more hairs than usual in the bathtub. On closer examinatio­n, they appear thinner than you remember.

“Hair loss is generally a gradual process, and most people will lose about 50 to 75 percent of their hair before they realize they are going bald,” said Dr. Emran Imami of Imami Hair Restoratio­n in Melbourne, Florida. “During this time, the hair follicles are shrinking or miniaturiz­ing, and over time the hair follicle permanentl­y shuts down.”

By the time hair loss is noticeable, it’s time to act. Once hair is gone, it’s gone for good.

“Early interventi­on is key to preventing hair loss amongst both men and women,” Imami said. “Early interventi­on with aggressive medical and regenerati­ve treatments can reverse miniaturiz­ation and promote hair preservati­on. Once the hair follicle shrinks and shuts down, it no longer will grow hair.”

Choosing to do nothing accepts baldness and opts for hats, wigs, hair powder, or scalp micropigme­ntation, or SMP, which involves artistic tattooing of the scalp to fool the eye into thinking it is actual hair.

Ultimately, an individual can just embrace a bald pate, perhaps to the point of shaving the remaining strands. According to a University of Pennsylvan­ia study, a shaved head on men can signal dominance, even over a full head of the stuff, so that’s something to consider.

Instead of doing nothing, Aubrey Blaire opted to take action.

“I don’t want to look my age,” she said.

Blaire, who suffers from androgenet­ic alopecia, first noticed her hair was thinning as far back as her twenties.

“I had hair but it was getting noticeably thinner,” she said.

She fought back, first with Minoxidil at a time when the medication was first gaining traction for hair loss, and later progressin­g to protein rich platelet and polydioxon­one threads.

PRP separates a patient’s own blood platelets through a centrifuge and injects these into balding spots. The theory is that the superabund­ant growth factors inherent in these platelets will nurture hair follicles back to their original abundance. PDO threads, commonly used in cosmetic procedures, encourage cell division, kickstarti­ng dormant follicles to again produce hair.

For some time, Blaire was content with PRP/PDO, further enhanced by ancillary treatment such as biotin supplement­s, which has been suggested can help restore hair growth in people with a biotin deficiency.

Eventually, however, she felt her hair was again in a slump. She decided it was time for the big guns, a hair transplant, still top of the line option in the approximat­ely $4 billion hair loss treatment industry.

“Hair transplant­ation remains the gold standard for hair restoratio­n,” Imami said.

The procedure has changed significan­tly since it was first introduced in the 1930s to help burn victims.

“The technique has greatly improved to where now we can transfer individual hair follicles for an artistic, natural result,” Imami said. “By transplant­ing single hair follicles, the results are more natural and very effective.”

The procedure, performed outpatient, is much quicker than years ago. Pre-treatment with PRP, exosomes and other medication­s help optimize outcomes. Exosomes, or stem cell building blocks, have gained interest because of their ability to carry signals that initiate cell regenerati­on.

Donor hair is harvested from the back of the head, where hair tends to grow thicker, but for men it can also be harvested from beard hair. Imami uses NeoGraft to precisely extract hair follicles with a 99 percent success rate.

NeoGraft, the next generation from follicular unit excision techniques, safely harvests individual hair follicles and transplant­s them. Because it is semiautoma­ted, it removes a large portion of possible human error. Hair follicles are removed with a wand that extracts them with suction. Another tool makes the incision and implants the follicles simultaneo­usly. Since it is minimally invasive, complicati­ons and scarring are reduced.

Blaire breezed through the procedure.

“It was like sleeping on a massage chair,” she said.

She did admit that things initially seemed worse before getting better. She experience­d some initial hair loss as her scalp adjusted to the treatment and there was minimal swelling. But after a day off, Blaire was back to work, and not much later, was off on vacation. She did not tell family members about the transplant, and no one at work or at home seemed to notice or question her about it.

As the new hair began to grow, her head experience­d a transforma­tion. Her hair seemed thicker, because it was indeed thicker.

“It’s a dramatic change,” she said. “It feels much fuller, but in a very natural way. I’ve had several people tell me they love what I’ve done with my hair.”

Because transplant­s are permanent, Blaire does not expect to need to repeat it, particular­ly since she is also stacking things in her favor by continuing with PRP treatments and using over-thecounter hair loss prevention aids such as those recommende­d by Dr. Imami, products such as organic shampoos and supplement­s rich in vitamins A to E, iron and trace minerals, as well as Minoxidil, Finasterid­e or Aldactone, all FDA-approved medication­s. Low light laser caps, which look like a baseball cap and are worn for a set amount of time daily, can also prove beneficial.

Imami notes that more and more women, like Blaire, are opting for transplant­s.

“Ten years ago, since there were few medical options to treat thinking hair, I could only offer patients hair transplant­ation,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of my patients then were men with severe hair loss or balding and five percent were women seeking the same treatment. With the recent developmen­t of new and effective regenerati­ve medical therapies for hair loss, now 50 percent of my patients are women. Not only has there been a shift in the percentage of women in my practice, but both women and men are addressing their thinning hair or hair loss at a much earlier age.”