Hair Loss Health Center

Some people choose to treat hair loss with medicines or surgery, such as hair transplant surgery. Others choose to wear hairpieces (wigs or toupees) or use different methods of hair styling (dyeing or combing). The approach you use depends on the cause of your hair loss. Some people feel they need treatment, while others are not as concerned about thinning hair or baldness.

If a disease, medicine, or stress is the cause, then treating the disease, changing medicines, or eliminating or learning to manage the stress may stop the hair loss.

Treatment for hair loss may help you feel better about how you look, although the trade-off might be that it affects your health. Some medicines may have harmful side effects, and surgery may carry certain risks.

Inherited hair loss

Treatment for inherited hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) aims to prevent hair loss, promote hair growth, and cover bald areas of the scalp. But treatment is not successful for everyone, and you should not expect to regrow a full head of hair.

Medicines include:

• Minoxidil. Minoxidil (Rogaine) is available without a prescription and is sprayed on and/or rubbed into the scalp twice a day.
• Finasteride. Finasteride (Propecia) is available by prescription and is taken once daily in pill form. Finasteride has not been proved effective in women and is not approved for women by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).² Women who are or may become pregnant should not take or handle crushed or broken tablets, because finasteride can cause birth defects.

For more information, see:

Should I Treat Inherited Hair Loss With Medicine?

Surgery includes:

• Hair transplant surgery. During this surgery, your doctor will move small grafts (pieces of skin with hair follicles ) from areas of your scalp with full hair to areas of your scalp that are bald or thinning. The grafts may include single hairs or up to 30 hairs in one graft. This is the most common type of surgery used to treat hair loss.
• Scalp reduction. Scalp reduction involves removing large areas of bald scalp from the head. Sections of the scalp with growing hair are then stretched and sewn together to fill in the bald areas.
• Scalp flaps. Scalp flaps involve moving a large section of scalp containing hair from the side and back of the scalp to a bald area. One side of the flap remains attached to the scalp as the section of scalp with hair is moved to cover a bald area. The complication rate of this procedure is higher than other procedures because of bleeding, scarring, and infection after surgery.

Cosmetic approaches to hair loss include:

• Wearing hairpieces. Hairpieces are made from human or synthetic hair that is implanted into a nylon netting. Hairpieces may be attached to the scalp with glue, metal clips, or tape. Hair weaving, which involves sewing or braiding pieces of long hair into existing hair, is not recommended because it may cause permanent hair loss.
• Using certain hair care products and styling techniques. Hair care products or perms may make hair appear thicker. Dyes may be used to color the scalp. But continual use of perms or dyes may result in more hair loss.

Treatment for other causes of hair loss